So my grow tent kit and ILGM seeds are ready. The nervous noob behind them is not. He will be looking for help.
So I have a 600w dual spectrum HPS with dimmable ballast (250, 400, 600w) and 4 cheap 27w red/blue LED bulbs. What should I give my baby girls the first days after sprouting? The cheap LED’s or put the ballast at 250w with HPS?
I wouldn’t use the HPS for vegetative state. Different Spectrum or something. The LEDs would probably have to be close. 10 or 12 inches or so. I’m guessing. Sorry I couldn’t be more help. I’m interested in hearing the definitive answer.
As I understand it is not a problem doing a complete grow with HPS. And the dual spectrum bulbs is supposed to have more blue spectrum?
You want to give them more intense light as the fan leaves get bigger , so once your fan leaves get as big as your hand m turn on the powerful lights , but you have to train them with light as well or they will burn from to strong of light .
Thank you sir very informative.
Do you have som more specific advice on the lightschedule @yoshi?
Should I use the small LED’s or just put them in the tent with the HPS dimmed down to 250w?
And if HPS is the better option, which height should I start out at the first 2 weeks after sprout?
I would used LED for vegging seedlings and maybe the second week after you switch to flower put the HPS on her and used the LED for side lighting maybe , but vegging with the LED I think will give you a better enironment for seedlings , and flower with the big light .
They’re autos so I guess they’ll just start flowering at will after 4-5 weeks 
But as far as I understand a lot of people put them under 250/400w almost right away?
You can if you want to honestly , but HPS is a strong light fixture and it generates heat , verses LED is not so unforgiving with heat , and during veg you want good humidity in the grow space and the led would allow a better range in humidity during veg , but the HPS is notorious for heat output and if you cannot vent the hot stale air properly and keep the humidity stable you will definitely run into sun issues early on in vegging , but if you want to used your HPS you can , either way will work great , you just have to move air in and out of the grow space with inline fans to keep the environment stable using HPS lights , but HPS is really the next best lighting to sunlight honestly . So if you can control the heat , I say yeah just go with the HPS , but if not than the led would be better in vegging and HPS would work best in flowering , cause your humidity has to be low in flower than in veg , hope this helps !!!
Thanks
I’ve got a 550m2/h fan with an aircooled hood in the 4x4 tent so I guess I’ve got temps under control.
Hi mate, I would suggestion use CFL bulbs or a floresant light while your plants are small. These are cool so no chance of frying your plants, keep the lights close a inch or two away to stop them stretching. Tall weedy plants at this stage is not good as the stem will be week. This saves on electricity, and can be used until you change to flower. I leave my lights on 24 hours while they are small, and when they are 6 inches or so use a timer and give 18 hours on 6 off, it gives the little tinkers a rest in darkness. You may think they are not growing fast, but believe me it all going on below, as you will find the roots coming out the bottom, it’s then you need to repot, water the plants and leave for a while before turning your pot over, the whole lot will come out with no damage to the roots. I would suggest you grow with coco, it a good way to start rather than soil, I have been growing 4 years and have always had great results, ps don’t tell anyone you are growing, some gob by buggers out there. Happy growing it’s easy.
Thank you much sir that’s what I was looking for being a noob I was a little unsure about giving advice