Hello fellow grasscity stoners Let me start this post out by starting with I am a full time working and college student baring down the holiday season with very very limited income at the moment due to presents and all that good stuff. So please keep that in mind So last night to my suprise I was rewarded with a early gift of three beautiful little clone lady's all perfectly ready to plant, my only problem is I wasnt ready for them : /. Having had my previous first harvest about a few weeks ago I do have some basic equipment to go along with these clones such as soil, nutrients, pots. What I dont have is proper lighting for all 3 plants ( being my last grow was only one plant) and no time or money to buy stronger veg lights since I need to pot them right now. They are currently set up all 3 underneath a basic double tube flourecent shop light, just the cheap weak ones(cant remember wattage but low). My first question is will the shop light suffice for the cloning period untill say maybe 2 weeks before I can get a stronger high power system. Also would taking them from a low light system and upgrading them to a high 250 watt light mid grow mess up there cycle in anyway or decrease my yeild? I guess my main concern is should I just go ahead and buy a better vegging light at home depot that will grow my clones stronger into flowering or just wait it out ( Assuming it doesnt decrease the value of my plants) with the low power shop light untill i have enough money to obtain a nice flowering light system say 2-3 weeks more under low light. any suggestions or help is very much appreciated THANKS EVERYONE!! (and go easy on me )
They should be fine for a few weeks, clones and seeds don't need the most intense lighting anyway. I would get that fluorescent light down close to them and leave it on 18-24 hours. If you can spare $10-15 go and grab a couple 6500K CFLs to supplement the shop light and that will definitely tide you over until you can get a better light. Plus you can keep the CFLs in there for the rest of the grow, mixing up the light spectrum is always a good thing.
Definitely good to add additional lights, and CFL is your cheapest option if you have fixtures. You can also get those Y splitters for light sockets too so you can add more than one light with each socket. More light is almost always better. As far as switching mid-way through, no, it won't hurt at all. The only "hurt" it will cause is that they will grow a little more slowly until they are under proper lighting. I started mine outside in September. lol. They were about a month old before I actually got my 1000W light, and the only thing that happened when I put them under the big light was that they started to grow really fast. Whey you say a 250W light, what kind? I've never used CFL's, but I've seen peoples grows that do, and they turn out nice if you have enough. They'll be fine under that shop light, especially if you get a couple CFL's to supplement.
I don't think so, but never having done it I wouldn't swear it's ok. I think it would be like using a metal halide lamp during flowering - it would work but an HPS would work better, due to having the proper color. I dont think any type of light is wrong, it just some are less good than others. Your 42 watt 2700K might not be as good as a 42 watt 6500K for vegetative growth, but will certainly be better than not using them. I would do it if I was in a jam and didn't want to buy 6500K lights.