My noob set up [plz comment]

Wuz up guys,

Well I finally went out to walmart and looked for some lamps to purchase....I had a limited amount of cash,so I purchased 2 fluorescent plant lights 65 watts each [130 total watts for those who are too to do math] and 2 extra bulbs.
I have 2 questions...

Is this good enough for 2 plants?
How far should they be from the plant?











Does my lil baby claudia look good?
[she used to be under a 40 watt n 60 watt bulb,till today]
Her southern leaf is yellow....

that should be good light for the vegging, for flowering... not too sure. also, ditch the foil, just my opinion. other than that, good luck and keep it up

cute.

You may want to lower the lights so she doesn't stretch. Hold your hand over her and lower the light untill you can feel the heat. back off one inch.

Good luck.

-thanks hobo
I might add more for flowering....

The lights give off heat ,so
would the lights burn the cardboard box if i took out the foil?


light is currently about 14in. away from top of claudia,
in a lil booklet that came with the lights it said keep 2ft. from plants,should I?

el seca leche said:

-thanks hobo
I might add more for flowering....

The lights give off heat ,so
would the lights burn the cardboard box if i took out the foil?


light is currently about 14in. away from top of claudia,
in a lil booklet that came with the lights it said keep 2ft. from plants,should I?

Click to expand...

First off, if you go by the books, you will most likely always diminish your yields. The books don't know the environment or what type of plant you grow. I keep my light two feet away, and my light is a scorching 1000watts, lol. I would definitely remove the foil, in fact, I would take them out of the box period, this is probably just keeping air from circulating better. I would just put up two little walls of carboard, painted white, and use the existing walls of your house as the other two, thus creating a box. You can easily remove the two makeshift walls to water. That box won't be big enough for them later anyways... as far as your light is concerned, just lower down to where it feels like its getting to hot for the back of your hand, and like the guy above me said (didn't see his name), back off an inch or so... good luck

Yea put the lights like 2 inches above the plants

yea 2'' is good also you may consider getting some high watt CFLs and are those the natural daylight CFLs or are they cool white? you may consider adding a little water too.

1 bulb is on since the other isn't needed yet
how about now?

yeah the foil thing is not going to help much with light reflection...its one of the poorer quality reflectors, yet people seem to think it works well. Like hobo80 said, just flat white paint is one of the best reflectors you can get, and its cheap as hell. Foil also is hot. When you say your lights are 60 wt is that the actual wattage, or the converted wattage if you were using a regular incandescent bulb? Usually a flouro light will have on the package that its 20 watts, which is equal to 60 watts incandescent light. Make sure your going by the actual wattage. With that type of light you should be much closer than 2 feet...I have a 1000w hps that almost burns my hairs on my arm within a foot and I'm maybe two feet away from the plants. Also might want to get a fan if you have them inclosed at all for air circulation and temp control.

Do you have a picture of the lights?Is this what you got?http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/13-41-plant-light-bulbs/ge-plant-light-bulb-457028.aspx I saw 65 watt and that set off some bells.If so, that's the wrong light.Don't put it close, it will fry your plants.It just has a blue coating to make plants LOOK greener.It is incandescent. You don't want that.It will stretch your plant.This is what you want.http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/13-41-compact-fluorescent/ge-spiral-compact-fluorescent-130129.aspx This is for veg.They come bigger than this, but this is an example.See the 6500k on the package?That's for veg.Warm white, or 2700k is for flower.

Stoney McFried said:

Do you have a picture of the lights?Is this what you got?http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/13-41-plant-light-bulbs/ge-plant-light-bulb-457028.aspx I saw 65 watt and that set off some bells.If so, that's the wrong light.Don't put it close, it will fry your plants.It just has a blue coating to make plants LOOK greener.It is incandescent. You don't want that.It will stretch your plant.This is what you want.http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/13-41-compact-fluorescent/ge-spiral-compact-fluorescent-130129.aspx This is for veg.They come bigger than this, but this is an example.See the 6500k on the package?That's for veg.Warm white, or 2700k is for flower.

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+ rep

Genius!

I also noticed it looks like you have one of them in a clay pot...if your planning on growing those out, from the looks of it your going to need a bigger pot! Transplanting from that might be tough, you should really look into a different potting method in the future, thinking ahead for a transplant. Or best of all, start them off in a pot big enough for their entire life cycle. If you want to keep it really small, a 1 gallon pot would be the minimum, but best to use something in the 3-5 gallon range to let the roots spread out. Bigger pot = bigger yields!

Thanks!Unfortunately, I had to learn that from experience.As a noob grower, I too, grabbed those lights!

GreenKine said:

+ rep

Genius!

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el seca leche said:

1 bulb is on since the other isn't needed yet
how about now?

Click to expand...

Very nice improvement, now just keep an eye on her and make sure the light isn't too close. Good luck

http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/...nt-130129.aspx

so 1 bulb is equal to 100 watts?

and can I plant a seed that im germinating that has barely opened up?

It says so, but you'll still need more of them, and all around your plant. You can plant seeds straight from the bag, most folks just germ them to give them a bit of a head start, I think.

el seca leche said:

http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/...nt-130129.aspx

so 1 bulb is equal to 100 watts?

and can I plant a seed that im germinating that has barely opened up?

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I probably wont be going to the store till later so what can I do with these current lights?

BTW my room is very cold due to the weather about 30 degrees

30 degrees fahrenheit?They'll die.So will you for that matter!I guess use what you have till you get better stuff, and try making a little grow tent area to trap the heat in from the lights.As an aside, I lived without heat for a while as a kid.Fill a two liter bottle up with the hottest water you can get from your faucet and put it in bed with you.Bundle up, it will help you stay warm all night.Put some on your feet too.I hope you just meant your grow room, not your bed room.

el seca leche said:

I probably wont be going to the store till later so what can I do with these current lights?

BTW my room is very cold due to the weather about 30 degrees

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you might want to keep one of those plant lights in there for the heat cuz 30 is pretty cold man

tell me about it

im shaking all over