Vegetation Room Lighting

[CCB]

Hi,

I’m planning for a small 1 meter square veg room.And I would like some advice regarding the lights.

Between the CLF, Florescent Tubes, LED and Metal Halide which is better and more practical for the 18hr stage?

Thanks and take it easy ...

[Ghost Grower]

Hello,

For 1mx1m you can use 400W for a veg room. I think MH will be better but you need a balast, CFL are ok and don't need balast (you can use 2x200W).

LEDs are ok too but much more expensive.

[CCB]

Thanks Ghost,

I think overall CFL are the best way to go and perhaps in the future add some LEDs.

Also, in CFL what’s important the temperature or the number of Lumen?

[Ghost Grower]

Both are important, for a CFL in veg it's usually 6400k or 6900k (for the color temp.), then, more watts more lumens

But I don't use CFL, i'm on HPS only for the moment but maybe someone who uses some could tell you more about them

[bozoph]

get t5s, a 8 bulb 4'. far more even light then a 400w in a 4x4. and t5s put of way less heat minamizing the amount of ventalation

[Dust]

yes bozoph is right on T5 they do great job on veg stage. Tho it depends too on how much you will let them veg in that room, cause the longet the plant get the less the T5 are efficient, and if you plan on doing "long" veg i would say MH. but if it's only for 2 3 weeks i think T5 or CFL would do it

Good luck man

[CCB]

@Dust, I intend to use this room for a long time and to switch strains from time to time so the vegetation time will vary.

But I’m thinking 45days veg under 3xCFL 105w.

[Levente]

I only can recommend the cfls! they are great in price, have long lifetime, no danger of burning the plants, + later if u wish u can add 1 or both to the flowering room next to the hps to give a wider spectrum and have denser buds!! i would recommend u to buy 2X200 W cfl, with reflector of course!! If u had bigger space i would recommend u to have a MH+ 2 cfls.... and if u are flowering big, u may run 3 hps +1 MH + cfls.... U will see, but forget Leds... i think cfl's are more handy than tubes... i would only recommend for a line of clones!

[Dust]

45 days should make pretty "big" girls, like Levente said take big CFL the bigger, the more penetration, and with diferent stages in same room, big and small girls, you better have the best difusion as possible

Good luck man

[Potent]

my 2p's worth, I have vegged with both CFL and MH and i will only use CFL for germination and MH for veg now!! and that's until i get a T5a like Bozoph mentioned as they are rated the best for germination.

So in short -

CFL/T5a for germination

MH for Veg

HPS for flowering

n.b - if you can when in flowering using the HPS add a bit of blue spectrum in there be it using a CFL or MH. in my eyes you want to try and replicate natural sun light the best you can and even though canna plants just require red to flower it is good to have a mixture some say best!

Whatever you choose I'm sure will be great, My first few grows was using a 125w CFL for germ/veg and 400w HPS and i had good results but yeah like i said i have even better results now using the CFL/MH/HPS combo mentioned above

Peace

[CCB]

A combo of CFL and MH will do a great job but maybe too much for a 1 sq. meter room.

I think I’ll try CFL. Should I buy 2 x 200w (equivalent to 1200w) or 14 x 30w (equivalent to 2100w)?

Also, should I use bulbs with mixed temperatures of 2700K / 6400K ? Or is best to stick with +6400K only?

Thanks a lot,

Peace

[Potent]

In my 1m x1m tent i used a 125w cfl for germination then 400w MH for veg then switched to 400w HPS and had good results so I'm sure the 2x200w CFL will do the job just fine but I am confused by what you mean by 2x200w (equivalent to 1200w) how is this? wouldn't it be 400w? but in future i would look into adding a MH in the mix or even buy 1x200w CFL and a 400/600w MH. Just remember more lights = more heat which need good extraction.

Peace

[CCB]

1x 200w CFL is equivalent to 600w incandescent bulb and 1x30w CFL is 150w

so,

2x200w = 400w is equivalent to 1200w and 14x 30w = 420w of CFL which is = to 2100w.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GreenLamp-equivalent-Daylight-Energy-Bayonet/dp/B004G6UCWU

http://www.1000bulbs.com/category/600-watt-equal-cfl-compact-fluorescents/

[Potent]

Oh right i understand what you mean now that you was comparing them to Incandescent bulbs.

I have only taken the what the power rating is on the bulb. These are the type of CFL's i went with - http://www.amazon.co.uk/250W-Maxibright-CFL-Lamp-BLUE/dp/B008LUUWUO

Like i said i'm sure the 2x200w cfl's will be fine.

Peace

[CCB]

Great info guys.

Thanks to everyone!

[Levente]

Potent is right! But u should pay more attention to lumens rather than watts. 6000 Lumens is the min need of a plant to develope properly, but 10000 is efficient. The Number of the lumen output u can reed on a cfl is usually around 20000-25000, and this get halfed after each feet distance from the bulb. But with cfls, u can almost touch the plants without burning.Take care!