Hey. You guys recommended the iPower light so I’m going to grab that in HPS and MH for the vegetative and flowering stages. Do you have a particular Flourescent lighting setup you like to use for seedlings? Or any will do so long as it’s high enough wattage? Thank you!
Yup anything as long as it is enough lumens/PAR. It also depends on how fast you want the seedlings to grow, low wattage/lumens/PAR but at very close range near the top of the plant works fine for most people that don’t want them to grow too fast before being transferred to the big girls room to be aggressively vegged and/or then flowered.
Check out T5 fluorescent grow lights they are designed specifically for seedlings and clones, and if you look around on Ebay and or Amazon you will find a good deal!! You will be surprised how bright they are and put out next to no heat, well worth checking out!
Happy growing, Brendan.
I was surprised at how bright my new 2 foot 4 tube T5 was.
I’m getting pretty excited now. You guys are going to help me (and I’m so appreciative) and one day I will teach as many who want to learn. Of course all I have to do is give them the grow bible lol! I’m kidding. I will have gained much info from the growing itself and you guys and etc. Thank you very much. It’s tough to have to go as slow as my budget will allow. But every paycheck I get a little closer to grow time! Thank you!
What kind of wattage for this fluourescent light for seedlings? 200 watt? I’m probably only going to use two of my seeds to start but may grow 3-6 plants at one time. Sorry I feel like I should know this.
Don’t woory about the wattage. Buy a T5
Get a 5000k to 6500K color rating on the fluorescent bulbs. Don’t worry about watts with fluorescent as much as lumens. You need the minimum for seedlings and clones, they require about 400 - 1000 lumens per square foot. Vegetative growth requires about a minimum of 2,000 to 3,000 lumens per square foot. High output T5’s for plants put out more lumens per watt than most other CFLs. For example a 40 - 45 watt CFL puts out about 2000 lumens and a 2 ft’ T5 24 watt puts out 2000 lumens, about the same amount of light for about half the electricity used.
So…The Moral of the story is. you can have “SOLID” 2’x2’ coverage with a 2’ T5, as opposed to one bulb over a plant. And just for Re: I used 45 cfls for clones, and such and had good results; However, I had to use many. Wish I had bought the T5, when I was at your stage. Peace