Ive started a grow already, I have 5 plants in a space of about 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall. I have one tube so far (doesnt say which type of flor. light it is) and will be getting more soon. Right now, I'm only planning on getting the lights for the veg. stage. My question is for this size of a space and with 5 plants, what type and how many tubes should I get? The one I have right now is 75 watts, not sure about lumens. So, how many lights should I get, daylight of course, and of what lumen?.. Thanx everyone.
Iam in the same situation as you and I have 2 4t flouro tubes and 4 cfls and I am flowering and it starting to look great!
A 75w tube? What size? I'd say 4x 4' 40w tubes would be good. If you can't fit em, the 2' 20w would obviously be less, but still enough since they don't need much light in veg, especially if it's in the right spectrum.
Do the math! For 4'x2' (I'm guessing with the 2', you didn't say how deep it is) that's eight square feet. You need a minimim of 2,000 lumens per square foot, so that's 16,000 lumens. Each 4' tube puts out around 4000 lumens, so you need four tubes. And they'll need to be real close to the plant tops. Okay, lumens are for humans, but it's a good guide. For veg you're looking for 2 cool white, 2 warm white, and for flowering, 1 cool white, 3 warm white for the first couple of weeks, then all warm white to finish. Add some UVB for increased potency. If my figures are out, anyone please feel free to correct them. -mu ps. you can go up to around 7,000 per square foot without harming the plants. How many tubes?
i cant really break it down like -mu just did but i an tell you about my first grow and hope it helps and gives you any ideas, I used 2 4foot floros in a hood that holds 2, they were 75 watts i think, i just hung them with "J-hooks" and some chain that way was really easy to adjust, i kept it about 2-4 inches above the top threw the whole grow and when i endiced flowering i added 2 more 4 foot floros. just do some research here at GC or on the web and just read about MJ`s needs and whatnot, youll be amazed at what you can do with floros. i grew only one plant with this setup though and if you have multipul plants i think you need to line them up with the tallest towards the edges and the shortest in the middle, i hope this helps in some minute way
that was my plan, i have two seperate growing spacing so i can harvest two crops at a time.. Im going to buy some hps lights for flowering most likely.
My grow area is only 30" wide, 19" deep by 49" high. And I still managed to cram 36,800 lumens of fluros in. Eight 48", 32 watt, 2800 lumen T8 bulbs for side lighting and and three 21", 55 watt, 4800 lumen, 2G11 base bulbs in the canopy. That gives me about 9000 lumens per/sf. I'm still in my first grow but the plants seem do be doing very well. With your limited height you might want to go with a pre-made T5 bulb canopy, they're fairly thin. You could get a four bulb 48" canopy. I think those bulbs put out around 5,000 lumens so that would give you 20,000 lumens total.