Grow Lights?
 

Anybody have any experience with grow lights. I will be starting my garden from seed this year and I need a indoor grow light. Are the fluorescents good or should you go with the higher output metal halide or equivalent?


NOOB

Re: Grow Lights?
 

Flourescent lights are best for seedlings and cuttings if you keep the light near (but not touching) the tops of the plants. The best flourescent lamps are the ones that give light with a color similar to sunlight. Metal Halide lights are best for vegatative growth. High Pressure Sodium lights are best for flowering. Good Luck!

Re: Grow Lights?
 

Thanks KH. Any setup better than others. Full spectrum light bulbs? Best place to purchase? I have been googling but first hand info is always the best.


NOOB

Re: Grow Lights?
 

I have a ballast that will accapt BOTH metal halide and High Pressure sodium. It was a little more expensive but you never know when you might need/want to switch out bulbs. There is also a bulb that incorporates both of those, kind of the best of both worlds. Do keep in mind that it will cost you in electricity to run such a bulb.

Re: Grow Lights?
 

you can grow through vegetative stages and flowering stages with just a HPS if you want. I get the impression you are going to get your seedlings started under lights then outdoors when the time is right?

go with a Metal halide or a HPS would also do equally as well. HPS is more for flowering but is quite ok for the whole of a grow. For Fluros' you will need a lot of them for the intensity. and you may need to add some heat as the fluro's give off some but not a lot. Fluros can go right up close to the plant because of low heat... and they need to really for the intensity.

HPS or MH will burn the plants up too close but the intensity will make those babies reach hard and fast. To get the distance of lamp to plant use the back of your hand under the lights... if its too hot on the back of your hand its too close.

Dual lamp ballasts like Streets of Gold's are a pretty good idea... if you decide you want to do an indoor grow during the off season you have the flexibility.

to get LOTS of information about equipment you might find it worthwhile visiting one of those web sites that them free thinking cali people might visit....if you can handle it :wink:

Re: Grow Lights?
 

I am a free thinker but this is to start my seedlings off for my backyard garden. I will have four 72 space trays with heaters and domes.

The heat should be covered then so fluorescents sound like a good idea.


NOOB

Re: Grow Lights?
 

yep domes and heat pads with fluro's should do the trick. If you are keen enough you can buy the "parts" that go into a fluro fiting and mount it all yourself. globes, tombstones, suitable wiring, ballasts.

Some advanced techniques include getting a fluro ballast that is capable of running say 4 fluros but wiring it up in a way that it ran only 2 x fluros where each single fluro was wired to 2 of the outputs on the ballast. Kind of like doubling the power into a each lamp. So if the ballast was 4 x 32watt, you could run 2 lamps with 2x32watt each or 70+watt per globe. The fluro globes are capable of out putting much more light than they do. Lamp life is a little affected, you also get about 90% increase in light power not exact doubling.

T8's are apparently pretty good for this kind of thing. T5's as well i think though they are more expensive globes. Fluro Overdrive are the key words.

Re: Grow Lights?
 

Re: Grow Lights?
 

Man caught growing his own food in his house, sent to prison for 40 years.

~~ Ministry of Truth.

Re: Grow Lights?
 

You are a noob....

Get some skills.....

Re: Grow Lights?
 

if you are looking to grow your plants full term indoors then you want to pony up the cash and get 400w-600w-or 1000w mh or hps light. doing this will also require an exhaust system to remove heat.

if you are just looking to start a bunch of veggie seeds to take outdoor after last frost? I'd buy 4ft floro light setups that are cheap at home depot/lowes/walmart. Load em up with 40 w cool whites. I use a 2'x4' shelving system that has 4 layer. each shelf holds 3 double bulb hoods. it is cheap, easy and very effect for starts.

Re: Grow Lights?
 

Re: Grow Lights?
 

I have been looking at the floro's. 40 watt cool white? Regular light you can buy at hd or lowes or is that a "grow" light. Will regular lights work just fine?

Grow lights are expensive at least for the little bit of internet research I have done.


NOOB

Re: Grow Lights?
 

forget cool white, get the ones that say "daylight"

Re: Grow Lights?
 

daylight tubes will work. I've been using cool whites for many years with stellar results. they run cool and are cheap. also the color is not obnoxious to be around. the warm white color bugs me out.