hyena

I have two sets of fluorescent light fixtures, 4' long, holding two bulbs apiece. The bulbs are 40w each, and two of the four bulbs are 'daylight', while the other two bulbs are 'plant light'. (160w total, if I lost you =) I was wondering, are these lights suitable for growing plants, or would I need an HPS as well? (I'd rather not add an HPS, would prefer more fluorescents first, they're cheap! =) I plan on growing two plants, since I don't know what the gender of the seeds I have are, and then removing the males. (harvesting? =) Though I hope I don't have to remove both plants and start over. I plan on growing them via the ScrOG method, as I've heard of growers experiencing good results using that technique with fluorescents.

Thank you for your time.

Observer

HID lights are by far better for scrog than are fluorescent lights, but if you were to just grow regular style plants, then fluoros could work alright. The more fluoros that you've got, the better the plants will grow. You should have as close to 160 watts per square foot of growing space as possible with fluoros, and at least 30 watts per square foot with HID lights. With fluoroescent lights, you should keep the tubes about 2" away from the plants. Obviously HID lights give out alot more lumens per watt than do fluoroescents.

Peace, Observer

hyena

That's in insane amount of lighting, though. O.o I wish I had more data to draw on, since I know people have grown under these before and gotten reasonable results. But getting 2 more fixtures and 4 more bulbs is not feasable.

HydroGrower

Sorry if that is not what you want to hear, but that is what works. We only give the "best" advice here

HG

[This message has been edited by HydroGrower (edited April 07, 2000).]

hyena

Not so much that I "didn't want to hear it" as it is that I can't afford more lights, the room can't HOLD more lights, and convincing the others to accept more lights would be impossible. (Especially after buying the ones we have now...) I guess my question would now be how can I get the most use out of what I currently have? Aside from the ScrOG method and such like that? Would mounting one light above the plants pointing down and one light beside the plants pointing sideways help? Or what?