Are my fluros sufficient for Vegetative stages? [Detailed post]

First off, forgive the lengtheness of this post. I just want to make sure I'm clear on this with everyone.

Few points:

1. First grow.
2. I have 600W HPS for blooming.
3. I have a dual 8' (yes that's right) fluorescent lights for Veg.
4. My seeds are germinating and have just begun to hatch.
5. Growing 16 plants maximum (16 seeds) at the beginning
6. Vegging till 2 feet tall, then move to flowering room
7. I will be cloning, so I plan on having a few motherhood plants (which I'll let grow past 2 feet)

I'm not actually sure what the rating is on these fluorescent lights, I know that they are less than or equal to 148W though (I don't know if that's combined, but I would think so). The reason I don't know the exact Wattage is because these lights have been here for a long time and no one ever really goes in my basement. It just says on the fixture "don't use more than 148W". We're looking at about 20 year old lights. They even have a single prong, instead of the dual prong (which the norm today, correct me if I'm wrong). They seem to work really well from a visual point of view.

I plan on vegging plants under these lights, but lately I'm thinking it won't be enough or that these lights are too old. I'm not familiar with the evolution of fluorescent tube lights, I know we have T5, T8, etc, but is the lighting that much better?

I've been thinking about grabbing a few CFL 6500K 27W bulbs for additional light. I just want to make sure that my babies will be at least somewhat healthy BEFORE they go into the flowering/blooming room with the 600W HPS.

Hm, I guess the ultimate question is this: Can I get the same yields of bud, if during the veg stages, the lighting is weaker, BUT during the flowering stages, the lighting is very good?

Those flos should allow you to grow the plants up to about 6-10 inches while remaining tight and healthy. If that is enough for you then sure it will work.

I agree with shame. You will be able to veg them under those lights, but not very well. After about 6" the nodes will start to stretch. And if your were to grow them to 2 feet using just those lights they will be so weak, stretched, and lanky that by the time you flower them, the damage has already been done. I would suggest buying a 250w MH or get a few 50W+ CLF at ur local wal-mart for like 20 bucks. They plug into regular light sockets so not much work is required. This will help out substantialy with the veg phase and you overall yield will be much greater than if u go without.

Welcome to the forum. Wow, your last question is the important one, NO, you will be training your plants too grow slow. When you want them to grow, they will only have light for 12 hours, and will not be able to make up for the early lack of growth. This does not mean they won't grow at all.
8' fixture use what is called a single pin, they are electrical the same as the four foot or two foot etc. If you had to twist an 8' bulb to get it in place you'd probably break as many as you installed, so the don't use a twist the use a 'push'.
You could use that light for the first couple of weeks but you don't really need 8' of light for 16 just planted seedlings so a lot would be wasted. I have that many in a 1' by 2' tray. Where is your journal, sounds like you have benn planning this for a while?? VV

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful info. So it seems my answer is that I need some extra lighting. As much as I'd want to use an MH light, I've dropped a lot of cash lately, and couldn't bare to see more go for another light kit. I think I will go the CFL route.

Victor, thank you for the info on the single prong tubes, I was confused about those. And actually I haven't been planning it for very long, did all the research on wednesday, bought the seeds on thursday, bought most of the hydroponic stuff on friday.

Smokez, when you say 50W+ CFL, do you mean each CFL is 50W+? I don't think I've even heard of CFL's going that high, the equivalancy must be like 250W incandecent bulbs lol. I mean I was thinking of getting 3 CFL 6500K 27W bulbs, but if that is not enough, then please clarify. As you can see I'm definetly not used to the CFLs.

Humbolt would be a good one to check wiht about cfl's according to SeeMoreBuds, he mentions him in his book, maybe check out his thread Humbolts Growing Adventure, I think. SeeMore used 8-42 watt cfl's to grow 8 oz of bud from 3 female plants. He, Garden Knowm, appear to be back from India may want to check with him. VV

Holy smokes, just CFLS? Even for the blooming? I shall check out Humbolt. It's starting to sound more of a reality that I should get in on these CFL's for vegging.

Now the only problem is finding a multiple fixtured lamp for these. I was thinking of getting one of those 3-fixtured stands with flexible fixture heads.

go to home depot or lowes or a hardware store and get one of those lamp things with the big silver dome around it. then get some y sockets (make sure to check the max wattage rating on it) and then you can plug in a lot of lights to each one. i found a couple max 150 watt ones and have 4 26 watt cfls coming out of each one. i got the y sockets for 2$ a piece and the lamp things for 6 bucks a piece!

Great idea herbtoker, must of been stoned thinking of that one Actually that's very helpful. Can you link me to this 'big silver dome' lamp, I just need a visual to totally understand what you mean. The Y sockets are a definite yes if I'm taking the socket route. I've been reading an article (I'm sure you've all seen it) on modifying your CFL's so they don't need sockets (fixtures, same thing right?)

Ok I've been looking at my local home depot. They sell:

27W 6500K 1660 lumens
27W 2700K 1750 lumens
42W 2700K 2800 lumens

So I'm a bit confused. People are saying I want more Wattage, but also saying I want more lumens, but ALSO saying I want more color temperature! So if all those statements are true, which of those 3 choices would be best for Vegging Growth?

check the cfl journals must be a hundred of them. Get OpenDNS book available at Barnes and Nobles Book Store. He show how he set up his lights and he shows the shields. He removes them for the pictures. $16.95, or order from the website. Could save you hundreds or a lot of grief. Since you alreadt have a furnace for flowering youi will want the cfls or something similar for vegging with budget in mind, Improve as you can. VV

Patrick00011 said:

Ok I've been looking at my local home depot. They sell:

27W 6500K 1660 lumens
27W 2700K 1750 lumens
42W 2700K 2800 lumens

So I'm a bit confused. People are saying I want more Wattage, but also saying I want more lumens, but ALSO saying I want more color temperature! So if all those statements are true, which of those 3 choices would be best for Vegging Growth?

Click to expand...

Look for 6500K for vegging.

Patrick00011 said:

Great idea herbtoker, must of been stoned thinking of that one Actually that's very helpful. Can you link me to this 'big silver dome' lamp, I just need a visual to totally understand what you mean. The Y sockets are a definite yes if I'm taking the socket route. I've been reading an article (I'm sure you've all seen it) on modifying your CFL's so they don't need sockets (fixtures, same thing right?)

Click to expand...

haha yea sorry... i couldnt think of a better way to describe it. heres a link to a pic of something similar to what i got.
http://allpet.co.uk/shop/uploaded_images/n_code419.gif
i got 3 things like that, a few y sockets, 4 6500k lights and 4 3000k lights for vegging. ill let you know how it goes if your thinkin the same thing.

fuck... im an idiot. yea i was a little stoned typing that one. i meant to check the max wattage on the "big silver dome light thingy", not on the y sockets. sorry for the confusion!