Help choosing lights

I'm going to start a 2 plant grow and don't know what lights to use. How many watts do I need for 2 plants? Also would it be better to use a large single CFL thats 125W or to use more of the smaller ones like a 42W?

Hi Tiny,

using multiple bulbs allows you to spread the bulbs arund the plant.. so that the entire plant, including lower foliage gets light... that being said.. it wuld be best to get the largest wattage bulbs... and get more than ONE

iloveyou

Big Bulbs And Lots Of Them!!!!!!!

^ big cfls per plant or get the real cfls made for growing they are actual 125 watts or up to actual 300 watts not equal to be actual wattage they are around 12-16 inches long.^ per plant is good and get each spectrum for the 2 stages of growing so figures to 12 bulbs per plant but only 6 on each plant per stage

filthy, where do you get the 300w?

Is $65 for a 125 watt CFL a good price? Its the long kind about a foot long and has the U shaped tubes, not the spiral. And would one of these at 6500K be good enough for 2 plants?

Tiny said:

Is $65 for a 125 watt CFL a good price? Its the long kind about a foot long and has the U shaped tubes, not the spiral. And would one of these at 6500K be good enough for 2 plants?

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Yah that is about right, I just was looking at one at the hydro store, and it was $65.

ok, well what about using just 1 of those 125W bulbs for each stage. 6500k for veg and 2700k for flower? I'll growing 2 plants at most

i hate to disagree with the lot of you BUT you must do the math on lumens per watt and the CFL's are a bit diffrent then say MH HPS the higher you go in watts the lower you go in lumens per watt you should have for 2 plants about 30000 lumens depending on there size and try to stay around 42-60 watts per bulb that is the breaking point if you go lower or higher you will loose lumens per watt and then you will just be burning power for no reason and with less results the math is lumens devided by watts for example 42 watt bulb that produces 2700 lumens =64.2 lumens per watt so you would use 12 bulbs at 42 watts giving you 32400 lumens it may seem like a lot but they are cheep the tube bulb's are added up by the square foot i would not use them for flowering ask the red-shield co. at [email protected]

I notice my plants do amazingly better under higher wattage cfl's. And as close as you can to the plant without burning them. If heat and space and energy are not an issue, Go with as many cfl's as you can. Bigger the better. I got myself stuck growing with cfl's, so if you are going to use them, spend your money wisely and get the best bulbs you can first
I use both spectrums during all parts of growing. I would put both of the 125's in.