Lighting Questions

J

Jayson17

New Member
All right so I went to homedepot today to look at CFLs.

I have a question on what type I should get.
What is better, more lumens, or a light that produces fake daylight.

I am confused weather to buy a Bright light or a daylight. Bright light has more lumens but i don't know if I need the fake daylight.

What would be the best for a new grower?

And how many lumens is enough?
The bright light I saw was a 120w equiv and produced 2000 lumens
while a 100w daylight equiv produced 1400 lumens.


-Jayson :peace:
 
Daylight for Veg and soft white for flowering if you are using CFL's....
If You want more lumens then go to HID's...
If you want the most you can get then put them outside...You can't beat the sun..
 
ok, i've used the CFLs before and found most of the help i needed in these forums. you really need to look through the past threads first, but i'll give you a quick run-down w/ the CFLs.

first, you need the 6500K lights for veg cycle, and the 2300K lights for flower cycle. this number will be right on the front of the box when you look at it. the veg light is blue, similar to metal halide lights, and the flower light is more red, similar to the high pressure sodium lights.

secondly, you need to think about how many plants you want and how many lights you are going to have. you really need to have a couple lights on top, and a couple lights around the sides of the plant to encourage lower growth. the CFLs do not have light strong enought to penetrate lower into the plant like the HPS lights.

you should really read up on some of these before you go getting yourself into something half-assed. do some research and PM me if you have any other questions or need some help. i grew some pretty good shit under CFLs last time, and its pretty simple.
 
What do you mean by 6500k lights and where would I get one. All I have is one plant that has not sprouted yet with one lamp over it.

-Jayson
 
you should check out the flood light section at home depot still, look for the fluorex lights. they have 65w-100w i believe, maybe even more. they come with a reflector type thing or u can easily turn it into one. all i did to get it running was wire nut an old cord i clipped from a lamp and duct tape over the light sensor. think prices ran from 40-60$ check website maybe also they run 6500k light spectrum for veg and then you can get the 2700k flowering bulbs for 50$ or so at a hydro shop
 
you guys really need to figure out something with your light situation ASAP. it sounds like you are kinda broke, which is usually where everyone starts out, but that's okay. you could probably get started for less than $100, but you need some specific supplies.

1. you need to make sure you have a container that will hold your finished plant. if the plant gets rootbound in a container too small, it will stop growth and eventually die. they say for every month of life, you need one gallon. flower cycle is most always two months itself, plus approx. a month of veg you need at least a 3 gal. container.

2. since you don't have money, you need to decide whether you want soil with time release ferts (which everyone will tell you not to use them, which it true, but sometimes no other options), or you can call the local garden center and get some nute free potting soil and add some miracle gro tomato fertilizer or something like that in your water. you will have to have fertilizer either in the soil or add it in the water. it is very important to realize that different stages of growth require different levels of nutrients. you will see nutrients with numbers like 2-8-4, this is an N-P-K ratio and veg and flower ratios are different. you need to look those up.

3. the desk lamps are not going to work through the grow. they are too hot and you won't be able to get them close enough to keep the plant from stretching incredibly bad. i'm not sure if this is the same thing that rc51sport was talking about, but you can get a switch-on light fixture reflector thing that plugs in (kind of like you would use in a shop or similar) for about $8, and get a flood light that has the 6500K spectrum, it will say this right on the front of the box. i would get 2 of these unless you plant to veg only a week or two. you also need to get at least one more reflector and enough 2300K flood lights to fill the number of reflectors you want to use. this will probably create some heat issues, so you need to make sure the air is getting exchanged and constantly moving the plant around a little bit.

i hope this helps. this is a very basic approach and probably is not a good representation of what the results of a proper setup could be. i say this not to discourage you, but so you use your grow as a learning experience for future grows. i promise you will want to try again whether you are successful or not on this grow. keep track of everything you do and get on these forums whenever you can and look up some of the old threads. everything is in here, you just gotta look for it...
 
there are some ok 75 wat florecents at wall mart that are about ten bucks that i use not the best but your straped for cash and all u have to do is mount them and plug it in fixture and bulb is in cluded
 
you might be able to get away something smaller, but why would you risk it. you can get a 10 pack of 3 gallon bags for like $3 or something at the hydro store. the bags and the plastic catch trays that go under them, all for under $10. it's not worth the risk. i have 3 girls 12/12 from seed in 3 gallon bags, just in case. you could also try going to home depot and getting some of the used ones from the gardening center. i guarantee you can go up there and find a couple laying around. if not, flirt with the cashier a little bit and see if they have a stack of extras somewhere.
 
The only reason I ask is because if I have to get a 3-gallon i have to plant is outside, I don't have room in my room.
And wait, you can get 3-gallon bags? Never heard of that. They just go about the plant?
 
yeah they have holes in the bottom of them. they are just a little bit easier to use than some plastic containers. and if you can fit a 2 gallon container in your room, you can fit a 3 gallon container. just train your plant to stay low and at the same height. look at some LST threads or some SCRoG threads.
 
Jayson17 said:
The only reason I ask is because if I have to get a 3-gallon i have to plant is outside, I don't have room in my room.
And wait, you can get 3-gallon bags? Never heard of that. They just go about the plant?
Click to expand...

I thinnk that would fit you best would be a micro grow because you say you dont have alot of room for a 3 gallon bucket/pot then i suggest you go to wal mart and get you some 6 or 8 inch pots they are much smaller of course they will start their grow there and end it. Ive seen grows where people grow out of 4" pots and get an alright amount of yield but they also have like 10 of them so they can equal up to what a regular plant would be. Because the smaller the pot smaller the plant
 
Hmm I will look into those. Ya cause right now I have a 6 in. pot. I might buy an 8. But can a potted plant make the transition to fake light to sun light? Im going to move it outside for safety reasons. Like it will stay in the pot the whole time.
 
And yea you can but i suggest you introduce them to the sunlight slowly like maybe 30min at a time because i had this conversation on another thread where a guy lost a couple of plants due to moving them outside but could of been because the plants were used to the sensitive lighting from inside then he moved them outside and the light was much stronger so it killed them, so i say slowly introduced them to the outdoors
 

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