its been a long time been a long time....

well, i haven't been to the forums in ages (several months at least) and everything has changed and i don't recognize too many of your screen names, but hopefully there are still some pretty learned ganja scholars here....

is geckopelli around and well?




anyhow, i am currently underway with my first grow. its mostly experimental and low budget, but i would love to come out of it with some decent pot along with the learning experience. my biggest concern at the moment is lighting. i am still only tending to seedlings now (just beginning to see the start of the first three fingered leaves) and at the moment i just have a fluoro tube and a couple of compact fluorescents, but i realize that even though i could get a couple more CFs, i won't do well during flowering with them. i went to the store today and searched high and low in the lighting sections. they carry MH and HPS bulbs, but very limited selections of lamps to use them with. granted, i don't expect to see large scale growing equipment in a hardware store or anything, but my resources, time, and funds are very limited.

QUESTION: if i were to purchase a "security light" or "flood light" using metal halide or high pressure sodium bulbs, would there be a cheap and relatively safe and easy means of converting it to a light that i could mount in my closet with a makeshift reflector? BTW, if it makes any difference where i'm shopping, i'm just going to a pretty basic large hardware store (home de pot)


sorry if this is a dumb question, marijuana cultivation isn't my forte. mushrooms are cheaper, easier and faster to grow...but i figure if i'm growing something, it might as well be the thing i want to use nearly every day...

 

Absolutely,anything is possible with persevarence.Thats all that was available to a guy 20 years ago.

 

no chance you know much about how to do that? i'm just curious as to how those lights are hooked up anyway...i can't imagine an outdoor light being as simple as just plugging it into an outlet, being outside and all...i don't know much about lights as you can see, and i'm just a little concerned that i may do something incorrectly/unsafely if i try to figure it out without any help

 

I have only ever delt with old outdoor street lites,the lites you also see under overpasses on freeways etc that are hard wired and simply need a plug end to match either 110v or 220v depending on what there ballist are wired for which are generally fixed above the hoods.A little electrical know how is all thats needed.The one prob ya run into is that with the ballist being fixed to the hoods ya cannot place the ballist in a ajoining room to minamize heat.Your better off just spending the money on a hps that is ready to go unless you are electrically inclined.They are getting cheaper every day.Geck could point ya in the direction for what ya would need from home depot but you would have to know what your doing to assemble properly.he pops in here from time to time.

 

thanks a lot! i'll look into ready grow lights a bit more, and i'll see if i can maybe email geck, too.

since having gotten more fluoros, the babies are becoming quite a bit healthier and more beautiful, though one still looks a bit sickly (though getting better all the time). i hope all four grow up to be healthy young ladies...three are from a bag of really really fucking NICE and nearly seedless bag of mids, and one is from a bag of beasters. i figure for my first grow it wouldn't make sense to invest in good seeds since theres a good chance i could mess up anyway.

seeing the first sets of new leaves come in on your first grow is quite exciting

 

Cool,you can get good used lights on ebay for sheap,stay away from the crap tho,ya get what ya pay for.

 

check this site www.insidesun.com

 

-Heh Heh... -Insidesun. -Incredibly LOW prices and incredibly SHITTY service! -I got lights fromem over a year ago and their great, not a problem withem! -I did have to wait a month to get one ofem and when the other one came it was the wrong one. -Close but the wrong one. -It all depends on how ya look at it. -If ya got a high tolerance for bullshit and idiots who do a shitty job, its worth it. -I suffered threw dealin with the asshole on the phone(Mike)and I got me some kick ass lights.

 

Hey bro i have an old low pressure sodium you could have.
They cause some heat though, 44 inch long bulbs will also be a huge concern shipping.
I'll let you have one but you'll have to cover shipping. Not real great for growing ,you'll need some other lights to go with them, like a flourex or halide....
Probly better off getting one of those 150 watt sspotlights for 45 bucks on e-bay, mine works good for one plant.
You are best off finding a good local hydro supplier, i been workin with my guy almost a year now, he's pretty cool and knowledgable. I just spent 1,700 dollars there recently, and he gave me a 320 dollar discount so it's getting down to 1,400 or so for the total.
But im gettin two 600 watt hydrofarm (radiant ballast)Daystar aircoooled HPS lights, with phillips sun-agro bullbs. A 40 amp (4 10 amp outlets = 1,000 watt capacity for each outlet) heavy duty greenair light timer, an atmospheric controller for day and night functions, Plus a 309 cfm elicient inline fan.

IMHO there's 1,400 bucks very well spent.
Oh and i got 1,000 predator mites too!

So like I spent an extra fifty bucks each on the ballasts, maybe 20 each on thew hoods i wanted, so even then it was 140 extra, but with the discounts from my supplier I got more than that off the price.
Way I look at it, my fan was practically free because they run around 300 and that's how much i saved.

