Okay, so this is confusing me. I see people saying you need a certain watt per plant, but if a plant relies on the Kelvin scale why would watts matter. I am looking to get a CFL it is 64 watts and 6500K. Also a MH it is 100 watts 10,000 Lumens and 2700K. How many plants could I grow under just these two lights?
Anyways. Anyone who wants to offer real help. Thanks in advanced. Ps: this is called "absolute beginner" for a reason.
I'm a little rusty on the Kelvin scale. But, if you're going with CFLs Look for the daylight spectrum. Best types of light are MH (veg) and Hps (flowering). As far as using watts per plant, that's just an easier way to talk about it and understand it. For good bud to be produced you need at least 30 watts per square foot but is better up to around 60 watts per square foot (62wpsf for 1000w in a 4'x4'). So, if you have a 64w cfl and 100w Mh I would try to keep your grow area no larger than 2'x2' giving you around 41w per square foot.
Cfls usually comes 4 kelvin scale colors 2000 2700 5000 and 6500. Your going to findmost places carry 2700(red/orange/autumn) and 6500(blue/summer). For veg people suggest going 6500, and for flower 2700. Now for watts a lot of cfls will say equivalent to 100 watts which in truth means like 23 ACTUAL watts (always look at actual watts) for 1 plant typical rule of thumb is 100 actual watts of cfl and another 50w for each additional plant. The only downside is without using any lst, topping, scroging, your probably lucky to pull a half o.
Thank you very much that helped a lot. So I should look into 12/12 after about 7 weeks after the seed sprouts or wait 8 weeks?
Flowering all depends on you some people start 12/12 from seeds others veg for months remember your plants will double or triple in size
If your plant in non-auto you will need at least 4 weeks of veg and then you can force your plant to show its preflowers by switching your light from 18/6 20/4 to 12/12. Or you can wait till your plant to show its own preflowers and then switch to 12/12. Waiting 7-8 weeks is fine but remember a plant will grow 30-40% larger in flowering.