whats the minimum wattage seeds need to grow big and strong? and what part of the grow do i bring the big boys in? or do i go all in from the beggining with the lights? thanks for helping out a cluless sob
u can use cfls to veg then hps for flower or a boat load of cfls. ur target for cfls is 100 actual watts per girl the 50 watts for each additional to flower. im just going to 600w hps from cfl for flowering. i used 26-30 bulbs 26wx100w 2700k for flower, 6500k for veg. hope that helps some for ya
The plant has a steady light requirement during it's whole life. After all, the light as well as warmer climate is what tells the seedling that winter is over and it is time to start growing. However, due to the plant being much smaller, you can use less lighting if you have the light closer to the plant. In the event you have multiple plants growing under a light then you need to be using something with power. The seedling stage needs just as much light as the flowering stage. During this time it has less foliage to collect light as it is and it is using a lot of the energy it gets to establish a Strong root system since that is the most important part of the plant's survival. I prefer CFL myself for vegging. 4x 26w bulbs work perfectly.
I just start mine under the 600w. I dont see much point in using cfls for just a week or two. Even in veg more light equals better growth.
I agree with this if you just have one plant but I personally would not buy an HID just to Veg while anouther plant is doing the 12/12.
Sure but how many people are going to maintain two seperate grow areas with one plant each. An hid will give you more light and better coverage.
Wrong question. There is no minimum to yield the maximum. The more light, the better the plant will grow and produce. Your original question: can i use less light during the seeding stage? Yes and no. You can use less overall light because a small seedling is smaller than a big mature plant, so the total amount of light needed is less. But, the amount of light per square foot or square inch needs to be strong. So yes you can get by on CFLs for the first couple of weeks if they are very close and cover the plant very well with high intensity light. But the plant is hungry for light, don't starve it.