A question and lights and soil..

Hey all. I haven't grown anything yet, but before I even do my germination I wanted to get all my soil/nutrients/lights first. But I had a question about my lights. Let's say the only place I can get lights is at WalMart. What would I buy for lights at WalMart? I know they have florescents, plant/aquarium grow lights, halogen (those one's are only 40watts), and they even had these Daylight Florescent light bulbs that go up to 100watts. What do you think? ( I plan to grow my plants - 6 plants total - until they're about 10 inches/a foot then I'm going to put them outside and have the sun do the rest. And also, for soil: I ended up getting some Fox Farms Original Planting Mix that's made from earthworm castings and bat guono. Now..because that soil has that stuff in it, should I even bother buying a bag of bat guono and adding it during the veg stage? I do plan to add some blood meal during the veg stage also. Oh, and while we're at this, what do you give your plants for food? I thought the nutrients like blood meal and bat guono was their food but from what I was told it is not. Thanks for any tips and answers.

herman1313munster said:

Let's say the only place I can get lights is at WalMart. What would I buy for lights at WalMart? I know they have florescents, plant/aquarium grow lights, halogen (those one's are only 40watts), and they even had these Daylight Florescent light bulbs that go up to 100watts. What do you think? ( I plan to grow my plants - 6 plants total - until they're about 10 inches/a foot then I'm going to put them outside and have the sun do the rest.

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I think a 4' T5 high output (HO) would fit your needs.
I did a search on walmart, and it seems they have the lamps, but I did not find a fixture. I only did a quick search. If you find a combination, post it here for some opinions.

But since you have access to the internet, you should be able to shop at other stores. I got a 2' T5 HO lamp off ebay that works for me.

I use 100w cfl's for the first month or so. But then switch over to the 400w mh. I finish outside. Never seen 100w cfl's at wall-mart

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Cooper-Lighting-48-Two-Lamp-Residential-Ballast-with-Shoplight/17181758

thats pretty cheap. .
u want a 6500k bulb for veg. thats something they should have too.
probably $10 for a 2pack t8 32w 6500k temperature

parkth3car said:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Cooper-Lighting-48-Two-Lamp-Residential-Ballast-with-Shoplight/17181758

thats pretty cheap. .
u want a 6500k bulb for veg. thats something they should have too.
probably $10 for a 2pack t8 32w 6500k temperature

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T5 is a higher efficiency.. all a matter of the research one does before diving into a project and calculating bulb replacements.

Thanks a bunch everyone. I just have a quick question..does 'k' mean lumens? Usually when I see a 'k' it's a thousand so I wasn't sure if 6500k mean't it should have 6500 lumens total..

herman1313munster said:

Thanks a bunch everyone. I just have a quick question..does 'k' mean lumens? Usually when I see a 'k' it's a thousand so I wasn't sure if 6500k mean't it should have 6500 lumens total..

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stands for kelvin. represents the color spectrum.

~6000k's are blue. your ~2000k-3000k's will be red. etc

K stands for "kelvins"... it is a measurement of color in the light spectrum... I am almost positive that a 6500k bulb would be a "warm" colored bulb, better for flowering... someone correct me if I'm wrong?

i corrected you before you even posted.