lighting

[cbgb]

i am in the northeast and the plants did very well outside for 5 weeks but it is time to come in for flowering.....i really need some help here folks .... thanks... after getting them to where they are now took a lot of effort and i dont want to loose them now.........i am on a very low budget , 3 plants.... what would be a good lighting set up for flower..thank you all in advance

 

[PeytonManning]

Hps or led would be your best bet. Plants should be flowering already if they were outdoors for last 5 weeks.

 

[cbgb]

Hps or led would be your best bet. Plants should be flowering already if they were outdoors for last 5 weeks.

thanks peyton , i am sure the flowering will begin once i bring them in and get them under flowering lighting....how many watts should i need per plant. i was going to start off with a red / blue plant light and supplement that with the spiral cfl 's how many watts should i need per plant ? thank you !!

 

[PeytonManning]

I would say at least 150 watts per plant

 

[Hiddenkoncept]

I would say get an LED, but if your in a budget then that might not be an option/
Check this link in basic lighting

Lighting is based more on area rather than per plant. How big is your area? You should be able to just use one bulb if just doing 3 plants...I use one led for my three.

 

[cbgb]

thanks mr manning ;-)

 

[cbgb]

hey koncept , thanks .....this is what my plan is at the moment i have 3 plants and was going to use 1 each of these per plant :

and supplement it with at least 600 watt warm white cfl"s arranged to cover a small area of the 3 plants maybe a 3x3x3 area..... any thoughts? thank you

thanks you.....

 

[Antics]

I wouldn't trust that LED bulb as far as I could throw it. Keep in mind that not all LEDs will grow plants.

Make sure when counting your CFL wattage, that you count the actual wattage used. Do not count the "Incandescent equivalent" number. This number is there only to help peopple select a new energy saving CFL bulb to use that will be a similar brightness to their old incandescent bulb. And since incandescents cannot effectively grow Cannabis, this number is useless for our purposes.

And keep in mind as you're pricing all this stuff out.... a good LED grow light starts at like $80 from our sponsors. So if your CFL costs, light fixture costs, wiring, etc.. start to hit that area, you'll be better off buying an LED.

I already grew with CFLs. My last grow was a 361 watt setup with 14 bulbs. I upgraded to an LED that covers 3.5x2.5 feet, is stronger than my CFLs, and uses less than half the wattage as my CFLs (uses 150-170w total). So you'll save on the power bill as well.

 

[Dankbank]

With an area that small your problem is going to be keeping it cool if you buy the 400 watt HPS needed. I found that out the hard way and ended up spending a lot of money to cool things off, equipment and energy bill. After fighting it for awhile I sprung for an LED and couldn't be happier. I was able to return all the equipment I purchased to cool things off and that paid for the light, now I am using less than ¼ of the energy and don't have to buy bulbs every year. It is worth it now to buy a good LED IMHO. Hope this helps.

 

[Stealthboat]

You just brought outside plants inside? Make sure you take a lot of pest prevention, I hear moving plants from outside to inside can invite many pests. It's just what I've heard though, can anyone confirm this?