Wattage?

[CGNecrodice]

How many watts of flourescent lights would i need to grow 4 plants in about a 3 1/2 by 1 1/2 - 2 foot area?

 

[Stoney Bud]

How many watts of flourescent lights would i need to grow 4 plants in about a 3 1/2 by 1 1/2 - 2 foot area?

Two simple shop lights will do all you need for vegging. You have to get about a 250 to 400 watt HPS for your flowering. I just ordered another 400 for 135 bucks.

Here

 

[CGNecrodice]

Cant u have flourescent lights the whole time?
I can't afford the HPS lights.

 

[Mutt]

Yeah, you can. but you need at least 4 tubes or (4) 42 compact flouros for that area. If budget is a factor. Go to wal-mart and get one of those silver emergency blankets (no alum. foil) for a buck or two. Surround the area. You need to pack as many lumens as you can afford in the area with florous. No cardboard.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Cant u have fluorescent lights the whole time?
I can't afford the HPS lights.

Yes, fluorescent lights will work, but just not nearly as well as HPS. The THC production is improved dramatically when the light on the plant is as close to what the plant can use as possible.

The HPS lights provide an amount and type of light that is very close to the plants ability to use it. It's all a matter of maxing out the plants capabilities.

With the fluorescents, you're providing less than half of the light that the plant can use. There is no way to get enough fluorescents near a plant to maximize the THC.

My advice; Put your money aside until you can buy a HPS for flowering. The extra weed you get and the increased potency of all the weed you get will more than pay you back.....Hint Hint.

Call it an investment.

 

[Weeddog]

I agree with stoney, save your money and get an HPS to flower with. They are well worth the money.

 

[CGNecrodice]

Ya i think i might do that. Would this HPS light be good?
http://www.insidesun.com/index.php?action=item&id=747&prevaction=
It isn't too strong for a very small area with about 4 plants is it?

 

[Mutt]

I ended up with the 400 watt because I could get the MH conversion bulb pretty cheap with it at the same place, 400 would work better on 4 plants, but yeah it is a **** of a step up from florous go for it. Just need to watch the temps is all.

 

[El Diablo Verde]

If your plants start to flower before you can afford the HPS, mount a flour on every side and buy a good high wattage "Plant Gro" or "Grow Lamp" type bulb and a heavy duty clamp lamp(The 300w variety is only about $11 bucks at home depot and has a chrome reflector and ceramic socket). Hang the plant grow lamp about 1ft above the plants and move it regularly cause they can burn the plants(also, don't use until they are about 2-3 weeks old or the stems will grow too fast). Mount the flour on the sides near the plants cause they put off low heat. (28" plant and aquarium type are only $12 @ HD) Get the silver emergency blanket from walmart and but it on the wallas before you mount the flours. All in all, you can spend less than $100 and successfully grow, but won't reach maximum potancy until you get HID.

 

[El Diablo Verde]

Just so you know, the optimum wattage per sq ft is 80w. More than that is probably just wasting power. 30w is minimum and about 50 is ok.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Just so you know, the optimum wattage per sq ft is 80w. More than that is probably just wasting power. 30w is minimum and about 50 is ok.

Well, wattage is a way to get within reach of the light your plants need, but the light striking the surface of the plant is measured in lumens, Lux or foot-candles. Watts are what the light is capable of producing.

To quote the Weed-Meister himself, Ed Rosenthal, "Light requirements vary by variety. During the growth cycle, most varieties will do well with 1000-1500 lumens per square foot although the plants can use more lumens, up to 3000, efficiently. Equatorial varieties may develop long internodes (spaces on the stem between the leaves) when grown under less than bright conditions. During flowering, indica varieties can mature well on 2000 lumens. Equatorial varieties require 2500-5000 lumens. Indica-Sativa F1(first generation) hybrids usually do well on 2500-3000 lumens."

A light meter is necessary to tell how close you are to maximizing your light.

I gotta say it; If you're growing freakin White Widow, the stuff goes for $50 an eighth. Buy the meter. Buy the lights. Grow hydroponically. Ebb and Flow.

Go for it man. Don't half ass such a fantastic plant. There is nothing I don't know about Hydroponics man. If I can help you, I will. But you gotta get up off o dat wallet.

That's not really for you, El Diablo Verde, it's too everyone who wants to grow super weed. Max that puppy out.

 

[CGNecrodice]

alright thx guys

 

[El Diablo Verde]

That's not really for you, El Diablo Verde, it's too everyone who wants to grow super weed. Max that puppy out.

I was just saying if he can't afford the HID and hydroponics(which most first time growers can't), he can make the best of what he has. And I've got friends who have fully vegged and flowered plants under that exact set up faster than, but smaller, than the same breed on high watt HID. HID and great nutrients are def needed to make the best bud around. But this guy is probably growing in a closet and has to hide it from roommates and shit. Just giving him some advice other than "Have more money to spend than what you do". But while you can grow fast in that set up, he's more than right in saying you won't get great yields and, if good nutrients aren't used, the potency def won't be there.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Just giving him some advice other than "Have more money to spend than what you do".

