grrrr. lights are a pain.

so Im going with flora lighting for my first time growing.
the first lamp we got was just because the store didnt have what we wanted so we went back the next day and got this other light after we had measured our space and figured out that our space is TWO INCHES too small to hold a 4 ft flora light fixture.

so we got this 3 foot dual bulb fixture and had to figure out a way to modify it to hold chains instead of wall mount. thankfully we havent modified it yet because i took it out of the box and realized it didnt fucking come with an outlet plug.

so i have no fucking idea where to get a 3FT flora light with an outlet. i found something at Lowes that would work but it is a hardwired fixture as well. arg. this is too much work for a lady with no electrical experience to be dealing with.

they did have shop lights but i'm under the impression that those give off heat. and I checked lamps plus online before driving there and since they are more of like a chandelier store they dont have anything in the way of a big phat flora light.

where do i go?
the closest grow shops that Im aware of are about 45 minutes away and since my seeds are sprouting and will probably be ready within the next 2-3 days I need to find something closer. any store suggestions?

how many plants are you starting?

why not just wire up some light sockets and get CFL's??? wiring is not that hard, with light bulbs theirs not even a ground.... get a bunch of light sockets and a pig tail w/ plug to wire them all too, if you do a search around here you should find a couple DIY plans for some nice CFL fixtures.... hell i saw one made out of a surge protector......

MDgrow said:

how many plants are you starting?

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well i have 11 seeds. but Im not sure that all of them will sprout. so far i see about 5 that look to be sprouting or on the verge of sprouting.

I think Ive decided to put them in my bedroom closet which can house a 4ft fixture (since all the hardware stores sell 2ft and 4ft fixtures except this one 3ft i found that would have to be hardwired. :-\ ) but Im just concerned for when they get bigger. I dont want my room to be overcome with stink! so Im really not sure what to do! Im so frustrated! who would have thought that practically every flourecent light would be sold as a hardwire unit instead of with an outlet plug. I have no electrical capabilities, so that could be a complete disaster if i even attempted to wire it myself.

well with 11 plants i think i will retract my previous comment cause you would need a boat load of CFL's to cover 11 plants (I personally have 8 CFL's for one plant for veggin and gonna up it to 14 for flowering).... Floros or HID's is your only option

420inmyapt said:

why not just wire up some light sockets and get CFL's??? wiring is not that hard, with light bulbs theirs not even a ground.... get a bunch of light sockets and a pig tail w/ plug to wire them all too, if you do a search around here you should find a couple DIY plans for some nice CFL fixtures.... hell i saw one made out of a surge protector......

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I may end up having to, but i called fred meyers and they have a fixture that has a plug on it for $10 so Im going to go look at it. it is 4 foot. I had considered that i could put it at a slant in the closet i was planning to use since its only 2 inches shy of 4ft, but then i was concerned about it not being low enough for certain plants.

superhighme said:

who would have thought that practically every flourecent light would be sold as a hardwire unit instead of with an outlet plug. I have no electrical capabilities, so that could be a complete disaster if i even attempted to wire it myself.

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So let me get this straight, you have a fixture right with no plug? so you have three wires i am assuming coming out of your floro fixture? are those wires white, black, and green(or yellow)? if so i will PM you a simple diagram on how to wire a plug to your fixture...honestly its super simple....

420inmyapt said:

well with 11 plants i think i will retract my previous comment cause you would need a boat load of CFL's to cover 11 plants (I personally have 8 CFL's for one plant for veggin and gonna up it to 14 for flowering).... Floros or HID's is your only option

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well Im really not sure that all of them will sprout. especially two that are a little discolored. somewhere between gray and brown. Im figuring those two have a probable chance of not sprouting. so i guess we'll see. they all sank within 12 hours and then i transfered them to the papertowels and put a bowl over the plate so that they would remain in darkness. theyve been in towels since monday around noon, so Im figuring by friday or sometime this weekend they will hopefully be ready to plant. seems like its taking forever. only one of them has a decent sprout on it.

420inmyapt said:

So let me get this straight, you have a fixture right with no plug? so you have three wires i am assuming coming out of your floro fixture? are those wires white, black, and green(or yellow)? if so i will PM you a simple diagram on how to wire a plug to your fixture...honestly its super simple....

Click to expand...

well the extra strange thing is that there is no wires hanging out if it. I can see inside that there is a blue and yellow wire, but i wouldnt have any idea where they are supposed to come out of since they fixture is completely enclosed besides the mounting fixture. its the weirdest hardwire setup Ive seen. theres these little metal circles on it that look like they could be punched in but I may just end up returning it and getting this shoplight flora and then figuring out what bulb it comes with or what type of bulbs they have that would be better. i forgot to ask if it was dual bulb. Im guessing not considering its a $10 fixture. :-\ if it ends up not being the right thing then i may just buy a plug kit and freaking wire it.

Im pretty sure its just like blue to blue, yellow to yellow or yellow to white and black to black. ect. basically matching the colors?