Are Hortilux Bulbs Worth The Extra $$$?

I'm putting the finishing touches on my bloom room and have gotten 2 new 1000w HPS systems.

I'm needing to buy some bulbs in the next week or so and wanted to know if hortilux bulbs are really worth the extra money. I've only grown using hortilux, they're great, had nothing but great results. But I'm able to purchase bulbs for half the price and at the current moment I'm kinda tight on money and debating spending the extra $120. My bloom room is 7'Lx4'Wx10'H, so theres plenty of light to go around, thats the only reason I'm considering the cheaper bulbs, because with that much light in that little space I dont see how there would be a huge differance. BUT if end quality suffers, than forget it.

So has anyone started with super cheap bulbs only to replace and find hortilux much, much better? Or did you not see much of a differance?


Another question is, I have big room with three growrooms in it. They are all seperated by drywall and plastic zip doors. My veg room is done with one 400wMH and I'm planning on getting 2 150wCFL for clones/seeds. The bloom room will have 2 1000wHPS. BUT the thrid room I'm planning on using for only sativas! I'm considering going verticle ala' HeathRobinson's http://www.mrnice.nl/forum/showthread.php?t=907 but has anyone had better luck with mixing light spectrums with sativa's? I was thinking about maybe 4 thousand watters 2 HPS, 2 MH. Any thoughts on this?

purely talking ortilux, my experience has been that it's about the right spectrum. Hortilux has the closest to perfect spectrum when ti comes to 1000w. I say this because we used to pay 30$ a bulb for general electrics. These are basicaly street lamp light bulbs that the city uses. It's not @ all the same thing. We were told it works, fine, and it did, only thing is compared side by side with a hortilux and the light is not even the same color. Also, another thing to consider is that i think that the hortilux will give you 10% more lumens. Which is supposed to convert to 20% to 30% extra gerth in final product. Hope this helps.

I use a cheap mh bulb on my 250w to veg with, but for flowering I really like hortilux hps as opposed to a random brand. As for mixing your light spectrum for sativas, I'd look for a mix that was more HPS than MH, maybe 3 and 1.

ESS

my grow shop owner seems to think it's best to spend more money - but then he would!

I would say - if you have the money, spend it. If you don't, a good grower can probably use any bulb and get decent enough results.

Some growers are great at stretching the 'grow' dollar whereas others ONLY use the best for their crops. Which one will have better results? The one with the greenest fingers!


Personally, I need all the help I can get and only use the best I can afford in my flowering room....

Good Luck


GS

Grover Sativa said:

my grow shop owner seems to think it's best to spend more money - but then he would!

I would say - if you have the money, spend it. If you don't, a good grower can probably use any bulb and get decent enough results.

Some growers are great at stretching the 'grow' dollar whereas others ONLY use the best for their crops. Which one will have better results? The one with the greenest fingers!


Personally, I need all the help I can get and only use the best I can afford in my flowering room....

Good Luck


GS

Click to expand...

That's sound advice, Grover S...well said, friend...Hortilux bulbs are preferred...not mandatory....jay

HPS is not perfect toy , some of co. says laud to HPS must lose 10% of lumens in first 10-15 days but other hide that fact.

Compare spectrum in K, lumens per W and you will find out by your self what is what.

The last room I had I was using Gavita lamps. I think that theyre great, not too much info at all on these. I got one when they first came out as they were the hot new thing for 2000 or something. Awesome light coverage, very bright lamps I've seen tons of 400's these were visibly brighter. Back then I used the 400w hps version. It was the advirtised lumens that sold me, they had lumens for the 400w that approached normal 600w bulb levels. They did seem to grow better than friend's 400's.

Then I did an outdoor grow this past summer and got hooked again. But this time I wasnt screwing around. So I found out Gavita made a MH conversion bulb. Its basically a HPS @ 6400 kelvins. But they sell it as a MH conversion. So I bought it for my new veg room.

Bulb burns bright bright blue, like like any MH. BUT I've noticed that I get awesome squat plants with it. I've never seen any plants with such a tight internodal distance! Very very cool light. It could just be the current strain though, will have to compare with the Shit's that are getting germed next week.

The only bad thing I have to say about them is that the bulbs out of the box, look kinda old, at least the ones at my grow shop are. I flipped out when I first got that mh bulb because it appeared to be kinda rusty at the base (where the screw piece and jacket meet). This could have and probally was due to the grow shop I got it at. Very old stock, plus its a big humid grow shop. Also make sure you buy these bulbs in person because the "built in reflector" is nothing more than a reflective coating they apply to the outside of the glass. So make sure there isnt ANY tiny knicks or holes in the coating. Take the bulb out and hold it up to the light and look through the reflective part. If you see tiny holes or scratches ask for another bulb. The reflector does work quite well though with a nice tight pattern. Also you dont need any reflector which works well in small spaces.

To this day there is very little to find on these bulbs and I can say from expeirance that they kick ass.

Jorge Cerventes in one of his books claims that all the bulb companies get their parts from the same companies so there really isn't much of a difference in bulbs when it comes to pricing in his opinion...i think that if you can afford one why not use it but personally my bulb is less than half the price and my results are very satisfying...if i had the extra money i might try one day to see if the results were better...but i think the difference can't be that enormous or we would read some serious reports from side by side grows...just my 2cents

Jorge doesn't grow, and that's not even his real name.
Eye Horts are the best, you won't see it, but the plants do.

I hear to J.C. know some magic words and plant do not need light source at all ?
Also is it truth to J.C. has patented growing and Cannabis cultivation ?

But now seriously, Is it truth to J.C. can release flash lighting from his eyes and fire balls from his ass ?

ok well honestly he is one of the most written writers, along with Ed Rosenthal as two of the pioneers in the pot book industry...i'm not saying either of them's words are the Gospel...just some stuff i've read in the past...i will actually find the book if it helps...after all this talk i almost wanna try a hortilux, but they emit 88,000 lumens and my light gives out 95000 so the sprectrum may be better but i'm still recieving more overall lumens for over half the price of the hortilux...i hear sunmaster has a great bulb that is sorta in the middle on pricing but the quality is superior than most but from what you guys are saying it seems the HORTILUX is the KING OF BULBS

When bulbs come out of the same production, but the price is different, there usually is a difference in quality. That's why one is cheaper then the other. That is the normal way of selling massproducts because they aren't all 100% perfect.

As an example from a nerd like I am. Computer processors from, let's say, Intel. They have series and within diffrent speeds. The slower, cheaper ones are just throttled down because of some reliability problems.

And thats why overclocking is quite normal right now. Consumers know how the industry works. Buy one of the slower in the series and overclock it and prey to god your lucky having one without major flaws.

i honestly need to replace my bulb and the growstore said hortilux is without a doubt the best...i generally trust my store as they do try to save me money and are honest about some very expensive products stating they aren't worth the money...i may go for a hortilux bulb instead of a pack of seeds just to see the difference...plus i am waiting for Shanti to release new lines that won't be ready for a few months so i got some time to save the cash...i will report an honest opinion on whether or not i feel the bulb is worth the extra money

got the hotilux and everyone was right...the spectrum is definitely different and has a much more natural look to the light instead of the general orangish/yellow bulb...seems like a nice bulb and i installed it today on day 2 of flowering...really hope i see an increase in yield/potency with the new spectrum

Hi All

Are you folks still using the eye-hortilux now?

Thanx

I believe Devilsharvest uses Hortilux bulbs and he has real nice results. They also last a load longer so worth the extra