I've heard people say you need 6 CFLs per plant. Does this mean I need 6 for vegging and 6 for flowering?
Of course I'm sure that depends on the wattage, biggest one they have at my Wal-Mart is 42w, second is 26w.
But my Wal-Mart only has the 42's in one type of Kelvin, is this really important to the budding/vegg process? Could I get away with just using one type of Kelvin?
And yeah, in your opinion how many plants could you do OK with a 120w HPS light, I'm guessing 1 - 2 plants right?
6cfl's per plant is a generalization. It really comes down to a very simple formula.
More light = more weed.
The 6 cfl generalization is a figure used for flowering the plant- a plant can be vegged under a lot less light than flowering. 6 CFL's is basically a minimum for flowering any decent sized plant.
As far as the kelvin rating- a higher kelvin rating is ideal for vegetative growth, as the plants require more blue spectrum during this time. This does not mean that you cannot grow without blue cfl's. The orange ones (2700k-3000k) will work just fine for vegging, and theyll work best for flowering. Flowering is what is most important. If you can only have ideal conditions for either veg or flower, and not both, set your room up for flowering. Vegging is the easiest part of growing pot, and ideal conditions for flowering will have a greater effect than ideal veg conditions (throughout the grow that is). But in a nutshell- yes, you can use only one specrum.
I was not aware that they made 120w HPS's. I am currently using two 150w HPS's for flowering, and 1 250w metal halide for veg. Ive seen people put as many as 5 plants under one 150w HPS, but my flower room only seats 5, and ive got double that light. I'd say 5 is about the max for one 150w light, but 2-3 would be more ideal. Ill say it once more- Mo' light, Mo' weed!