I agree with what you said. I did the same thing starting out, got HID/fluoro lighting going until i got some crops under my belt. This will not only allow you to save up some cash, making the initial hit on LED's a little easier to swallow, but you'll also have a little more experience, and will most likely translate to more success once you DO end up switching over to LED's. I hope that made sense lol I just wakenbaked.
actually that makes perfect sense.
Lol thanks guys!
My main motivation is having two independent grow spaces now. Ive always just used one room for veg, flower everything. ive had to start and harvest crops all the way through so theres lots of down time between harvests (3-4 months on avg from germination to chop). Im excited to start a second are (even if its a the size of a glorified closet).
Im pretty sure i'll be set with the 2ft 2bulb fixture for clones/cuttings (plan on sticking two loaded 10x20 trays under it)
For the mothers/vegging plants: sometimes ill be doing mothers for clones...other times id like to veg my plants for my (soon to be) designated flower room which will have 2 600w hid lights. The flower room i'd like to run like this: 1 600w is designated to plants in the 1st month of the bloom cycle and the 2nd 600w will be designated to plants in the 2nd month of the bloom cycle (assuming i run 8wk strains).
so since ill be requiring a lot from my light for my vegging plants or mothers i think i'll need to step it up to a 4ft 6bulb t5 fixture or a 4ft 8bulb t5. im not sure which....i could use an opinion on this. i feel like a 400w mh would be overkill and wouldnt give the kind of footprint needed considering the vegging plants/mothers will have to be side by side by side by side instead of in rows or groups (like how you would grow under an HID)
Im psyched to do this. Ill finally always have something in veg and bloom at the same time (i previously didnt think i could do this due to my situation and size of my grow space).
fyi the flower area is huge like 10 x12 or 8x10 (cant remember exactly)
the veg area im speaking of btw is 83 inches tall...7 ft wide...25inches deep. its pretty small...i wanna put the clones on a shelf (hanging the t5 fixture from the ceiling). then have the mothers on the floor BELOW the shelf the clones sit on with the t5 fixure for the mothers suspended from that shelf the clones are on.
hope i didnt lose you guys on that one...its late and im stoned. lol
so to make it simple if you were looking at the finished room from ceiling to floor this is what you'd see in order:
ceiling
t5 fixture hooked to ceiling
clones under fixure sitting on shelf
shelf
t5 fixture hooked to shelf above
mothers/vegging plants side by side
floor.
open to suggestions but i think its a solid idea so far. just need to figure out what ill need for the moms/veg plants.