light question

first i must say thanks in advance for any more help i get. just by reading these forums the last couple days i have gotten so much help, thanks. i want to grow 4 - 6 plants in a 3'x3' box hydroponically. i want to go with florescent for safety reasons but I'm not sure what i need, I'm looking at a 42w compact florescent bulbs suggested in another thread but I'm not sure how many i need.

I have a similar sized tent and I used 23w CFLs and just built a chandelier type thing with 3 Y-splitters and four bulbs. I have a total of 14 CFLs for ten plants and a T5 for the clones. This is my 3rd grow using these lights and the plants seem to love it. As long as you have air moving over them, you can keep the bulbs within inches of the tops of the plants. I would use 6000k for vegging and 2700k for flowering. Good luck!

6500K is more ideal, and for fluroescents go with some t5s HO or t8s

so should i have 2 sets of bulbs like a cool white for veg and red spectrum for flowering or can i use a full spectrum light for the whole process?

u are way underpowered u only have 32.2 watts per plant u need like 3 times that
u would get higher yields if u stepped it up to at least double

JRyanGT said:

I have a similar sized tent and I used 23w CFLs and just built a chandelier type thing with 3 Y-splitters and four bulbs. I have a total of 14 CFLs for ten plants and a T5 for the clones. This is my 3rd grow using these lights and the plants seem to love it. As long as you have air moving over them, you can keep the bulbs within inches of the tops of the plants. I would use 6000k for vegging and 2700k for flowering. Good luck!

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i'm looking at 3 2' sunblaster ho fluroescent units, specs here --> T5 24 watt Miniature Bi-Pin (G5) Initial Lumens ≥ 2100LM Mean Lumens ≥ 2000LM Voltage 120 V Rated Life ≥ 10,000 hours Nominal Length 565mm Color Temp (Kelvin) 6400K CRI ≥ 80 Mercury (Hg) content ≤ 3.0 mg and i'm gonna put in 4-6 42w compact fluroescents.the sunblasters should give off 6000 lm total of full spectrum light if i figured right.

fabfun said:

u are way underpowered u only have 32.2 watts per plant u need like 3 times that
u would get higher yields if u stepped it up to at least double

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The cfls are just for vegging. The ladies get spoiled with a 1000w HPS for flowering. Thanks for the input though! Any feedback is always appreciated.

@longbomb that sounds like it should be fine. Like fabfun said, more light will give a higher yeild and denser buds.

fabfun said:

u are way underpowered u only have 32.2 watts per plant u need like 3 times that
u would get higher yields if u stepped it up to at least double

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The cfls are just for vegging. The ladies get spoiled with a 1000w HPS for flowering. Thanks for the input though! Any feedback is always appreciated.

@longbomb that sounds like it should be fine. Like fabfun said, more light will give a higher yeild and denser buds.

thanks guys, i just wanna make sure i get the best light i can in the fluroescent. now i gotta get clones, we'll see how that works out lol

At least one per square foot, for a total of 9. That's bare minimum, so keep that in mind. More is always better, when it comes to flouros.

Is that for the compact fluorescent or the 2' t5 ho I'm getting

I plan on packing that box full of light!

longbomb said:

Is that for the compact fluorescent or the 2' t5 ho I'm getting

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I was referring to the 42 watt CFLs. You have 9 square feet to cover, at 3000 lumens per square foot, minimum. That's 27,000, so shoot for 30,000+ lumens, spread it out evenly, and keep as close to your plants, as possible. Whichever light you choose,...the more you add, the better you will do,(proportionately) yield-wise.

consider T5's. If they fit your situation, they will be better than the cfl's. I personally alternate 3k and 6.5k bulbs, but if you go with all 1 kelvin, go with 6.5k.

Ok I'm gonna get another t5 instead of cfl's, it's not that much of a price difference so why cheap out right. Thanks allot guys!

Gobbly, the 6.5 covers the full light spectrum right?

longbomb said:

Gobbly, the 6.5 covers the full light spectrum right?

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Yes,(for arguement's sake) but it's biased towards the blue end of the spectrum. 3000K is towards the red end, and is argueably the best choice for flowering. Both, is even better.

Thanks, just wanted to make sure I understood it correctly