I've never used fluoros before and dont know too much about them. I have a 600w hps but I think fluoros may be better for veg plus I will be putting together a new room for mother/clones/veg soon. So my question is how much fluoro light do I need for about a 2x2 ft area worth of vegging plants? Also, down the road I will need to use a full 4x2 closet for mothers/veg/clones. Anybody know what kind of heat output that room full of sufficient fluoro light would be compared to a 400w mh?
Thanks. Anyone else want to chime in? What would be better for veg, a 600w hps or one 23w cfl per plant?
hahaha... that's the craziest comparison I've ever heard...1 23W/plant vs a 600W... unless you have a crapload of plants. Basically the more light you throw the faster they'll veg, but they veg pretty fast even with fairly minimal light. Additionally you should use a mix of blue/red spectrum if you can while vegging. It will give the best growth while also ensuring that your internodes stay short.
I have 3x 60w fluoros in my 1x1x1.5 seedling grow cabinet, they are by far the cheapest lights you can get though, energy saving bulbs do just as good aswell. Think a 60w energy saving bulb uses around 10watts. You can also keep the lights relatively close to the plant without much fear of burning.
If you want to get high efficiency you could build a PLL fluorescent system for $100. However, as the previous posters stated, you don't need much light. A 600w HPS would just stretch them out fast (unless it was Hortilux Super HPS) You could get the reflector style fluoros from lowes. For a 2X2 space you could probably do 4X15W R30 or maybe R40s. An even cheaper option would be to use the twisties and make your own reflectors.