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lighting Grow lights!

J

Jelder1276

So im new to indoor growing! I have my grow box and what not. Now here's the question. How many watts should I be pushing? Is there a watt to plant ratio? Any other certain forms of light I need? Right now I just have a 65 watt grow light. Cheers!
 
It's the color temp and lumens you want.  To make it easy look for Daylight lights(for best results).  I used CFLs at 800 and 1450 lumens at about 6500K.  There are guys on here who can explain which temperature is better for what stage of growing, but I used the above with good results for my seedlings.
 
I would start by reading through http://thehotpepper.com/topic/25876-article-light-101/ it has a ton of great info and will help you get started. 
 
But without knowing the size of your growbox, a single CFL light will likely be insufficient for your grow and you may need to supplement.  I am not sure how many plants you are growing, how far you are taking them in the grow box, etc, but if it is past seedling stage, you are gonna need more light.  I read somewhere that a 55-65w CFL will cover about a 30cm x 30 cm area, and the light should be 2-4 inches from the plant.  Also, with CFLs, a good rule of thumb is if you see a shadow, you are not getting light to that portion of the plant.  They are not known, at least in the lower wattages, to penetrate canopy like your HID lights.  Does this mean that you need to get a HID? NO.  It just means that you need to consider supplemental lighting depending on what you are trying to accomplish. 
 
How big is your box?  How many plants?  How long are they gonna stay in there?
 
using a broad brush stroke, it is a reasonable figure to think about 30 watts per sq.ft. or more if you are growing plants to maturity. i.e. a 1000 watts for a 5x6 grow area. 600 watts for a 4x5 area etc.
 
How far you keep the lights away from the plants will depend on the lights.
 
 600W MH/HPS Digital Ballast /Dimmable I really like, but does put out a lot of heat in the winter in the shed it helps to keep the plants heated, in the summer I can't run it.  My 400W HPS is much cooler but doesn't put out as much light and the 600w's are better all around I think as I can dim it down if I need to for seedlings.    
 
My box is roughly 1'x4'. Nothing huge. Just using to start. But on the other hand I may be planning to build a large grow room. On that one I plan on getting 1200 watts of lighting.
 
I use a 600 watt light in my 4×4 tent and it seems to do great (37.5 watts square foot). It does put out a lot of heat though I have mine air cooled which helps a lot.
 
No, you don't need to buy the CFL's labeled "Grow Lights". Regular old CFL's will do.

Thank ya! I upped my lights. Anyone know how to post pics threw my iPhone.
 
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