Basic Set up/lighting

Setting up my grow room, and I have a couple of basic questions. I'm working with material I already have (namely a 2-receptacle fluorescent fixture with 32w bulbs), as lighting is the biggest issue since it's in my basement. I already have a dehumidifier if I need that, but we'll see.

It's a 4.5 x 5.5 space, and my main concern is if I should separate the area into a germination space and a flowering space, as the quality of light necessary appears to differ between these two phases. I'm not concerned with being able to have multiple grows at this point as much as I am getting the first one completed successfully, and it seems splitting the area would mostly benefit the concept of continuous growing. So really my main question at this juncture is whether my current lighting will be sufficient for flowering, or should I instead utilize it for early growth and invest in a different light to promote better buds?

I should stipulate that, though the grow room is quite spacious, I'm only looking for a small yield (two or three plants) initially as I experiment with the process.

Wow, 182 views and 0 replies...bummer...

So upon further review, I was able to obtain a 25w HPS for flowering, but I'm still posed with the same problem. It was suggested by a fellow grower off the boards that I indeed separate my flowering stock from the veg stock, but do so "vertically," which perplexes me. Also, I've seen that the HPS works great in conjunction with standard florescent bulbs, but if I split my grow space how will my flowerings take advantage of the light provided by my veggings? Or am I making to big a deal of this? My gut is telling me not to split, as this is my first time and really an experiment, and I'll only be producing three plants initially.

Suggestions?

Hey man, I'm high right now but wanted to reply. I'm not really understanding the situation or question... The only way you can take advantage of both is if you remove the plant that's flowering and put it in the dark when it's time

Your wattage seems very low to flower 2-3 plants in that size of a grow room. You could definitely get some seedlings or some clones to start vegging in that space with those lights, but you are going to want to supplement the CFL's with some higher wattage lights sooner rather than later or your yields are going to suffer greatly because the plant will not develop proper internode spacing etc. whether you use LED or HPS

Did you mean 250 watt hps? If that's the case then you will be able to flower a couple plants but more light would def help. Those floros are they t12 shop lights? T12s don't work well for growing. Maybe for clones and seedling but in veg and/or flower you want more. Even as supplemental light they won't help much as they would need to be a couple inches away from the plant. If you have t8 it's a little better and t5 would work well for veg.

When flowering you run lights 12/12. In veg 18/6 (24-0 or 20-4) so you need separate areas. Don't worry about setting up separate areas now just get this area dialed in. Get some proper lights, fans, etc.

Thanks, rwbock. The lights I have are t8s I believe, so I'm going to try and use those for the veg stage. It was a typo earlier, my flowering light is a 250w. I just got some seeds in, so I'll be finishing the room within the next week or so. I'll just play it by ear for now, as far as the veg to flowering goes, and hope that my three plants will be on roughly the same schedule. If not, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

You control the photo period so you dictate when they will flower. They will all be on the same schedule as far as that goes. If they are just random bag seed then the will finish at different times. Just remember using t8 keep it close to plant like 2"

Divide the area into vegging and budding space, budding space is 75% larger than vegging area, best to get to grow tents, use cfls or T8/T5's as there is too much heat in low wattage hps like the 250w hps, whatever you do, the more cash on the gear the more you will yield

SixStringStoner said:

It was suggested by a fellow grower off the boards that I indeed separate my flowering stock from the veg stock, but do so "vertically," which perplexes me.

Suggestions?

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The 250w will cover roughly 2'x2' or so. enough for 1-9 plants, depending on growing style. By 'vertically' that grower might have meant that depending on the height of the closet, the veging plants can be on a shelf above the flowering plants (the 250w would hang from the shelf). The vegging shelf need only be a couple feet high, since the floros will be nice and close to the short plants. It all depends on how you want to arrange the flowering and vegging areas. You will only need a very small space for vegging-- even if you have a couple of mother plants, 4 sq.ft. would probably be fine.