Minimum amount of lighting??

[paul500]

Hey guys, i have three, 4 day old baby marijuana plants which are all about an inch or so tall. There outside through the day but at the moment there only getting about 13/11 as im in Australia. I know this isnt enough for them to grow too well so i want to bring them in during the night and stick them under some lights for another few hours. Hopefully they will think there getting 18/6 then.

Whats the minimum amount of wattage i can give these plants to survive. I don't want to buy anythink too big and i dont think i'll be able to get a HPS. I just want enough lighting so they will survive.

Thanx .


P.s i didnt know which section to post this in, outdoor/indoor as its kinda both.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

I think this post is in the right section, since it is regarding indoor lighting, is it not?

Since your plants aren't that old (4 days), they would be happy with a single or a couple of simple 15 watter compact flouro's for the time being. That would have to be the minimum for what you got now. You could probably get away with using a single 15 watter, but I'd personally go with a few 27 watters or a 42 watt bulb.

I think any amount of light will basically keep your plants in vegetative mode, so you should be alright with a respectable amount of light.

Happy growing in the australian sunshine! I've seen some massive plants in magazines that were grown over there.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Oh and one more thing, keep your lights as close as you can so that way when their indoors, they don't stretch too much.

 

[paul500]

I think this post is in the right section, since it is regarding indoor lighting, is it not?

Since your plants aren't that old (4 days), they would be happy with a single or a couple of simple 15 watter compact flouro's for the time being. That would have to be the minimum for what you got now. You could probably get away with using a single 15 watter, but I'd personally go with a few 27 watters or a 42 watt bulb.

I think any amount of light will basically keep your plants in vegetative mode, so you should be alright with a respectable amount of light.

Happy growing in the australian sunshine! I've seen some massive plants in magazines that were grown over there.

Kk thanx for the reply so quick . When the sun goes down i put them under 2 standard 60w light bulbs that are about 3-5 inches away from them surrounded by some aliminium foil. This should work till i get some cfl's.

Will 2 36watt cfl's work for the whole veg period??

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Incandesant type bulbs are what you are using now? I don't think that they will grow all that much under those lights because of the totally wrong spectrum. Generally, people try to avoid using those lights but I have seen some seedlings grown a little bit under them.

For the whole vegging period... I'd say you would have longer internodes and more stretching and slower growth if you just used 2x 36 watt bulbs for 3 plants for the whole vegging stage. Just my opnion.

How many watts max are you thinking of using? If you're going out to buy some bulbs, look for the highest cfl you can get and then get some reflectors for the lights. It will make a big difference having relectors shine the light directly onto your plants instead of lighting up the rest of the room.

 

[paul500]

Yes at the moment im using 2 of them bulbs. Thats all we had lying around. How much cfl lighting do you recommend. The grow space i will be using is 5ft by 2ft. What would work??

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Well, if you can, I'd get 4 or 5 42 watters or 3 42 waters with a couple of lower wattages to get the sides and whatnot.
Oh and mylar would benefit your plants while they're inside, too. I've heard good things about white paint as well. Either or.
Watch the temps too, those bulbs can get a little toasty and can cause heat stress on certain portions of your plant where the lights are too close. Usually a little computer fan is all you need to keep them cool. But I normally just keep the lights right at a certain line where it's just close enough and just far enough not to burn the plants.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Oh yea, I gave you the amount of light you needed for 3 big plants. How large will they be will they won't need the closet anymore? If you aren't going to keep doing that, then you should only need 2-3 42 (or slightly less) watters for your babies. They should get to be a decent size using this amount of light but might even need more as they get bigger...hopefully I'm of some help and not giving you bad information, wouldn't that suck! .

Anyways, I gotta get some rest. Happy growing!

 

[noneedforalarm]

you want at the least 3k lumens per sq foot.so with that said i would take your 7 sq ft and tone it down for the little seedlings(make less sq ft) unless you plan on making a veg room out of your 7x2 closet.but for the right job i would recommend 35k lumens for the whole closet.thats 5k per sq ft which is best for good growth.

 

[Hick]

Whoa, whoa, whoa ......."5x2"=10 sq ft. ....
35,000 lumens (3,500 p. sq/ft) will be .'sufficient', for now, but but not quite optimal.

The grow space i will be using is 5ft by 2ft. What would work??

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Incandescent light are virtually useless--you are really just wasting electricity. Light is calculated as lumens per sq ft. Hick is right on. Also, get rid of the foil. It is a poor reflector of light. Paint it flat white or put up mylar or Panda film. Tin foil is for hats and cooking

 

[paul500]

Hey guys, i just checked out on my plants earlier and they were fine and i checked again an hour later and 1 of them has fallen over. I think the stem cant hold it up. The other 2 are still fine, but this 1 hasnt fully opened at the top, the leaves are like kinda stuck together. I had to push the soil up against it to hold it up. But i think it might die. Should it have opened by now like the other 2?? That might be why it has fallen over.

Any help ?? Thanx .

 

[noneedforalarm]

Whoa, whoa, whoa ......."5x2"=10 sq ft. ....
35,000 lumens (3,500 p. sq/ft) will be .'sufficient', for now, but but not quite optimal.

WHOA is right,my bad for i horribly wrote that out wrong,hahahahaha.man for real,ive been smoking to much running through the mill last night.FORGIVE ME
in reality it would have worked for him,but bad information i know.trying to avoid that,i really dont know how that one got past me.thanks for the CLEAN UP hick

 

[paul500]

Hey guys, can you tell me which is better. The spiral plug in cfl or the long tube cfl's. Cause i can either get two 38w cfl tubes, or maybee two 42w spiral plug in cfl's. Which will work better thanx .