Using HPS and CFLs Together

Couple of random thoughts, and if I can make it work then some pics also. Currently I have one female in flower under a 150w HPS and 6 random bag seeds under 2 42w CFLs. Everything is on 12/12, the bag seed have been from the start. I am wondering if once they have been sexed and the males removed, would it be better to keep them under just CFLs (I can have up to 10 CFLs set up above/around them) or to move them around the female currently in flower so that they all share the HPS and add in the CFLs as side lighting around all of them.

I realize this will be partially dependent upon how many of the bag seed end up female, just wondering what people's thoughts on this are. If I go with the first option then it will be very easy to adjust the height of the lights around the plants. If I go with the second option I will likely be moving the smaller plants around more than the lights.

These pics are a lil old but give the basic idea of what I've got going now. Third pic is the 6 little ones in party cups, other two pics are the flowering girl. Ignore the small pots in the last pic, those are my new veggies for this year.

Yo son, finally got yourself a thread, I will definitely be checking in.

I'm gonna say regardless, you should put some mylar in that sucker and put them all around the HPS with the cfls around that.

I'd like to center everything around the HPS but it's only a 150w and I feel like any light from it that would reach the little plants would be weak enough that the CFLs would be more effective when used alone as opposed to on the side trying to supplement the HPS. Next run I might try building a reflector to efficiently use the CFLs as side lights and run four small plants under everything together. Who knows though, that's still a ways off from now. Plus, the big (comparatively) flowering girl has a footprint roughly the size of the light from the HPS and it's about 6" above the tops right now so there wouldn't be much excess usable light around her without raising it higher and decreasing the intensity.

I'm lazy and mylar is a pain, IMHO. I might get around to painting it white at the end of this run before starting again in there. By that time I'll probably want to disassemble it, clean it out really well, paint the outside and inside, and improve the ventilation before doing anything else in there. I've found that this basic system is effective and works well, but adding reflective sides (paint, mylar, etc.), increasing ventilation/adding odor control, and adding additional locations to mount lights are things I'd like to change. Might even look into trying to divide it into two chambers and get a decent continual system going.

Yo son, even if they're just getting a little bit of the hps, you can still use the cfls effectively, but with the hps, they'd be getting a lot more light, even if they ended up being somewhat far away.

I suppose, might look into getting a three way meter to check light at different areas and see what gives the best coverage. I really don't want to build anything new and try to get it in there during all this though so I'd be using the two CFL fixtures I have already. One works very nicely IMHO but the other I know is pretty ineffective.

Random pics from today, just a little update since those other ones were a few days old. First is the six little ones, the other two are the flowering girl. Although the top of her isn't as flat as it could be, LST has done wonders on her. Hopefully the lil ones will be sexed in a few days to a week, been on 12/12 since planted.

Ole girl is gonna be a massive yeilder!!! How long you gonna wait to pollenate her?? I cant remember if you told me or not or if this is the one your gonna do that too?

Hey smokey, you like? Haha yeah I'm hoping for a decent yield off of her, if I get anywhere near .5g/w off her I'll be very pleased. I feel like my current lighting is my limiting factor, going to add some CFLs around her later this week to get a bit better coverage on the sides and back. Yes, this is the one I'm going to try and seed out a portion of, probably two or three decently sized branches. I need to brush up on pollenating, I think I'll start that by this weekend, might wait another week though. She's got around 6 weeks left I think, so I'm not in too much of a rush.

KawiZZR said:

Hey smokey, you like? Haha yeah I'm hoping for a decent yield off of her, if I get anywhere near .5g/w off her I'll be very pleased. I feel like my current lighting is my limiting factor, going to add some CFLs around her later this week to get a bit better coverage on the sides and back. Yes, this is the one I'm going to try and seed out a portion of, probably two or three decently sized branches. I need to brush up on pollenating, I think I'll start that by this weekend, might wait another week though. She's got around 6 weeks left I think, so I'm not in too much of a rush.

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Yes Sir She is looking good and so are your lil baggies! If you added some 42 watters to her Like your talking about I could see more than a half gram per watt cause of the HPS... But you know I'm a noob so who knows. Sounds good and good luck w/ pollenation!

