Thread: my first system
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Old 03-07-2011, 05:52 PM
Rkfm Rkfm is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Laurel, MD
Posts: 19
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Capt, your set up looks very well made and efficient. However, you are going to be needing ALOT more light that a cfl can provide. Especially if you are going to grow cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

A good CFL like the one you have is fine at this stage, but the toms and cuckes will not grow very much and will not fruit. Unless you want to buy 6 or 7 CFLs to place in and around the plants. Even T5s would not work well because once the canopy gets higher, the lumens reaching the lower parts of the plant are negligible. Remember the inverse square law. Those 4700 lumen bulbs will be 1000 a foot away, then 250 at 24 inches.

Your set up looks compact, I would go ahead and buy a 400watt MH/hps. You can get a decent one for ~$160. Start with the MH bulb for veg growth, then an HPS bulb for fruiting. That 400watt bulb can cover a 4x4 foot grow space and provide 10,000 lumend at 30 inches.

For your lettuce bed tho, the CFL (or better the T5s) will work well because the lettuce has a low canopy and you can put the CFL or T5s right on top of them.

You've already spent some money on a well made system, why not bring out it's full potential with some proper lighting?

BK
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