Lighting on $70

[Disco94]

First grow here for a college guy - hence no money! I have only $70 to spend on lighting for 4 plants. I have limited space with 8 X 3 X 6. Now I am in a small college town which lacks a hydroponics store or a legit nursery. My only plan of attack is Home Depot. I looked at their lights when I picked up the soil, pots, meters, etc... They have mainly flourescent lights, so my question is what size (feet), Wattage, and bulbs should I buy for this room with the money I have? And can someone tell me if I need to buy a ballast for flourescent and/or HPS lights or do already have them attached?

Thanks guys/gals

 

[headband]

seach around on ebay for some used smaller wattage hps, 250-400. Make sure its not just the hood but the hole thing, ballast, bulb, hood. Bulbs cost around $50 so make sure it has one. If you just can find the right priced hps, floros the only other way. Buy some sockets and plugs and make up your own fixture's at the cord length you need, buy the spiral 23 watt bulbs, i would get at least 10 in there. i dont know what the L's you need in there someone help him out. just remember that there will be a huge difference in quality, hps(+) vs. floro(-)

 

[JeSus]

Yeah ebay is the way to go.

 

[lax4wm]

I don't think it will be an AMAZING grow...but I suggest using floro's through and through... I am a college kid too and had to have financiers to get my lighting. As such I spent A LOT of time on e-bay and amazon...I highly doubt you will find even a 250 watt hps under 100 dollars. I suggest getting 1 bag of Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, a fan, as many of those 23 watt spiral CFL's that you can...and seriously as many as you can because they don't output much. Make sure the light's Color Temperature is between 4100K and 5000K....this is near the middle of the spectrum slightly on the orange/red side which is used for flowering, this will ensure that you provide the proper color spectrums for all stages of growth. Look here Growing Resources
Read under LST doing this and keeping the plants flat will allow the lights to hit the most surface area in for your low budget lighting. Efficiency is key!

Good luck!

 

[akirahz]

go to www.e-conolight.com and make your way to the flood land area section -- they have metal halides and HPS flood lights for cheap there you can order and then gutt if you wish (taking bulb, ballast, out of the fixture.. etc)
http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HC1H151Z

use this light and buy this one when you can and use them together during veg and flower (mixed spectrum of hps and metal halide)

http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HC1M071Z

total should be around 80-90, youd have over 20,000 lumens and both spectrums for some real nice buds and some real nice vegging.

 

[Mutt]

Home Depot
can get 50W HPS for 30-40 bucks
70W for 70bucks

 

[pussum]

I wired up two light fixtures with wiring, bulbs, and suspension chains for around seventy dollars with stuff from lowes home improvement. The light bulbs were what cost the most.

 

[Disco94]

Thanks everybody. I spent $60 (saved some money for a Big Cheese from Mac D's!) and got a tarp to keep light out, weather stripping, Ten 4 foot 40w flourescent lights, and ten bulbs. I am gonna have to use those links after this grow when I can get more dolla bills.

 

[I'ma Joker Midnight Toker]

Thanks everybody. I spent $60 (saved some money for a Big Cheese from Mac D's!) and got a tarp to keep light out, weather stripping, Ten 4 foot 40w flourescent lights, and ten bulbs. I am gonna have to use those links after this grow when I can get more dolla bills.

Hey Disco,
:holysheep: Check out HTG Supply, their prices are the best and they are on ebay as well. I just bought 3 lights from them after checking prices everywhere for 2 weeks. Good luck with your grow and here's some MOJO to help it along...

www.htgsupply.com

 

[Dubbaman]

youll be :aok: with them flos man shell growim still using my flos that i got from home depot i use the g.e. daylight bulbs in them they are the 6500K 3050 lumen 40W bulbs with 3 double bulb ballasts im putting 19000 lumen into a 1x4x7 which calls for roughly 20000 lumen but its close and at the time of building it was cost effective. you said you got 10 ballasts were they single or was it 5 doubles either way its 400W, so the real question is what bulbs did you get? how much lumen are they running and what is the color spectrum on them ? good luck wiht the grow man everything sounds to be in order so far for a flo grow MOJO for the Flo Grow

 

[Disco94]

They are 5 doubles outputting a total of 16000 lumens in a 8x3x6 room. I am using T12 bulbs (Color Temp. is 4100k per ballast). And the bulbs have a Color Rendering Index of 70 <-- What is the C-R-I and what does it mean to our type of folk?

 

[Dubbaman]

CRI stands for color rating index its a rating system used for how much light the bulb puts off some rate higer than others e.g. the g.e. brand has a cri of 83 if i remeber the charts right, the big thing to remember when growing MJ is that you need between 3000 & 5000 lumen per square foot. your area of 8x3 is 24sqft and calls for a minimum 72000 lumen IMO id scale it back if your trying to only grow a few plants and with the lumen output you have id try for a 1x3 or 1x4 area which would call for 9000 and 12000 lumen on the low ends and 15000 to 20000 on the high ends. a general rule is 5000 lumen per sqft.

 

[Disco94]

The area I am growing in is only about half of that, the other parts are now covered by Mylar and my supplies are outside of that.

 

[Chubakkaz]

CFL's on ebay, you can buy 10,000 cool lumens for 30 bucks, then get the sockets and crap for 10 bucks at a store, that's what I did, I run on 15,000 lumens for 4 plants in my closet

 

[jdmnismo300]

CFL's on ebay, you can buy 10,000 cool lumens for 30 bucks, then get the sockets and crap for 10 bucks at a store, that's what I did, I run on 15,000 lumens for 4 plants in my closet

what cfls??? links????

 

[thc is good for me]

I bought a 400 watt 55,000 lumen HPS on ebay it was 149.99 with shipping. That is more money than you may have but like another comment find a buddy of yours thats got duckets and like chronic.

In the long run you will be happy you bought this light. Heres the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/400-watt-HPS-GR...ryZ42225QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Chubakkaz]

what cfls??? links????

here you go

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-BLOOM-3-GROW-...4805128QQihZ015QQcategoryZ42225QQcmdZViewItem

thats what I got. and tbh, it does the job very well, I have 4 LST that are doing great.