Light for pre veg

What light should I use for pre veg after I have germinated? T5? Hps? Mh? And what size in watts?

Never heard of a pre veg, what is this?

From what I understand it the phase between germinating your seeds and starting to veg. From what I've read you should use a t5 because your normal 600-1000w hps or mh is to strong

I wonder how seeds germinate in nature...What do they use to pre-veg before using sunight?

I'm just being a dick. Yeah, t-5's, CFL's, even old school t-8's if you're worried that your HID environment is too harsh for babies.

i use a t5 to veg from seed takes about 8 weeks for nice size plant

T5 would be your best bet!

I use a 15 watt T8

So what size is best for about 5 plants?

I pop seeds under my 1000w all the time with no problems. The shock happens when you take a seedling born under a t5 and suddenly stick it under the 1000w. Using a cfl, t5' etc is way more efficient energy use unless you have plants vegging under the MH already.

I use 4 inch pots of my own soil to germinate and grow in to start.

Same as veg, just not as intense. They can't handle as intense of light until they have a decent root system, shoot for something like 75% the intensity of veg lighting.

I use 3x18 watt T8 for "preveg". Keeps them tight and provides plenty of light for small plants for the first 7-10 days or so. I also use those for rooting and keeping clones.

I've 'vegged' with them too long ago:


Nowadays move them (to a 400w hps first), usually around 4th node.

Andyvan55 said:

So what size is best for about 5 plants?

Click to expand...

1x 18w T8 would work, here's 10 under 2xT8, 5 under each: