So I'm in the planning stages of doing my first grow. Its going to be be a sog grow, where I will keep 1-2 mothers, some clones for the new replacement mothers and adding one new clone into the sog every two weeks. So I will be using 4 bubble buckets in a simple hydro setup. with the 4 plants in the bubble buckets, how many watts should I need. I am planning on using cfls's thanks alot in advance So one more thing I was planning on using 200w 1-2 Cfl's. can I get by on just one of them, or both is preferable. Or should I get two 125watt clfs. Remeber 4 plants in various stages of flowering. Thanks.
with 4 plants in flowering i would definitely go with the 2 x 200w CFL's. the general rule that'll give great results is 40 watts per square foot. 2 x 125w CFL's likely won't be ideal with 4 plants. if i were doing it (and this is, of course, a personal choice), i'd go with 2 x 250w HPS's for 4 flowering plants. hope that helps.
Thanks for the response. So I was told the cfl's were the best choice for a small scale operation like this, can you explain why you think it's better to have the hps's vs. the cfl. thanks bro.
CFLs are okay for a SMALL enclosed space such as a grow box but 4 bubble buckets isn't what I'd call small scale. HPS is much more efficient than CFLs...something I hadn't discovered until after I built my growbox. A 150W HPS is the most efficient of those lamps I've looked up (haven't researched higher wattage bulbs) If you do go with CFLs, I'd use Many of them to provide sufficient coverage of the grow area. Also, When you say 200W cfl, is that the ACTUAL wattage or the equivilent output? A final point, Watts are not what grows plants...LUMEN are (in the correct wavelengths)