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Light for 1 Plant, 1 DWC 5g system
- Thread starter PepperSam
- Start date
I would have to say because there are so many pepper plant sizes it would depend on what type of pepper you are growing for an answer. The larger the pepper plant in size the more light needed to keep it healthy or the more pruning you need to do.
Good answer, large jalapeno.
The question was what size CFL and unless I am wrong the 30-50w/ square footing rule is for non florescent lighting? If this is what you are reading for CFL kept plants please share the source so we can read on it. Taking your answer to calcalations a jalapeno that was say three feet across by three feet = 9 square feet x 30-50w = 270-450w of CFL. This seems way over what is needed for fruit production but would be closer to what is needed under say HPS/MH lighting though again I think even still you could grow a couple more as well under this amount of lighting from what I have seen posted on the THP here.
If it were me, i would start with buying a single 4 ft flourescent shop fixture with 2 55W tubes (one cool blue and one daylight) and wiring it to a standard male plugin. then when the plant started to outgrow it, get an identical setup and piggy back it side by side. leaving you with 220W total. or buy a 4ft 4 tube fixture to begin with. Its just 2 seperate fixtures makes it a little more adaptable for future grows/seedling shelfs etc. and you can also seperate the 2 fixture a little further apart than the 4 tubes would be.
take this advice with a grain of salt though PepperSam because ive never used flourescents. only HID. and have never seen a CFL grow of any reasonable size that hasnt used tube fixtures. they do make huge single CFL bulbs, but im not sure if the whole plant would benefit from the light seeing as flourescents need to be so close to be effective. hope this kinda helps
take this advice with a grain of salt though PepperSam because ive never used flourescents. only HID. and have never seen a CFL grow of any reasonable size that hasnt used tube fixtures. they do make huge single CFL bulbs, but im not sure if the whole plant would benefit from the light seeing as flourescents need to be so close to be effective. hope this kinda helps
AlabamaJack
eXtreme
~3000 lumens /ft[sup]2[/sup] and that's right in line with what Willard said about 30-50 watts/ft[sup]2[/sup]...42 Watt 2700K CFL puts out about 3K lumens...
I have a 4' X 4' Grow box I use 18 42 Watt CFLs in...puts me a little over 3K lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup]
I have a 4' X 4' Grow box I use 18 42 Watt CFLs in...puts me a little over 3K lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup]
Thanks AJ because I take more stock in someone who is actually doing it then what one can read. I took a deture today while at work to a light shop and they were at what I was saying but not growing peppers first hand just what they read in their papers. In fact they have 2 different light meters for plants and florescent scale was different then daylight/high intensity lighting. When asked why they said because you can taylor the spectrum of forescents easier so they do not need as many watts to achieve a plants needs that is needed with MH/HPS bulbs without using the expensive ones on the market. I use florescent tubes and not the power compact florescents so do not have first hand exp in them. Thanks for taking the time to explain this and share your first hand exp with us.