Light Wattage

Okay So I have a 120 w cfl. It's about a foot above my little seedlings. Then I have 1 15w cool white fluorescent light on them too which is about 4 - 5 inches away from the plants. Is this enough wattage or am I going to need more wattage? I just want small bushy plants with some nice buds on them. This is my first time growing. any help will be great.

is the cfl 120 actual watts or 120 incandesent equivelent watts? Get the lights as close as you possibley can without burning the plant.

It's the incandescent equivalent. It was like 23 watts. I moved it about 6 inches down. So it's about 5 inches from the plants. I have a feeling that it's not enough wattage since they aren't growing very quickly.

yeah you need at least another 5 or 6 of them 26w ones

you want the lights 1 or 2 inches away. yeah, thats not enough. i wouldnt go with less than 4 or 5 of those 23w per plant. Get a mixed spectrum of bulbs as well. Cannabis has 2 types of chloroplasts, one that interacts with the red side of the spectrum and one that interacts with the blue side. Using only 1 side wastes your plants full potential.

You want the blue (low) spectrum for veg and the red (high) for flower at minimum. A good mix of both and you will be happy as dd420 suggested.

find a cheap mh or hps light or head down to lowes menards home depot and get an 85 watt cfl thats actual watts with mogul base. it will be cool white which is good then take thier advice and get a mixture of colors( fulll, warm,cool, aquarium and sunshine or daylight) and add them in too. your plants will be slow if a. no co2 and b. not enough lights or c. not hydro. tho the difference between hydro and soil is only at the max 10% faster. proper lighting and max co2 level will give you the shortest times.

See I use a peat moss sphagnum moss soil mix Which doesn't have many nutes in it but i can't use fertilizer yet cause they're only a few weeks old.