fluorescent lights.. quick question

What wattage is there to use?
Fluorescents come in a wide range of watts any where from 4 to 214 watts that I have found.


the only fluorescent lights i can find are ranged between 8w-32w, thats in local shops around me, dont wanna order online will take to long to come,,, its my first time, just trying out for experimental use tbh, got 2 germinated seeds, gnna plant soon, just wondering on what kind off watt fluorescent i need? im guessing wouldnt need a high wattage as off little qauntity???

check out cfls while your looking, a little better than the tube flores, IMHO

go with any watt daylight 6500k i have GE Daylight 6500k 27w for veg and i have 23w & 42w 2700k soft white for flower...

For CFL, you can get standard bulbs at...

150w {flood} (42-38w real)
100w {house} (38-25w real)
60w {house} (24-18w real)

Wattage varies by manufacture, and there are newer micro-cfl's which are brighter and use less power than yesterdays CFL's. For growers lights, they have CFL's up to 150w true wattage, which is like a 250w-300w standard light. Those have many long "U" shaped tubes, and heat-up a lot.

For standard t-10 or t-8 bulbs... you might not want to waste your time. You will go broke buying bulbs and transformers, only to have all your plants die. Those shop-lights do not have enough output to make grass grow. They are just for lighting-up close objects like displays and fish-tanks.

t-5 and t-2.5 have enough coolness to place close enough to grow things, but they are still limited to what they can grow to full-size per wattage. (They actually create more heat than any HPS, inside the transformer, not inside the bulb.)

can anyone advise off a website link, for the spcific bulbs i need? like i said i only got 2 seeds, just wanna try it out for now, so could any one point me to the correct bulbs on a website in the uk??

You don't need any light until you see green. For very young seedlings, a single 42w in 6500k is enough for early veg. For plants approaching maturity a rule of thumb is 150w for the first plant and 100w for each additional. Note that you need to switch from mainly 6500k in veg to mainly 2700k in flower. And with cfls you have to get them in close, an inch or two except for very young seedlings.

Do a google search for CFL bulbs.

More lights, the better. More lights also lets you skimp a bit on wattage.
Use 3 32watt bulbs rather than 2 50 watt bulbs. You get more coverage and more lumens.
Mix up 65,56,50K lights with 40, 30,27K lights. More higher K lights for veg, more lower K lights for flowering.

Higher wattage CFLs get pricey, large, and the ballast produces quite a bit of heat.
I personally use CFLs.