Hi all, this is a great place..

I'm trying to do a two-plant grow with a simple setup. I have a 2'd x 4'h x4'w grow box (white inside) and a five-head goose neck floor lamp that I got for 20 bucks. The lamp can accommodate standard type a bulbs, 60 watts recommended. I see on buylighting.com that they sell High pressure sodium lights that fit into these standard sockets (called medium base). I was thinking I'd get two 70 watt ones (pushing the 60w recommendation a bit) and use 3 additional blue spectrum CFL's for vegetation and then switch to warm white cfl's for flowering while keeping the HPS bulbs the same. Has anyone else used this type of HPS light? It says it provides 6300 lumens, so for the two plants I'd have a total of 17,500+ lumens, with a fairly wide spectrum. Any light gurus shed any light on this idea? Will these HPS bulbs work in my cheap lamp? Or would I be better off going with all CFLs? Thanks a bunch for any help!

J.

P.S. here's the link to the HPS light I'm thinking of: 70 Watt High Pressure Sodium - Clear - Medium Base

Those 70w HPS bulbs will not work in a standard lamp. A normal lamp doesn't have a means of igniting an HPS bulb. You will need a ballast that is compatible with HPS, in which case for the size of your grow area (8 square feet) I would go for a 400w HPS with ballast. Blue spectrum CFL's are good for vegging though.

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okay thanks for your help. It seems odd that they would offer these HPS bulbs with standard household base size if you can't use them in a standard household lamp, but oh well. I think I'll just stick with flurosescents this time around and just get very high wattage bulbs. For two plants, five 105watt CF bulbs should provide enough light, I would think. That would total 34,500 lumens for two plants in that space. Sound about right? Thanks again.