Yeah, that'd be awesome but I don't think I'll get that much. She was my first indoor from clone and I had her in some pretty bad soil and wasn't pH testing my water at first so she got pretty messed up the first couple weeks. And some bad news for today, got two confirmed males from the bag seeds and one that I can't tell yet but looks to be a male as well. On the plus side at least one is a confirmed female haha. Hopefully in the next few days the others will show sex and I can go about rearranging things in there. I wish cannabis behaved like pepper plants, my hot peppers are plenty happy just taking in any light that spills over from the bag seeds.

knock on wood, but I have just been using tap water letting air out 24 hr or so to let any chlorine evaperate. Have seen people on here do the same thing so who knows? will keep doing it till it becomes a prob.

Sorry bout the males! maybe it will be a 50/50 thing and the other two will be females. What kinda peppers you got going? I love me some kianne peppers(whoever you spell it)

I have a 600 HPS and a few cfl's hanging around the sides and it is doing good. I wanted to get as much light as possible all over everywwhere,lol seems to be working good. Keep it up!

Yeah I was using distilled water for a while because tap water where I am is very hard and messed me up at first, but now I've been phasing the tap back in and just letting it sit a few days then mixing nutes in and fixing pH after. I hadn't expected the tap to effect her the way it did since I've never had a problem with it outside or with any other plants. Could just be the strain though, some are more sensitive than others to minerals/chemicals in the water.

Long as I have at least two females from the bag seed I'll be happy. I really just wanted to see how they would be going 12/12 in the party cups, not expecting too much yield out of them. An eighth each would be nice since they're just going to sit on the side or under a couple CFLs once all are sexed. If they seem worth it I might start doing this each time I start getting close to flowering.

Got a couple of banana and bell peppers going as well as some from the Hot Pepper Mix at home depot. Once I can pick out the sweet peppers from the hot ones I need to stick them in 10" pots and move them outside before they get too big. Then I'll probably start some tomatoes or maybe squash? Not sure yet well see what strikes my fancy this year.

Hey sticky, yeah if I put a 600w in the space I'm using I'd cook everything in there within a couple hours. I might try to upgrade to a 250w or an additional 150w in a grow or two, depends how I like the 150w for flowering. If nothing else I'll just use that for my veggies and go back to CFLs lol.

KawiZZR said:

Hey sticky, yeah if I put a 600w in the space I'm using I'd cook everything in there within a couple hours. I might try to upgrade to a 250w or an additional 150w in a grow or two, depends how I like the 150w for flowering. If nothing else I'll just use that for my veggies and go back to CFLs lol.

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How big of a Grow area do you have? I am doing mine in a 3x3 grow tent and it doesnt get too hot, Just make sure you have fans in there blowing all over. I have a big fan at the bottom that blows straight up from underneath, so that probably helps with the heat since it is blowing at the light.

StickyfingahZ said:

How big of a Grow area do you have? I am doing mine in a 3x3 grow tent and it doesnt get too hot, Just make sure you have fans in there blowing all over. I have a big fan at the bottom that blows straight up from underneath, so that probably helps with the heat since it is blowing at the light.

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StickyfingahZ said:

How big of a Grow area do you have? I am doing mine in a 3x3 grow tent and it doesnt get too hot, Just make sure you have fans in there blowing all over. I have a big fan at the bottom that blows straight up from underneath, so that probably helps with the heat since it is blowing at the light.

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The space I have to work with is just under 30"x30" but only 42" high and got one exhaust hole with a fan blowing air out and one inside circulating air. The ambient air in the room is only a couple degrees below the temp inside the cab, so that isn't helping much either. Once this grow is completed I'm planning to improve the air circulation inside then I'll see what my temps run. Btw very nice looking grow man. With your fan running how close can you get your light to the plants before bleaching/burning them? The thing I like about the little 150w is that it's only 4" above the tops and they're perfectly happy. Also, where I'm at a 600w would run me around $45 a month, that'd be a pretty big jump from what I'm currently using.

ah, I see, so the lights wont be that far above the plants, right on. I keep mine a little more then a foot maybe a foot and a half away....Thats one of the things i liked abot teh CFL's was you could keep them close.
Right on, keep us updated, I like checking out peoples grows. Thank you!

You'd be better off getting an aquarium pump and an airstone to keep the water aerated. The plant needs the oxygen. I go so far as to put the airstones directly into my pot, but that part is not yet verified.

ndzbnln said:

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I agree, sir.