Watts For The Beginning Of Veg

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tyler, I like to take long walks in the park, and really enjoy lounging around in a nice pair of slacks.

First off I'd like to say this site is absolutely incredible and has helped me attain a lot of information before i start my first grow.

Now for my question, the question is, I am starting my very first indoor closet ghetto grow, and would like to know how many lumens / watts i would need for the veg stage, I am doing my first grow in CFL's due to a relatively small budget, and am mainly going for a learning experience this time around and see how much bud i can get off a few plants. From what i have read and understood the veg cycle is about 3-4 weeks long. I plan on starting with 4 germinated bag seeds and putting them each into their own 3 gallon pot right off the get-go(bad idea?) Not lazy, just inexperienced transplanter and i heard more stress can increase chances of males. Now due to a small budget i am wondering how many watts/lumens i will need for each plant for the 3-4 weeks of veg (the bulbs i have bought are 5000k 27 watt) will 1 for each plant 1-2 inches away be sufficient enough to make it through 3-4 weeks and then upgrading to more of a red spectrum light (2700k) for flowering, i plan on using about 100-150 watts of CFL (2700k) per plant when it reaches the flowering stage, after i have picked the males out. Grow space is roughly 40 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and four foot high. How long would you reccomend i veg for (im willing to upgrade to more veg lights) to get the maximum quantity of bud off each plant in this grow area. Soil i will be using throughout veg and flowering will be Miracle Gro Moisture Control (reccomend anything else available locally at Home Depot?) and no nutrients during vegetative stage (unless reccomended) but will be feeding nutes throughout flowering stage. Also there will be no ventilation 24/7 but i will be opening the door 2-3 times a day for an hour or two intervals to get fresh air. It does stay relatively cool in the room (60-65* F without any lights running) so i will be adding one fan just to circulate some air around.

Note: anything relating to watts is actual watts not equivalent watts


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

how many plants are you growing and how big is your grow space?

check out my post , title , ghetto growbox

You want at least 3,000 lumens per plant, in early veg.(more, is always better) They occupy less than a square foot, so that will be sufficient, til they get larger than that. It'll be close, by week 4. Buy some of those cheap cone-shaped reflectors, and hang one over each plant. That's the way to do it, IMO. You save alot of lumens that would otherwise, go to waste. Go with 42 watt CFLs, and you'll be much happier. The 27's will work though, don't get me wrong. They are just too close to the acceptable minimum, for my taste. That invites stretching, although it's not guaranteed. Sounds like you'll have them placed close enough, to take care of that. Also, go with two per plant, if you can.

Going directly to 3 gallon pots, is a great idea, as long as you have sufficient drainage. The only risk, is the soil staying wet for too long(small plants use little water), and the perlite will prevent that. Use at least 15%, and you should be okay. Go 20-25%, and you're golden.

Also, 5000K works very well for veg, because it's the same color temp as the suns output(very close). 6,500K is the accepted optimum color temp, so go with that spectrum, if you buy more bulbs. If not, the 5000K will work great. I used them for many grows, with great results. I'm actually going to do a side-by-side with 6500 vs. 5000, sometimes in the near future, and see if the recommendations are correct. I suspect they are, but just wanna see the difference. It'll be minimal, but still interesting.

Your plans for flowering, sound solid. 150 watts per plant, should do very well.

Great! Thank you so much for the feedback I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your help.

But a couple questions that remain unanswered i need some help with include:
A.) Would it be okay to use Miracle Gro Moisture Control soil throughout the complete Veg & Flowering cycles? If not what would you reccomend I use from Home Depot
B.) Could I get away with not using any nutes for the 4 weeks of Veg with this soil?
C.) What bloomer do you reccomend (if any) after I'm a couple weeks into flowering, that can be acquired at Home Depot

I am using Sta-Green from lowes, it has nitrogen , potassium , potash , pelite, lots of stuff good for growing , and havent added no nutrients what so ever , my plant is doing great.
Gonna use it for flowering to , jus gonna add some big bloom miracle grow for budding.

The problem here though is I don't have a Lowes conveniantly located near me :/ its about 45 mins to an hour to the nearest one, so if possible, could you reccomend a soil from Home Depot?

let me look up some at home depot and get back to you ina few mins.

Scotts premium potting soil with fertilizer is the brand name of it , already has nutes in it.
May do you do some .. jus chek the ingredients , cause the home depot site is down , but they have that there , jus chekced .

See if it has nitrogen , pelite , potassium , stuff like that in it .. if it does , when you water it , make sure you use lots of water so no nutrient burns .. should work

A) Yes, it'll work great, as long as you add perlite. I can't emphasize the perlite, enough. Skimp, and you're playing with fire.

B) Yes, it'll easily sustain them for that long. Any decent soil will.(practically. work with me here.lol) Add foliar feeding to your regimine, and that'll guaranteed it.

C) Imsohigh3 is taking care of that one, for ya.



EDIT: For the bloom fert, find something that has a noticeably higher P ratio, then N and K. No need to get more technical than that. Micro-nutes,(calcium, magnesuim, copper, etc...) are a plus, if the fert has them. Many do, so I'd look for one of those, specifically.

Sweet thanks for the help guys I appreciate it a lot. BUT I have one final question that i know everyone has heard thousands of times im sure

To your best knowledge of my grow environment and using the miracle grow moisture control soil, with added big bloom fert. with all the information I have gave, can someone give me a broad estimate or the closest educated guess I could expect from a dry yield off of each plant? Also I will not be topping and I want my plants to be around 3-4 foot high, at what height should i switch flowering to keep my plants around 3 1/2 - 4 feet

Flower at about 18-20", and that'll give you something in that range. Seriously though, I'd top them once or twice, because you don't have enough veg light, to promote natural branching. You'll need to force it, or add more light.


You should be around the 2 oz range, if all goes well. Possible, more, if all goes well.

well if you are gonna veg it to around 3 foot tall
it depends on how long you are gonna flower it?

im guessing if you have a 3 foot tall plant from veg , and flower it 6-8 weeks if you can flower it that long .. guessing 4-6 ounces maybe? not so certain , maybe get some more opinions but thats my opinion. & I guess i was right about that soil lol

Went to Home Depot today and got Miracle Gro Moisture Control Soil and Miracle Gro Organic Soil (both potting soils) and also picked up a bag of perlite, also bought 4 10" pots and put half and half of each soil into each pot, with about 20% perlite. How does that sound as far as my soil goes throughout veg & flowering, with added blooms during flowering later on

TyBeezy said:

Went to Home Depot today and got Miracle Gro Moisture Control Soil and Miracle Gro Organic Soil (both potting soils) and also picked up a bag of perlite, also bought 4 10" pots and put half and half of each soil into each pot, with about 20% perlite. How does that sound as far as my soil goes throughout veg & flowering, with added blooms during flowering later on

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If you did indeed add 20% perlite, it'll work well, contary to popular opinion. You might want to consider going with a bigger sized pot, right before the switch to 12/12. 10" will work okay, but if you go with 5 gallons, you'll do much better. That's assuming you are planning to end up normal sized indoor plants. Smaller plants won't really need the bigger size, although they'd appreciate it.

The 10 inch pots will work jsut fine , in my opinion
they are pretty deep in base , thats what i'm use'n atm.
I got pics of my plant under indoor growing , 2nd page I believe - comment ! thanks
Soil sounds like you did really well , goodjob!