200watt CFL or 250 mh for my veg cab

[stealthed-up]

Hey everybody, i am setting up my veg box first, currently still waiting on my super sun 2 reflector to arrive for my 600 flowering box.

At the moment i have my 250 MH, i tried running this a year ago with two pc fans that were rated at 90 cfm they were
120mm ( 4.7 inches ) & the holes were 100mm so im quite sure i screwed up the airflow quite alot?

The box measures in at 40 x 20 x 20 inches.

Now i have found this inline fan which i would like to use two of to cool down the light extracting the air from the top two ports of the box.

So i will be using two of these fans which push out 107 m3h which i think is 62 cfm ?
2 x 62 gonna give me 124 cfm in total for this box with the 250 watt mh, i have another option of using a single Longstar 200 watt but this is going to give me a maximum of about 12 000 lumens.

Any help will be awesome : )

 

[Mr.M]

An MH for veg would be optimum, but I'm not sure if it's too compatible with this box. A problem I forsee is overcrowding of the veg box with a metal halide. I admit I have never used a MH for anything, but I steered away from it due to heat and being too powerful. Especially being that close to the plants there's no way they won't get burnt. I don't know your plan but doing a perpetual type of grow with a few smaller plants going into flower every so often would be the only reason i would use an MH. Veg em for a little while in your box, then once they get too close to the light (which won't take long) put them into flower. With the Longstar the plants won't grow as fast and you'll be able to hold off putting them into flower so they can get larger

That's a really cool MDF box though, I was going to get my buddy who makes crazy sound systems to help me out on one like that. But I found a different box that measures 22x36x42 (If I remember right) Anyways I have that 200w Longstar up in there and it's been good to me. I used it as a seedling box and then for my clones for awhile. My only exhaust was a tiny computer fan, and then air was coming in through the baffles where the cords run.

 

[stealthed-up]

Thanx for the input Mr. M, Im planning using the box to veg mother plants & grow clones for my 600w flowering room, i do see what you saying, i would get larger growth using the cfl because my plants can get closer.

Thanx though man, i made this box years ago & like i said it failed with the two pc fans extracting, the box was hitting 40 degrees celcius in summer, now im in winter so it should be quite a bit below that if i use the two pc fans, although using the inlines would probably takes my temps even more down.

Im just looking for the best way to veg & clone the babies so they nicely read for the flowering room, thanx again man appreciate it!

 

[Mr.M]

The CMH will definitely get you more robust growth. If I had the space to get one that's what I'd use.
You could get a couple bonsai moms in there along with your clones depending on pot sizes. You'd be able to fit quite the number of clones using small pots 2x2" or 4x4"s or something, you would just have to upgrade as you switch to flower. I could see the CMH working for this, keeping short moms would be a priority, then as the clones get large they would be moved out. That would be an excellent perpetual grow if heat and height problems were dialed down.

Here is a good link to a Bonsai article. I couldn't find the original but this one is on 420.

How much are those Inlines? I've been wanting to try those to help push air through my room. I only have on 6" Max fan exhausting from my flower room. Then air gets extracted from my veg room through a flap in the Poly paper I have dividing each room. If I could grab some of those I'm positive it would help cool things down in both rooms. Do you know if a controller is needed or what...

 

[stealthed-up]

Yeah bro because im planning on using a standard Metal Halide not compact, as for keeping them bonsai wouldnt u suggest i grow them till they reach half the size of the box then take off clones, plant the mothers outside & keep the clones growing in the veg cab until they get transported into my 600w flowering room? The inlines are going for 25 $ each & they dont need a controller they run off 14 watts each if im correct, they might be cheaper where you stay bro so take a look : ) !

if my box is 40 inches tall, and i grow 2 mothers at around 20 to 25 inches would this be a problem u think man ? Even if im using two of those inline fans in the box extracting ? Note i have two holes at the bottom of the box too.

 

[Mr.M]

By CMH I meant Ceramic Metal Halide. I'm not familiar with compact MH. I believe the standard MH bulbs that are used for growing are Ceramic, Quartz glass absorbs sodium and other elements which depletes the overall light output.

And yes! I wasn't aware you would be able to keep moms outside. Sounds great. You have enough room for two decent sized moms. And hopefully more than enough for a good set of clones. Then you would be able to take continuous clones from your moms. At least till late season.
I wouldn't suggest putting an un-rooted clone under the MH. I use cheap 10 dollar cfl tubes on my cloner bucket. You probably knew that but that HID bulb will be a lot for the little tykes to handle.

 

[stealthed-up]

So even with CMH i would probably only be able to do bigger plants ? Ive seen everybody using smaller cfl's for clones no doubts, so ill have to get those, im thinking of going all round cfl though bro.

Do you think i rather get tubes or cfl longstar for cloning ? cause then i could use one of them for seedlings then when they big enough into the cmh box then when they mothers i chop clones put them back in either cfl or tube lighted area to root then back into cmh room to get bigger then into the hps flowering room ?

Appreciate the help bro !

 

[Mr.M]

Exactly! You got it right.

The regular cfls would work, I was just saying I bought some cheapass lights for the cloner. The Longstar won't be necessary for the clones, you could get by with a cheaper lamp.

 

[stealthed-up]

Thanx dude, will be giving it a try this week hopefully ! will take pics