hey ya'll whats goood! ight so we've been procrasting your grow, im really nervous! im scared ima skrew something up or forget something. idk so ima ask alot of questions. i wanted to buy seeds/ lights this weekend. at least one or the other for sure. as of lights, i wanna veg on fluorescent. and bud on hps . for my fluorescent i wanted (1) T5 - 2 tube 4ft fixture. i plan on doing roughly 5 plants. - heres my question. is that enough light? should i get a 4 tube. or (2) 2tube 4ft? or get a few compact high wattage fluorescents? any feed back please! oh and i was ordering from htg supply. let me know if that is a good source or if else were is better. thanks
welcome to the City, Fuck the florescents, If you want to flower with HPS get a convertible system HPS and MH. vedge with MH and switch the bulb for flowering. A dimmable ballast is what you should get. 1 fixture and 2 bulbs can do it all and do it much better. mj
Marv makes a good point. But.... I vegged my girls under cfl's and got great results. I opted for the affordable cfl's. the big ones that are 150 watt equivalent but only use 60 watts power. That and they run very cool. I paid 10 bucks each at batteries plus for them. Then buy a cheap dome reflector for them at lowes. Having a powerful hid light running 24/7 sucks up some juice! Well I just did some math and I had almost 200 watts going anyway and I ended up buying a 600 watt dimmable system. So I could have vegged using it set to 300. I'm a novice though and haven't witnessed myself what the difference would be using a high pressure sodium vs the cfl's. But for 200 bucks from amazon will get you both his bulbs, a hood and a dimmable ballast and it for sure is tried and true. And you will want the metal halide bulb for flower. So maybe just do what Marv says
I actually vegged five plants under a two-foot, four bulb fixture this current grow. The lights were enough for the five for veg but i felt like it wouldn't be enough for flower, so I invested in an a 400w HPS/MH kit. If you're worried about cost of fans, hood, ballast, etc. then I understand not wanting to go for the HID setup, but, having spent the $120 on a t5 then going back to buy an HPS I can tell you it is a bit of a pain. t5s are awesome and fully work, get it if you want. HPS will be better for you if you plan on continuing to grow though. Better yield with denser buds. I'm happy I have my t5 because I can use it for clones or seedlings and I know it'll do wonders, but my grow was definitely incomplete prior to getting an HID setup.
Yeah what he said. If you veg with cfl get the cheap ones. I wouldn't spend a hundred bucks on a t5 setup cause you need more light at flower. Either get the complete hid kit or get the cheap cfl's and a hid bulb for flower. I'm also now using my cfl's for the babies. So either way cfl of some sort is handy to have around.
Using high wattage CFLs and a good strain will produce great buds. Period. You must keep the lights close of course but that's it. Cheap, easy, no heat issues, etc, etc. do not fear the fluorescent bulbs!
well to start i think a 4 count 4 ft cfl will b ok. but i now i wanna try on a second grow MH for veg. but hps for flowering for sure. i'll make sure to buy a hps set up that can hold MH as well. thanks for all the advise i've learned soo much! let me know if this is ok for seeds/clones and veging the 4ft 4 bulb Hydrofarm FLP44UN 4FT 4 Lamp T5 Fluorescent Grow Light - Plantlighting Hydroponics and a light stand Hydrofarm JSV4 Jump Start 4FT T5 Grow Light Kit - Plantlighting Hydroponics i no theres prolly a diy for the stand but 60 bucks for something i wont sweat on a first grows ok with me. but i do plan on making something similar out of pvc to hold the hps set up. .. i hope. but i want it taller so i can hoist up the lighting system. thoughts?
i have one other question... well for the time being. can someone give me a dumb downe explanation ofa ballast? and i know im wrong but what i think it is, is a converter you plug the cfl to the ballast and then your able to connect it to a 120v plug? and it also dont something with current? can some one please set me straight? reason im asking is becuase the cfl light i want just comes with the 4 tube spots. so i know i need to buy a few things with it. and i keep reading/ hearing of ballast. soo thanks ps if i repeated kinda baked
CFLs are self ballasted. The t5 fixtures should also be self contained and don't require an external ballast. They should plug straight into a standard socket with a ground. Only HID lights need external ballasts.
Dude, If you spend $220 on two t5s you'll be disappointed. With that kind of cash you could get a nice 400w or 600w HID setup and a ~200CFM fan. Each four foot t5 bulb puts out about 5000 lumen. That means with two fixtures you're getting 40,000 lumen. A 400w HPS puts out about 50,000 lumen. Why spend more money on less light? If you're going to spend real money, get real equipment. You'll be happier in the long run. AZ
I agree with the last guy, except some of his numbers My T5 2ft-4bulb puts out 8,000 lumens. Where as a 400 watt mh puts out 24,000 lumens. 50,000 is hps bulb. You're going to be much happier with a 400 watt mh then the T5 if you have the space. And on the topic of CFL, you go by how many actual watts, not the equivalent. So a 50watt is really just 50 watts, not 150. @OP, are you planning on a perpetual grow or just one run of plants at a time? Edit: To the guy above, read your numbers again, I get what you're sayin. Talkin about 4ft bulbs.
"Initial Lumen Output: 20,000" off of the OP's info page on his desired t5. Hydrofarm FLP44UN 4FT 4 Lamp T5 Fluorescent Grow Light - Plantlighting Hydroponics Why not just get a MH/HPS conversion kit...? Instead of needing two fixtures you spend $15 on a nice MH bulb and another $15 on a nice HPS bulb and $140 on a HID kit conversion kit with hood. The HID lights are more efficient and will be better suited for a single run grow. AZ