If you'll remember me from last year, I started out with a 20 watt flouro tube, added an couple more flourecents, by march last year i got my first HID- a 175 watt halide. I traded a quarter of mexi- schwag for the ballast and got a bulb at home depot. I scraped and saved and by june or so added a 150 watt SHP spot and some fans. It was late july when meangreen gifted me with the 430 watt SHP im now running, and in august I went out of town and lost a cycle of THE KINDEST NL5XKush. I could have died, there was also a huge humbolt mother in the budroom ,that had been replaced by a cutting. They all died from heat exhaustion when my exhaust vent came loose. Im just now catching up to that mistake.Forunately I was able to continue the strains I had at the time, from cuttings that were in another area, making it through the disaster alive.

So im not comin in crowin and braggin about all this crap I just bought, It has been a long hard haul- and worth every step of the journey. These guys taught me almost everything I know about this indoor game, I used to do this thing outdoor, indoor is more interesting and challenging though.

Good luck with whatever you do, but listen to lumpy about the inside sun deal- I have heard nothing but complaints about them guys. Go try a search on "discount hydroponics" you'll find one of the betterpriced quality operations www.discounthydro.com

 

Insidesun is just a guy in his garage, surroudned by a bunch of econogrows. But if your willing to wait a while, and NEVER talk to anyone, id use it. But dont if your trying to start. Ittle be months! They have 400w for 100 bucks.

 

Inside sun sell crap.Low prices = low quality.

 

><>**^^~~ -Exactly Thrawn. -Those are the same conclusions I came up with. -I also think Mike works out of a garage or a storage locker or some shit. Every word in your post is true, -If ya got the time and patients, go for it, I did. -Both my 400 are still runnin strong. -Its been about a year and a half now. As a mater of fact he only had 1 referbished one so he sent me a refurbishes one ane one with a brand new ballast at no extra cost seein as how he didnd have the referb. -Still, -I did have to wait about a month and a half forem, felt that long anyhow. -Still an all Im glad I did it. -One had the wrong hood too, chrome. -But I did it and the only thing I found fault with was the Mike-y service. Hey,- by the way, -I found 400 watt hps's at fox electric for 54$ in kit form. -Gettin me some soon!

 

Inside sun sell crap.Low prices = low quality

 

-The only differance at inside sun is the service.

 

put a light meter under a inside sun hood and then under a quality brand hood and you will see the difference.They dont come near diffusing the same amount of light nor do they have high heat capictors in ballists for longer ballist life,or any quality research into.That alone speaks for itself in relation to quality.A VW will get ya down the road,but a masseratti will get ya down that road faster.Ya get what ya pay for,its ridicluous to think you will get the same performance out of a cheap light verses a expensive one.

 

bulbs can make a really big difference as well.
i recently got a 430 watt agrosun red for that excellent ballast that came from mean. that bulb straight rocks, im not kidding.
i can totally see how ballasts could make a difference.
not that they have any worth messing with on our scale ,but the electronic vari-ballasts they are coming out with are supposed to have increased lumen efficiency ,due to less flickering of unstable currents.
that is what causes a cheaper ballast to be inferior is the bulbs flicker too much and wear out faster too. decreased effieciency.
meangreen tells no lies, you get what you pay for.
im sorry to be so point blank ,but it's true.

 

The Inside sun joint tells you straight up what their shit is. -I m just tryin to get it straight. -If Inside sun carries an item that a more expencive joint carries, Inside sun will no doubt have a better price on the same item, -Mike dont lie about his products in my experiance, -his shit is what he says it is, the problems NOT in the GOODS, its in the shitty service. -Look at their page..-They got somma the same shit other more expensive places have but for way cheaper on the average. -Mikes problem is prolly what Thrawn said, I think he works out of his garage and he dose it in his spare time. -I order from him when Im long on time and patients. -If ya dont like Inside sun, -dont like them for the rite reason. -I dont like them because of their shitty service. - But they never sent me an inferior product. -This is just my personal experiance. -Mabey others have had worst experiances with them.

 

-Im gettin my next lights from Fox electric anyhow. -54$ for 400 watt hps kits! -Now theirs some good word.

 

By God
Meangreen Better Be Right
I Justspent 491 Dollars On Two Hydrofarm Radiant Ballasts. 600w Hps
Just The Ballasts
My Caps Are Locked Im Not Shouting
Im Going To Need Hoods And Bulbs Still.
Getting Daystar And Phillips Sun-t Agro
Another 450
Im Going To The Bank To Get Out 1,200 To Finish Up My Upgrade Today

I Figure I'll Get 2-4 Pounds Every 8 Weeks Though.

 

The only lighting equipment Inside sells that may be considered quality equipment is Hydrofarm.Pro series,sun leaves,his line are crap.Hydrofarm has enough working capitol to have possibly put some time into research/engineering of there products,as for the others he carries;I am sorry but they just dont have the capitol to put big $ into research/engineering of there lighting equipment.Sun leaves has been around and just started supplying lighting but all they do is copy the companys that lead the market and use inferior parts.I guarentee ya if you test any of the hoods he sells with a light meter they wont come close to a leading manufactorers diffused lumen out put from any distance.I also guarentee ya that any of the ballist he sells will not outlast a ballist wiith high heat capacitors,its exclusive with sun systems and yes that is who I use as they have been in the market for years.Capacitors are the #1 thing to fail in a ballist.To each there own I suppose.