lighting help/advice/questions

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dajaw50

Member
so i was in a rush today at home depot, and i don't know if i made the right choice. i was told i need to get lights that were 100 watts so i got ecosmart 100 watt equivalent with 1600 lumens. the light is about 2 feet from the germinated seeds i just planted in solo cups. please any help/advice. i also got a reflector thing thats around the light bulb. i have 4 bulbs and 2 of those reflectors even tho I'm only using 1 reflector and 1 bulb right now.
 
balactus

balactus

Well-Known Member
100 Watt equivalent isn't 100 watts though, how many watts do you have 23w or 26w I am guessing. How big is your grow space also?
 
balactus

balactus

Well-Known Member
Yeah for vegging 6500K and for flowering 2700K. You'll probably want more than 4 lights eventually when they start getting a bit bigger cause that won't be enough light. If you can keep stable temps you wanna get as many lights as possible. CFLs still get hot tho.
 
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dajaw50

Member
do you think that two of the 5000k lights with the reflectors and mylar surrounding the area will be enough for vegging ?
 
Ilovebush

Ilovebush

Well-Known Member
I have used 24 watt t5 6500k flourescents x 2' and they worked great...I prefer them over cfls. Two feet away is a lil much but u are better off starting them slightly further away as oppose to too close. Just move the lights closer as they shoot up or they will stretch and that will suck. Heat burn is not hard to miss as the leaves will curl and burn. Hope this helps...we all make mistake as that is part of the learning process...happy growin!
 
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dajaw50

Member
where do you get 6500k lights...home depot didn't have any and either did lowes...buttt hopefully the 2 5000k works.
 
balactus

balactus

Well-Known Member
Yeah I know getting the 6500k CFLs are hard to come by in Lowes and Home Depot but I found actually 23w (100w equiv) growing specific CFLs. I say grow specific cause they had a pic of a plant on the packaging but they are just normal CFLs. They were actually at Lowes, you studied all the lighting? You may have missed it but they may not even carry it. 5000k is questionable to use I would really suggest finding the 6500k bulbs if possible although I have come across some posts of people saying that using 5000k would be possible but still.
 
KT420

KT420

Active Member
I would say stick with your 5000k's, not much difference between that and 6500k at all. You are going to have a real problem with 4 square feet floor space but only 3 vertical feet. That problem needs to be addressed more than splitting hairs over 1500k in cfl color temp!

 
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