light question

i think your best bet would be to get some 2 foot flour strip lights from like hope depot... they seem to be cheap. from my experince the compact flouros generate to much heat

 

Flourescent in the early stages.....HID from there....HID is not that expensive....look around ....Home Depot,etc,,,sells the security light cheap....If you want real buds....use real light........peace

 

Nope Nope Nope
Do NOT use a heat lamp unless you want hamburgers.
This is not a burger joint, it's a future garden.

I too had plenty of questions about lights and eventually decided to shell out the bucks for a small lamp.
Just figure the price of an ounce and the price of the light will make you laugh.
For the same bucks you can have almost unlimited pot.
First thing you should do is read my post about "lights, no cameras, action" and you will understand.
Then you MUST read the chart that our good friend Bud made for us about wavelengths/power/heat.
It might look like chineese at first, but give it a chance.
Then go see a hydro shop, I used the back door to get in the shop so that nobody saw me, and get yourself the smallest light they have.
It is about the only way to do it properly.
In my case, I went home with a 250W MH and WOW, what a differance.
The leaves are a deap green and like the name, the plants are growing like weeds.
I smoked a few hand leaves the other day and I think the harvest is going to put me in the hospital...hahaha
For leaves, I was rockin' for hours.
I never thought I could do it, but I wouldn't do it any other way now.

 

2'x2' is kinda small and the 250 might be too big.
It's usually for a larger area of about 4x4 or so.
I would guess that the smaller one would have a heat problem and especially in a closed area, because the balast is attached to the lamp.
On the bigger ones, the ballast is seperate and the heat can even be in another area.
Forget the floods, they're WAY wrong in spectrum and far too hot.
Now, as it was explained to me, how much do you pay for an OZ?
a hum.
That's what I thought.
You do the math.
If you get 2-4 ozs off a small garden, I mean really small, and it's all quality buds, you put a price on them then.
I paid 250 and I have 4 buckets.
Right now it's a jungle, but I have to weed the males when they poke through.
That's a problem with bag seed, you don't know what you are getting until a while after they start growing.
Now, if you have only 2 seeds, I would think about the cost of the lamp versus the ability to get seed.
What happens if the turn out to be all males?
Do you have enough to resead?
If not. go for the little light, not to waste bucks.
Once you get some cuttings though, you'l have all female quality, and you'll probably want the bigger one, but it takes time, knowledge and lots of luck to get the clones to grow.

Bud could correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say to spend the bucks, you know you are going to need it anyway, and get a 250MH.
Vent the room well or find a bigger space because it will be well worth it.
I too looked at the smaller sodium, but guess what...
It just didn't make sense.
The spectrum is better for all round growing whith the MH, while the sodium is good for flowering.
1 million growers can't be wrong.
Get the MH.
Pull out the phone book and look up a hydro shop, there's at least one in every city.
Then send me a thank you note...hahaha

 

Hey man, the best is pure sunshine, but it's hard to get it to work indoors, if you follow me.
The green monster can grow almost by the light of a candle (extreme exageration), but what product will you get...
I had some real kool gardens outside and, like you, was short on bucks to get my buckets what they really needed.
I had great results, vegie wise, with a regular screw in bulb, but the buds were the size of pin heads.
Clones came and went and lots of "hands" were puffed before I got fed up.
Bud rules, so when my outdoor stash was all gone, I had a real heart to heart with my buzz and decided to shell out.
I live in the snow half the year, so I have to bring the sun inside, or be eligible to pass a piss test.
I like my status of piss test failure to let it go.
As for burning the place down, it's always a concern, but if you vent properly, identify the heat source, get it away from the girls and fan it somehow, it should be ok.
I have a smoke detector right next to the balast and an extinguisher outside the door.
Just watch me call the fire dept if I have trouble...not.

 

think 50w per square foot..2x2 = 4square feet = 200w

bulbs to use...

Metal halide(overall good for both cycles)

High Pressure Sodium(Great for flowering cycle,can also be used for both cycles if only available)

Flourescent tubes or Compact Flourescent(not for flowering)


Use no other lights than is stated above...period..