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seeds New Seed Starting Setup

Scuba_Steve

Scuba_Steve

So money is extremely tight right now. What is the minimum I can use to light up a few shelves for startup and grow out to about 6-8"?

Shelves are 48"x24".

Would 3 14w 5000k CFL be enough? If not a single 2 bulb shop light? Or do I need 2 fixtures to cover the 24" span?
 
Ya I looked at all the pot sites, and a few others. The issue is, these give requirements needed for a full grow. I am only concerned with the early stages of life where there isn't many leaves shading each other out.
 
I have always used the cheap shoplights from Walmart.  My area is also 48 x 24 but I use 3 of the fixtures, so 6 bulbs.  That seems to get pretty good coverage, 2 might work, but might be a little week in the middle or the edges depending how you spaced them.
 
ScubaSteve, you might try looking at either Lowes or Home Depot and the light fixtures they offer. They offer  four bulb fixtures that you can either have shipped with lights included, or you can just buy the fixtures. T5 bulbs are usually in stock and I use their 6500k bulbs in conjunction with some UVB bulbs to get my seedling going. As long as the proper wavelength light is coming from the bulb you don't have to spend a ton of money.
 
I misunderstood. The OP stated grow out to about 6"-8". If nodes are tight that could be 8 weeks. With weak light that will occur very quickly and plants will be leggy.
 
Scuba_Steve said:
So money is extremely tight right now. What is the minimum I can use to light up a few shelves for startup and grow out to about 6-8"?

Shelves are 48"x24".

Would 3 14w 5000k CFL be enough? If not a single 2 bulb shop light? Or do I need 2 fixtures to cover the 24" span?
Click to expand...
 
I would use two of the shop lights. I have two 4' T8's that I use to cover a 48" x 24" and they work just fine to grow the plants big enough to plant outside.
 
gangaskan said:
 
 
even with full spec tubes?  
Click to expand...
   Probably! With LED's my nodes are extremely tight. To the point where my plants are 13 weeks old and are not taller than 6". And that's with 5 to 7 sets of true leaves. There are those using t5 that are 7" tall and only working on there 3rd or 4th set of true leaves. I mean there are many factors at play that will influence that.
 
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