Marko431967
Member
I want to know if a 80 watt homedepot metal halide security light is enough to veg 6 plants under? Also would A hps security light 80 watts be enough to flower under? Plants are in a 4'x30"x4' cabinet.
Quick question
- Thread starter Marko431967
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salsashark
Member
to do six plants with those lights u would need atleast 8 of those lights
Homegrown4Life
Active Member
Yeah you would need a few more lights that size. I always veg under two 4foot fluorescent fixtures with cool and warm white tubes. Always with great success.
Im pretty sure it would be cheaper for you too, and keep the heat in your cabinet to a minimum. Id be happy to share some pics of my veg station with you.
Marko431967
Member
Reason I ask is I'm running 5 aquarium flouros overhead 18 watts each. Assorted spectrums all ranging from 420 -640 nm. I also run 4 100 watt daylight bulbs in a lightbar for undergrowth. Light is still at 24/7 but I'm not seeing that much growth. Plants look great nice lush green but just going very slow. Was looking at some other option to use in a cabinet that's not gonna get too hot.
Homegrown4Life
Active Member
Ok, iv run into this problem myself when vegging 24/7 with fluores. Im more than certain youll see faster growth if you set your timer to something around 18L/6D or at least 20L/4D. When i set mine to 18/6 i seen a significant increase in growth.
The reason for this is because your plants (just like us) need to rest. A 24 hour light schedual can be good for the first week, but beyond that i would give your girls some cool uninterupted darkness.
Sounds like you have a pretty good set up in terms of veg lighting so the slow growth is most likely due to stress from the fulltime light schedual. Also, you should have a thermometer in the veg space if you dont already. Anything over 90 degrees could also slow your vegetative growth.
Marko431967
Member
The flouros are aquarium bulbs. I'm using 4 100 watt daylight cfls. Is that ok to flower under?
Homegrown4Life
Active Member
Yes, thos lights are able to provide your girls with the reds and blues they need. Im not exactly sure what wavelengths the aquarium bulbs produce but from what iv read about them, you should be able to veg with them no problem. The daylight CFL's give off some good light too, but from personal experience iv found that they produce more heat. So dont put them to close.
Personaly i use two 4' shop lights one with two cool white bulbs and the other with two warm white bulbs. This setup is widely accepted as one of the most efficient and cost friendly means of getting your girls ready for flower.
As for flowering under said lights, yes. You can flower with your current light sources. Keep in mind tho, You will see better results per plant if you keep them small. I started growing with a similar setup to yours. If you veg your girls to anything over 1' youll probley see smaller buds than what you would get with a smaller plant.
Reason for that is because your lights can only give off so much usable energy (less that what they would get from the sun).
So in turn, you have to compensate by flowering early. If you have a large plant when you start flowering, that plant is will have to use more of the energy is gets from your lights to sustain its basic structure. Thus robbing it of valuable energy it could put towards making buds.
Marko431967
Member
Let me ask u this. What light source can I add to get better results. I'm running 2 flora sun tubes 1 ocean sun tube 1 reef sun tube and a 65 k daylight aquarium tube. All are 15 watts and 18" long. Thats on a plywood base all 5 running same way about 2" apart hanging above plants about 4" away. The 4 cfl daylight bulbs are in a lightbar at the bottom facing upwards. Should I change or swap the flouros or add more cfls.
Homegrown4Life
Active Member
I would switch out your fluores bulbs dude, everything iv read brings me back to the cool and warm tubes only. Although that would also require you to buy new lamps. They are pretty cheap tho, less than $20 each. and maybe 3-4 dollars each for the tubes. Give your plants a good week with the 18/6 lighting befor you change anything tho. You can use you lights you have now, i just dunno if they are as good as the 40watt cool and warm tubes.
Marko431967
Member
The fluros I'm using are all basically for plants in aquatic settings. They all promote photosynthesis so I thought I'd try them. I have mh/hps setup with cooltube but its too much to be stealth. I wanna experiment. Lol mad scientist. I am seeing much new light " greenness" since cutting back the light to18/6. I have some LEDs that I bought and built my own circuits. They work really well but I don't have enough of them to do many plants. 42 watts total there. Nice blue and reds the baby plants respond well to their spectrum just don't know if I want to invest in a larger led system.
Homegrown4Life
Active Member
Hell yeah, i love to experiment too. Like i said befor tho, give your new light schedual some more time befor you change anything. If you see some new growth now wait till another week has passed
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