I was going to use my 400w light for my seedlings but i heard that it would brun them or make them stretch real far because of the distance due to burning... so i was thinking i am going to get a 4 foot florescent fixture and get 6500k bulbs. the only reason i say 6500k is because thats what one of my friends told me to use. he said he was pretty successful with his.. Just figured id ask if anyone had any pros / cons they could give me before purchasing tomorrow. Cheers everyone.
Don't buy standard fluorescent stuff, the ones you want are called T5-high output fluorescents The big question is why do you have a seedling but don't have the growing environment set up and trouble shot???? You're putting the cart before the horse. Educate yourself first, read every sticky on these boards, set up BOTH your growing environments (veg and flower), run them to make sure temps, humidity, etc are all ok,buy the products you WILL need to be successful (ph pen, nutes, etc).............. THEN germinate a seed Next question- Why did you buy a 400w MH light if you weren't going to use it???
T8's or T12's are fine for germing and the first 2 weeks in my view. I've found that newborn seedlings under an HID can be a bit touchy since it's hard to get the light distance right so as not to stretch or fry. T5's are great for a grower who wants to use them all the way through veg but a T8 fixture with 6500K bulbs is a lot cheaper and more readily available for a short term solution until the HID is brought online after the seedlings have 'hardened'. Incidentally, the advertised output of T5 HO's of 5000 lumens is at an ambient temperature of 95 deg. F. T5 lumens at a more normal 77 deg. F is 4650. T8 and T12 lumen output is rated at 77 deg. F.
So i got a 48'' shop light that takes T12 Bulbs. 3 differnt wattage types of bulbs ittl take, But the only problem was they didnt have 6500k spectrum bulbs at my local hardware store. All i have here in my garage is Cool White bulbs and they are a bit old. What kind of spectum bulbs do i need to get
Are you sure, ive heard mixed reviews about that. I have cfl bulbs available here in my house HELICAL 26w 120Vac 60hz 390mA FLE 26HT3/2/SW Idk wat that info is or if they would use for first 2 weeks but im panicing they are ready to put in soil if i wait much longer im afraid the roots petruding will get too long and i hear thatss not good
The 'SW' here indicates Soft White, much warmer than Cool White or Daylight. Probably running around 2700-3000k. Go to wally world and pick up a pack of 26W Daylight bulbs, they run at 6500k, which is what seems to be what everyone is liking for seedlings/veg. Personally, I'm going to run 6 of these for my seedlings and for vegging. HTH,
the 26w daylight bulbs are them cfl's or flourescents? im lookin for flourescent, i have a lot of babies to put under them and i dont wanna spend more money on more cfls. i need to find the right spectrem or if the cool white bulbs will actually work or not..
I was referring to CFL. If you have cool white tubes, use them... just like Frank said... BTW, I know Lowe's Home Depot, and Wally World all have 48" 5000k+ tubes (though I suppose your region could have different inventory). Our local hardware stores don't have squat either... quite annoying to have to drive 20 miles to go to Lowes (30+ for Home Depot).