First timer - Light fixtures for seedlings

[Greenevie]

Hello guys, I'm from the UK, first post here, and first time grower!

I've spent the better part of a week researching, and today I've spent hours looking at equipment and deciding on what I will purchase.

I'm only growing one plant.

I decided on one of the complete tent kits, with a 400w hps light, but here's where my questions come in -

Lighting for my seedling. Oh my god my brain is fried! I want to get a CFL light bulb for those early couple of weeks, I found a nice one with 6400k and it's 65w (300w equivalent), with a bayonet fixture but I cannot for the life of me figure out what to plug it into?! My normal light fixtures in the house are all halogens and those little round ones flush in the ceiling. So how do I go about getting something to plug the CFL in? A desk lamp? Will that be okay to be on for 18hrs a day? And I'm sure the bulb is way too big to be put into one anyways?

The only other thing I found was a E40 cord, but the E40 cfls on amazon are sooo expensive for a few weeks use. And I see people on forums such as this using cfl 23w bulbs but what do they plug it into hahah. I must be missing something obvious right?

Can I just put the seedling in with the 400w light? I'll have a fan and cooling system in there.

My friend suggested a T5, but again, no idea what to plug it into. I only need the cfl bulb for a little while right? And then I can move the plant into the tent with the 400w bulb?

Maybe my brains been fried from hours of straight research hahaha.

But yeah I'd massively appreciate the help, thank you for your time

 

[Lazarus13]

Seen people use desk lamps before. I bought sockets and splitters at a home improvement store and wired them up to an old extension cord. Its not difficult and is safe if done correctly. CFLs are my favorite lights for the wee babes. They can be put very close without worrying about burn and they give you really tight internode distances and veey compact bushy plants which is wonderful to maximize budding sites while minimizing vertical space needs. Never used HIDs but as far as i know you can use them from the start just need to keep a good bit of distance from your younguns.

 

[TanR]

Hi Greenevie!

Welcome to 420 Magazine and the community of members that gathers here!

So excited for you to begin growing for yourself and can completely identify with brain fry from all the reading and learning prior to the start. Congratulations for putting the time and effort into preparing! It will serve you well.

You can begin your plants under your 400 watt light but as Lazarus suggested just raise the light higher than you will once the plant is established. With a 400 watt, I'd suggest 60 cm's or a little more right at first for seedling. You can then lower the light as the plant gets bigger (2-3 weeks if starting from seed) and continue to lower it to around 30-35 cm's for the remainder of the grow. If you see the plant begin to grow tall and skinny, that can be a sign that the light is too far away. Bleaching of the leaves or canoeing of the leaves may mean it is too low.

If you would like to start a grow journal once you get going, I know you will find the community to be very supportive and genuinely interested in your success.

Be well, and happy growing!

 

[Greenevie]

Thanks for both of your replies, I really appreciate it.

As for the brain fog yesterday haha, this morning I did another search on amazon and it was successful ha! I just chose a different fixture on the bulb and searched for a fitting, and a wire with a plug and somewhere to screw the bulb into came up. All in all that setup will cost me around £20, happy I didn't have to fork out 40+ woop! Only trouble is that I'm not sure if the wire and fitting is made from ceramic or not, don't wanna be melting anything!

I started checking out grow journals last night, thank you for recommending them to me! Great fun, and I'll probably make one myself.

 

[TanR]

Greenevie,

Glad you got it sorted. Always nice when a less expensive solution presents. As for the fixture being ceramic; I think you'll find the CFL will run so cool that overheating of any of the components will not be an issue. You should even be able to get the bulb within inches of your seedlings without doing any damage.

I'll look for a journal from you once you get started!

 

[Greenevie]

Greenevie,

Glad you got it sorted. Always nice when a less expensive solution presents. As for the fixture being ceramic; I think you'll find the CFL will run so cool that overheating of any of the components will not be an issue. You should even be able to get the bulb within inches of your seedlings without doing any damage.

I'll look for a journal from you once you get started!

Thanks very much for your help.

I had one more question if you wouldn't mind seeing if you could offer me any advice?

I don't really want to cop out on a tent kit via eBay for cheapness, so I'm just having a little look around to see if I can build something with reputable components.

I did a bit of research about lighting, and I'll use the cfl for my seedlings, and I was going to downgrade to a 250w hps since I'll only be growing 1-2 plants max. (can always upgrade later).

But while I've been researching, I realised I don't know what vent kits are right. The vent kit I'm looking at comes with a 5" 125mm TT Fan and pro air carbon Filter. My question is basically, is the TT fan part of the carbon filter? And the carbon filter is the extraction method for hot air right? And would I need an intake fan?

Most tents have the vents at the bottom, does an intake fan need to be put on the bottoms? For pressure etc?

 

[Greenevie]

Think I managed to answer my own question regards to the intake fan. I don't think I'll need one!

So the fan that comes in the kit is for the carbon filter. I get it all now haha. It's been another long day of research! Sorted!

 

[TanR]

Hi Greenevie.

Sorry I didn't check back in earlier, but glad you got it sorted out.

As you suspected, the fan (you'll often see people refer to them as an inline fan) was meant to pull air through the carbon filter to exhaust hot air via constant air exchange within the tent. Most of the time an intake fan is unnecessary as you point out, the tents have vents and a little negative pressure inside the tent when all closed up indicates good air flow. I would suggest you consider a fan for inside the tent to circulate the fresh air all over the tent. But frankly, you can probably pick something up locally or may even have something around the house that can serve. I use a desk top oscilating fan from a local discount store and it works just fine.

Be well and happy growing!