Growing with flourecents

juiceBUD · Newbie Joined: Jul 12, 2008 Posts: 5 Location: New Zealand

Hi, Im a new grower/electrician and Iv got a few Qs about using flourescent lights for growing. The new domestic flourescents use 22W and produce as much light as a 120w incandescent. Will 4 or 5 of these work on a plant throuhgout the growth stages? Also if the colour of the light is wrong, I was thinking of using flourescent tubes, which come in a small range of colours. Can someone please shed some LIGHT on my theory!!!!

Dakta_grower · Heavy User Joined: May 16, 2008 Posts: 116 Location: N.Z.

Gro-lux tudes are the only fluro's suitable for growth. To get serious growth though you need to use H.I.D. lights with 400w being the minimum. Plants require more blue light (I think) for veg and more orange for flowering, thats put simply. There are two bulbs available for this.

Baked · Enthusiast Joined: Oct 24, 2006 Posts: 78 Location: NZ

yeah mate those compact fluros will work (you can get some really big ones from mitre 10- 105watts for about $30) not as good as as hid but they still work

juiceBUD · Newbie Joined: Jul 12, 2008 Posts: 5 Location: New Zealand

Cheers guys

just bought an HPS lol decided if I was going to do it, might aswell do it properly!! I now have access to a 400w MH, are they better for vegetative growth?

bigtoker · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:29 pm

LOL, I may be wrong here but I'm pretty sure you can't use HID bulbs to grow plants, they put out the wrong spectrum of light my advise is stick to HPS and MH bulbs... you can grow a plant from seed to flower under HPS but some people tend to use the HPS bulbs for seed and veg and use the MH bulb for flower... I'm think using the MH bulb just quickens the flowering stage.
I have also sceen those UV fluro lights used for growing and seemed to work fine for the seedling stagebut as the plant went into veg it died, maby a few normal fluros with a couple of the UV throwen in would work ok... who knows it's trial and error.
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fatty · Chronic Pothead Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 406

Boris · Regular Joined: Jun 23, 2008 Posts: 31 Location: Rodney

HPS seems to be way more popular for flowering, but there are MH warm deluxe bulbs that are fine for flowering too. I can remember high times doing a trial comparing MH to HPS, and for all that they put out different spectrums etc - the results were the same for both setups. I use hps nowadays, but kinda wish I hadn't sold my mh light. It was a lot cooler, so could be placed a lot closer to the plants. (Light intensity drops off rapidly after the first 30cm or so from the bulb).

Baccy · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:30 pm

or get a lucagrow for both

whateva · Newbie Joined: Aug 18, 2008 Posts: 16 Location: nz

Fluros are ok in the very early stages, but they will soon get to tall for them to be effective as the intensity of light from fluros decreases rapidly the more distant they are from the bulbs.

roach76 · Newbie Joined: Jan 21, 2007 Posts: 5 Location: NZ

For a mini or stealth grow flouros rock. I use 6x 20 watt Phillips bulbs. Cool white (6400K) for veg and warm (2700k) for flowering. I grow in a confined space using computer fans for airation, and get just over 2 oz’s off a plant not even half a metre high using a scrog type screen to get multiple tips (14-18 2 inch heads). The key I reckon is the confined space and heaps of reflection. Keeps top of plant no more than 4-6 inches from lights and drop the plant as it grows.


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