Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

smear a dash of the lubricant around the mogul socket base to facilitate bulb insertion and extraction.
    The outer arc tube contains practically all of the ultraviolet light produced by HIDs. If an HID should happen to break when inserting or removing, unplug the ballast immediately and avoid contact with metal parts to prevent electrical shock.
    Always keep the bulb clean. Wait for it to cool before wiping it off with a clean cloth every two to four weeks. Dirt will lower lumen output substantially. Bulbs get covered with insect spray and salty water vapor residues. This dirt dulls lamp brilliance just as clouds dull natural sunlight.
    Hands off bulbs! Touching bulbs leaves them with your hand’s oily residue. The residue weakens the bulb when it is baked onto it. Most growers clean bulbs with Windex or rubbing alcohol and use a clean cloth to remove filth and grime, but Hortilux Lighting advises cleaning bulbs with a clean cloth only.
    Lumen output diminishes over time. As the bulb loses brilliance, it generates less heat and can be moved closer to the garden. This is not an excuse to use old bulbs; it is always better to use newer bulbs. However, it is a way to get a few more months out of an otherwise worthless bulb.
    Write down the day, month, and year you start using a bulb so you can better calculate when to replace it for best results. Replace metal halides after 12 months of operation and HP sodium bulbs after 18 months. Many growers replace them sooner. Always keep a spare bulb in its original box available to replace old bulbs. You can go blind staring at a dim bulb trying to decide when to replace it. Remember, your pupils openand close to compensate for different light levels! One way to determine when to replace a bulb is to examine the arc tube. When the arc tube is very cloudy or very blackened, it is most likely time to replace it.
Bulb Disposal
Place the bulb in a dry container, and then place it in the trash.
Lamps contain materials that are harmful to the skin. Avoid contact, and use protective clothing.
Do not place the bulb in a fire.

Metal Halide Systems
    The metal halide HID lamp is the most efficient source of artificial white light available to growers today. It comes in 175, 250, 400, 1000, 1100, and 1500-watt sizes. They may be either clear or phosphor coated, and all require a special ballast. The smaller 175 or 250-watt halides are very popular for closet grow rooms. The 400, 1000 and 1100-watt bulbs are very popular with most indoor growers. The 1500-watt halide is avoided due to its relatively short 2000 to 3000 hour life and incredible heat output. American growers generally prefer the larger 1000-watt lamps, and Europeans almost exclusively favor 400-watt metal halide lamps.
    The main metal halide manufacturers include General Electric (Multivapor), Osram/Sylvania (Metalarc) and Westinghouse (Metal Halide), Iwasaki (Eye), Venture (SunMaster), and Philips (Son Agro). Each manufacturer makes a super halide which fits and operates in standard halide ballasts and fixtures. Super metal halides produce about 15 percent more lumens than standard halides. Super halides cost a few dollars more than standards but are well worth the money.
    SunMaster, a division of Venture Lighting, has developed new horticultural metal halide bulbs. The new bulbs are brighter and provide a spectrum better suited to plant growth. Growers prefer the Warm Deluxe bulbs. Check out their web site: www.sunmasterarowlamps.com .
    Clear halides are most commonly used by indoor growers. Clear super metal halides supply the bright lumens for plant growth. Clear halides work well for seedling, vegetative, and flower growth.

BC growers run flowering rooms 24 hours a day with half as many ballasts. This box is made for three transformers, capacitors, and starters to run six 1000-watt HP sodiums. Three lamps run for 12 hours; the other three lamps run for the next 12 hours.

The switch on the top of this photo from Blues Brothers is running twelve 600-watt lamps in a zigzag pattern. A fan is trained on the ballasts and switch to keep them cool.

High Pressure Sodium Bulbs
    Phosphor coated 1000-watt halides give off a more diffused light and are easy on the eyes, emitting less ultraviolet light than the clear halides. They produce the same initial lumens and about 4000 fewer lumens than the standard halide and have a slightly different color spectrum. Phosphor-coated halides have more yellow, less blue and ultraviolet