ok, so im going to do a soil grow indoors, something similar to this: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-jour...ml#post1833239 i had a question about lighting, since i heard many different things as to what was best, so i wanted a wider range of opinions. I plan to use both fluorescent and cfls, as shown at the lin k above. what i was really confused about was the "red" and "blue" fluorescent lights, as i was told by someone wh ogave me advise. i looked at some lights and none of them are actually red OR blue, so is it just a way to describe the types of lights? and given the environment i have what would be the best combo? i understand blue is for veg ing and red for flowering (correct me if i got it mixed up, cuz i may have) but i cant seem to distingusih between the two wen i buy them... please help, thanks in advance.
Yea your right, blue spectrum for veg, red for flower. Cool whites and daylight CFLs/floros are blue spectrum, I'm 100% on the exact cutoff, but anything over 4100K color temp. is blue. (cool white being 4100k and daylights being 6500k.). Red spectrum is like around 3500-3000K. These are your warm/soft whites. I use 42w warm whites, they are 2700K color temp. Just make sure you dont confuse lumens and color temp.. Floros should say both on the package, CFLs will usually say daylight and occasionally the others. I got mine from walmart. If it says nothing its most likely warm white. Im not sure about the proper combo, I actually just bought a 48" hood for 2 tubes. I bought a 5000k and 3000k, however, I think Im gonna get another (4100k) and use it for both flower and veg. good luck
oh i see, thanks for ur reply. i was wondering also if u cud gimme sum tips on choosing the right soil. ppl have recomended me fox farm ocean forest and etc for the soils, but unfortunately i dont live in the States right now and it seems they do not sell them here where i live. when buying soil is there any kind of specs (numbers, letters etc) that i may find in the bak of the bags so i can find a suitable soil for my grow without a exact brand name? thanks agian.
Buy yourself a form of Pro-Mix. It is just a good base to start off with as it has no added crap like Miracle Grow or some brand like that. Pro-Mix comes pre mixed with perlite and some brands have vermiculite. I use Pro-Mix and mix in my own compost which gives my plants enough food for the entire veg stage. At flower I have to start adding some flowering nutes as most of my soil at that point is used up by the plant. Before I used compost I used to use just straight Pro-Mix and use water soluable ferts like Botanicare's Pure Blend Pro line of nutes. I had great results using this method and would recomend it to someone who is just starting out. Pro-Mix is great for seedlings because there is absolutely no food that will burn your little girls before they even have a chance. So many ppl run into that problem because they go out and by Miracle Grow with time release food in it. The little seedlings all ready store enough nutrients in their shell to supply their food needs for the first couple of weeks of growing. Pro-Mix, or something similar like Farford mix, is usually at any nursery or any other store that sell gardening supplies! Hope this helps and good luck man! Peace and Pot
hey, thanks for the advise. ima go ahead and look into the pro-mix soils... oh and about the pro-mix, what is the nutrient balance specs (the numbers)? like the one sthat go (2-2-4) or something like that, because im not a 100% sure i can find pro-mix because i live out of the US and it may not be sold world wide, and in that case what kind of numbers (specs) would you recommend so i can have something similar, maybe a diff brand name? thanks again dude.