I did give him some advice. Don't start something you can't do correctly. Don't half ass something. Don't do something unless you can afford to. Don't start something that you don't know what you're doing.

How's that for advice?

To encourage someone to half ass a project doesn't help them. I tell them how to do it right man. Anyone can stick a seed in a can under a ******* 60 watt light bulb and pour miricle grow on it.

You want to do it right, talk to me. You want to half ass something and grow like someone desperate for weed, talk to someone else. There is no shortage of half ass growers man. You can get advice to do it that way all day long.

I've probably been growing weed longer than most of the people in this forumn have been alive. Don't tell me how to teach someone. Bin dere, don dat!

How's that for advice?

 

[El Diablo Verde]

I think you feel as if I'm attacking your postion or something. Quite the opposite. If you read through my post, I repeatedly say the HID is required for full potency. BUT I don't agree with you that you shouldn't grow within your means. Not everybody can afford HPS. And while it is the optimum way to grow, it's not the only way. This guys sounds like college student and states he can't afford HPS right now so you say don't grow any until you can.And throwing a bag seed in a coffee can under a desk lamp is different than properly setting up a good flouros grow. I know from personal knowledge you can grow a good sized stash of pretty potent bud (And I'm a relentless NORML crusader and have traveled with my chapter for the past 4 years and spent a week in amsterdam, so believe you me, I've smoked some of the best stuff around) from seed to end if the ventilation and other factors are well balanced. To say its pointless to grow unless you have HPS is going a little too far. Although the buds won't be at their max potency, the experience gained by every generation of growth is all the more valuable to the next. No offense but he didn't come to Stoney Bud's forum asking for advice on how you grow your plants . He went to marijuana passion's forum and asked how to set up something until he can afford HPS. You make it seem as if you're offend by the fact that people can't afford to grow the same way you do. Gaining experience with light cycles, nutrients and leaching, ventilation and other factors could be gained while saving up for the HPS and by the time he gets the HPS, he might not have to bug you anymore for help. (That's my plan)
(Basically I just said you're mostly right and I'm sure you think I'm all wrong, but I hope you don't think I'm trying to be an ******* or something because you have been very helpful with your advice to me so far about my plants. Just a different viewpoint is all) later

 

[Stoney Bud]

Yeah, you're right man. I should be more patient with first timers. I hate to see a great plant grow under poor conditions. I once grew a plant under a 60 watt incandecent in a tiny little closet. It never made it to bud. I didn't know how then, and the internet didn't exist.

Sorry if I cracked on you. I kinda felt like you were crackin on me.

Peace man.

 

[CGNecrodice]

But this guy is probably growing in a closet and has to hide it from roommates and shit.

Ya diablo u got that about right... Im gonna start off with fluorescent lights for veg and then if i can afford it by flowering im gonna try to buy an hps. Hopefully i will be able to get it because i want the maximum potential for these few plants... but thx for the help diablo and stoney.

 

[El Diablo Verde]

Its totally cool man, I meant no disrespect cause I totally agree with you about the HPS. I just thought he could learn a lot while growing with flouros(it helped me) before he gets his HPS. If it sounded like I was cracking on you I didn't mean it that way. Later

 

[Mutt]

here was my first indoor set-up way back.

(2) 42 watt cool white compact florous and (2) soft white. (30 bucks)
(2) wire your own fixtures, (2) dual sockets, and (2) extention chords cut to make the fixtures wired (6-10 bucks at a hardware store)
(1) surge protector (4 bucks)
(1) emergency space blanket (1 dollar)
(10) bag seeds (free) picked em out of some bud.
(1) bag potting soil (3 dollars)
(1) desktop variable speed fan (4 bucks)
(2-200) cheapo various pots (free @ a large cemetary. The caretaker building will have hundreds that they clean up after the funerals sites after 1 week they ussually just dump in a big pile behind the building every shape and size, just don't rip them off from the grave sites that is wrong and illegal, they were great for outdoor growers like me.**** I knew some nurserys that would come and pick them up too. Cemetary owners loved it meant they didn't have to deal with it.)
fertlizer can't remember brand (6 bucks)
(1) little particle board cab. (3 bucks at a yard sale)
Water (free)
edit: oh yeah don't forget bungee chords and duct tape, they will come in handy you'll see.

Total: 50-60 bucks=1 female and 3/4 oz. of bud that was better than the bud where I got the seed from. Not spectacular. but taught me a ton on growing indoor. Let me know what to expect before I started growing 3-4 plants and smell, security. Now I am set up with a HID, next grow is going to be hydro. I reused the mylar, florous, fixtures, pots, and fan. Got to start somewhere.

Stoney is right on a good set-up=great bud. El Diablo is right that it can be done ok with florous. Just do what you can afford. The first time with everything perfect will still be sub-standard due to the massive learning kerf. Don't expect too much your first go at it.
I hope I helped.

 

[CGNecrodice]

Ya you definitaly did help.. But ya im not expecting much outa my first grow but i would like something out of it. Hopefully something good happens.