Quote Originally Posted by solid6
Well I was going to get a 600w for my 4x4 grow tent and will have cooling system set up in it, but was told a 400w would do just fine, your opinion? Also a guy from the hydro store told me I could veg under my floro but didnt specify how long. Im only thinking about vegging to about 12"-18" but 16-24 at a time then forcing to flower in the grow tent so as I only need the grow tent area and outside the tent vegging with the floros, I dont really want to make another seperate section. would I get that height in 2 weeks under my floros or would I run into problems. Its all trial and error which makes this a great hobby, especially for me while I study but dont want to hurt the seedlings either. As I said, I was wanting to do a higher number of plants because Im using this Hydro bucket method not exact but very similar. let me know YHO.
16-24 plants is a lot of plants. 6 flowering female plants is about the max for a 400 watt light. A 600 watt light can handle about 8-10 max. You would need a light mover to do more.

Under 4 foot floro tubes, I find the seedlings get tall, weak and spindly after 2 weeks. That's why I switch to the 400 watt light to finish veg cycle. If you used the stronger T5 HO floro tubes or additional CFL lights; they would be better off, reaching the desired 12-18 inches. The MAIN goal of vegging plants is to develop a strong root system. If you rush veg, your screwed. I consider 4-5 weeks veg cycle the minumun time for veg. I recently tried vegging some bag seedlings for 3 weeks, and then put them into flowering. At the end of 3 weeks flowering, the plants root system didn't develop anymore, and didn't flower correctly. So I threw them out. I will NEVER veg less than 4-5 weeks again. enjoy...