Ok im planning on growing indoors with fluro tubes. Ive heard good and bad on them searching on gc. I only want to grow 2 maybe 3 plants and plan on getting 2 4ft. fixtures each with 2 bulbs=160watts. Would that be sufficient for veg and flowering?Btw im using LST.
I would double up if I was you and check the spectrum of the bulbs www.1000bulbs.com then give the name of the bulb you have FYI I dont use tubes just compacts but im willin to help ou the best i can
I know the tubes work, i have grown successfully with them before.But they didnt give me a high yield at all.I have never used compacts before but they seem to be the way to go. Do they take a special fixture or will the work in an incandecent one?
compacts work in normal fixtures (my 105w fits in a normal socket) just dont overload a socket though...
no what I was trying to say is get 1 more fixture so you can have a combined wattage of 320 and what I meant by spectrum is floro's habe to spectrums red for flowering and blue for vegging im not really sure how it works but 3000K is the red spectrum and 6500K is the blue
consider picking up some cheap Cfls at walmart ($9 for 3 CFLs), usually they are 23W 2700Lumens (Blue-ish / White) they are usually dirt cheap, 4 uses 92W with a lumen output of 10800, thats not bad at all, although i don't suggest using more than 5 CFLs per socket, also if you want to set them up close i recommend using some Y-sockets, for flowering just pick up warm light fluros or Cfls, mix both spectrums gives awesome results
my first grow started with two 4' dual tube ballasts, cool white bulbs. then towards the end of vegging i installed three 100w cfl's-one on each plant. results were pretty good for my first grow. i'm using a 250w mh/hps conversion so i'll be able to see how much difference it makes, but yes it can be done with just two ballasts, but if you can afford it get more.
You might also consider switching to a different, "higher output" floro. T5 HO fluorescents put out notably more light than conventional shop lights, and look much the same (the tubes are skinnier, for one thing). I switched last Fall, and can really see the difference in my last two grows! Having come this far, however, I finally decided to plunk my money down for a 400w HPS light. Can't wait for it to get here! Whole new set of problems to deal with, though, particularly how to keep the heat down with fans, ducts, vents, and all that. Think about getting T5 HO fixtures, if you can't go with HPS or MH fixtures right now.
Im going to go with a couple 60w cfls. The T5 HO fixtures are a bit pricy i found a 400w HPS for less its $100.00+shipping.But its still a little too much $$ for me to throw around.Thanks