florecent lighting

hey all, i am kinda a noob at this, well yes i am a noob. But hears my question and i am pretture shure sombody could anser. Currently i am running a 4 ft t12 shop lamp with 2, 40 w daylight 3000 candle light bulbs.

I was thinking doubling it up to two shop lights 4 bulbs, and switch two of the bulbs to a red spectrum for flowering. However i dont know if it is adiquite.

I would love to get more light, but i cant go hps because of the setup.
I was thinking maybe a higher power floresent but i cant really find a compleat assembully, relitively cheap.

I have a 5 * 2 room with 5 feet of hight as well. and i also have 7 plants. They seem to be doing just excelent in there with just the one fixture but there only veging currently.

so i guess my questions would be as follows.

1)Where can i get a ho 4 ft florecent thats good
2)Is there a better option that does not put out alot of heat.
3)how will the yeild compare with 4 40w t12's vrs a hps, will it be terrible.

I do not like posting here, but I decided to make an account to answer your question as I have had pretty good experience with fluorescent lighting.

My first grow was a 2'X4' ScrOG using 12 T12 bulbs. I managed to get between 5 and 6 ounces of marijuana on my first grow using them. It was an ebb & flow system using bagseed and General Hydroponics three-part nutrient solution. I started with 4 plants, two of them turned out to be male, leaving me with two females to fill the screen with.

My costs after taxes for the 6 fixtures and 12 bulbs was just $78. Don't worry about buying the best fluorescent tubes that you can; they degrade too fast to make it worth your money. I used Philips 40W bulbs; 8 3000k and 4 6500k. Don't get the 4500k, use a mix of the two extremes instead.

Something else I was doing with my lights was using small lengths of chain and attaching one side of the fluorescent reflector to the actual chain holding it up. This caused the light to tilt at a particular angle and was excellent side lighting for non-ScrOG growing.

I enjoyed that first setup so much that I build an identical one in the same room and am using them both to grow some non-cannabis plants. I actually plan on ScrOGing some cherry tomatoes in the next couple of months.

The most important thing when growing with fluorescent tubes is to get the plants as close as possible to the actual bulbs. I actually let my growing tips grow between the two bulbs in the fixtures. My lights were raised just high enough that they weren't bending the buds; they were most definately touching some of them though.

Fluorescent tube fixtures put out quite a bit of heat--Don't neglect the heat management if you choose to use more than 2-4. Laying a propagation dome on top of those hot fixtures works great for seed starting and cuttings (sometimes they even get too hot and humid).

I think I have done enough rambling. If you have any questions, let me know. I will try to check up on this thread over the next few days and answer any questions that you have to the best of my ability.

~Scarlet (Chose 'Cavedog' because Scarlet was taken and I didn't want to pick a better name than 'Cavedog'. Maybe you will see me post again under another username as Scarlet sometime if I ever decide that I don't mind posting on this board after all.)

P.S. Be sure to check out this low-priced alternative to the larger HPS systems. $77.95 MSRP 150W HPS Complete System

P.P.S. Stinkyattic, thanks for all of the reliable information over the years!

***** Please delete my first message. I was not aware that I only had 10 minutes to edit my posts. I promise to edit before posting next time. If you could delete this little note too that would be cool. *****

I do not like posting here, but I decided to make an account to answer your question as I have had pretty good experience with fluorescent lighting.

My first grow was a 2'X4' ScrOG using 12 T12 bulbs. I managed to get between 5 and 6 ounces of marijuana on my first grow using them. It was an ebb & flow system using bagseed and General Hydroponics three-part nutrient solution. I started with 4 plants, two of them turned out to be male, leaving me with two females to fill the screen with.

My costs after taxes for the 6 fixtures and 12 bulbs was just $78. Don't worry about buying the best fluorescent tubes that you can; they degrade too fast to make it worth your money. I used Philips 40W bulbs; 8 3000k and 4 6500k. Don't get the 4500k, use a mix of the two extremes instead.

Something else I was doing with my lights was using small lengths of chain and attaching one side of the fluorescent reflector to the actual chain holding it up. This caused the light to tilt at a particular angle and was excellent side lighting for non-ScrOG growing.

I enjoyed that first setup so much that I build an identical one in the same room and am using them both to grow some non-cannabis plants. I actually plan on ScrOGing some cherry tomatoes in the next couple of months.

The most important thing when growing with fluorescent tubes is to get the plants as close as possible to the actual bulbs. I actually let my growing tips grow between the two bulbs in the fixtures. My lights were raised just high enough that they weren't bending the buds; they were most definately touching some of them though.

Fluorescent tube fixtures put out quite a bit of heat--Don't neglect the heat management if you choose to use more than 2-4. Laying a propagation dome on top of those hot fixtures works great for seed starting and cuttings (sometimes they even get too hot and humid).

I think I have done enough rambling.

~Scarlet (Chose 'Cavedog' because Scarlet was taken and I didn't want to pick a better name than 'Cavedog'. Maybe you will see me post again under another username as Scarlet sometime if I ever decide that I don't mind posting on this board after all.)

P.S. I didn't actually get around to answering your questions, so here it goes:

1)Where can i get a ho 4 ft florecent thats good: The highest output T12 bulbs are all 40W. Pretty much the only thing that is going to differ between low quality bulbs and 'those special super-duper $12 a piece high-output bulbs' is the actual color spectrum that the bulb produces. In my opinion, it is absolutely not worth anyone's time or money to buy those special 'super-duper $12 a piece high-output bulbs'. Stick with any cheap 40W bulbs that are in 3000k and 6500k color temperatures.

2)Is there a better option that does not put out alot of heat: Yes, be sure to check out this low-priced alternative to a larger HPS system. $77.95 MSRP 150W HPS Complete System I cannot vouch for the heat output of this little sucker, but I would assume that it is less than fluorescent fixtures of an equal lumen output.

3)how will the yeild compare with 4 40w t12's vrs a hps, will it be terrible: As long as you are keeping the entire bulb surface within a few inches of your plants, it is not going to be "terrible". If you did the same thing that I did on my first grow, with 1/3 the light (4 40W bulbs), you would get 1/3 the bud. Can you deal with 2 ounces in a 8"X4' area using 4 40W T12 bulbs?

If you have any other questions that you would like me to answer, just ask. I will try to check up on this thread over the next few days and answer them.

P.P.S. Stinkyattic, thanks for all of the reliable information over the years!