New grower, I need help with lighting.

I have a space that I would like to grow in that has rather strange dimensions. It is about 2ft wide, 17ft long, and 6ft tall. I am planning on growing black widows with soil in pots. I think I will just line them up on one side of the wall so that I can get to the back of the room to water them.

What type of lighting setup do you guys think would be best for this? Would it be best to have a 200w hps/mh light for every 2 plants? What if I use a 400w and dim it 50% is that ok? I was looking at these ones on amazon they are 400w mh/hps lights that have a dimmable ballast.
http://www.amazon.com/iPower-GLSETX400DHMWING-400-Watt-Digital-Dimmable/dp/B005DO30MI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1348533970&sr=8-3&keywords=hps+lights

It is just kind of a pain to pay for and put in 7 fixtures in a row, so any other solutions are welcome. I have also considered 4 400w on light movers, or maybe just to use cfls. I am not really worried about the heat that they put off. It is in the basement and it will probably be very cold (I would probably need to heat the room anyways if I wasn't using the lights). I would really appreciate any help that people can give me since I am new to this. Thanks.

4 400 on light rail would be killer! You might want to still vent tho imo

are you planning on using that whole space for a grow or only a part of it??

i personally would go with a few 600s or even 1000 watters over the smaller sized lamps.. i'm usually not the biggest fan of 1k's as they put out the most heat and are less productive than a 600 watter watt per watt, lumen for lumen, 600's put out more lumen's per watt than any other wattage light..

You pose an interesting challenge. Right away I would have a problem with getting to the plants (which you will need to) plus I'm claustrophobic LOL I'm not a big fan of light movers, but this may be an application that will save money. I agree with Racer that 600w bulbs would do the best. I use Yield master II Supreme reflectors and they are 22 1/2" wide so check dimensions.
I'm a lazy slug and would use the best soil mix available so I would have the least amount of work. Will you be vegging in another area to minimize getting in there and hauling them out for transplanting?
Whatever you do....have fun!

Thanks for the replies guys. I am planning on using the whole room (or at least most of it), and same room for vegging and flowering. I am curious as to why you guys think 600 is the best solution. It is kind of a strange problem, since I am growing in such a long narrow line. What distance would the 600w lights cover? In other words, how many would I need for this space? It seems to me like the 600 would be overkill, since it would cast much of it's light out over a distance that is much greater than my grow space. i.e. It covers a 6x6 space (or whatever it is, I don't know) but I only need it to cover a 1ftx6ft space.

How wide would you guys expect a black widow to get? I only have a 2ft wide space, so just wondering how hard it will be for me to get back there to water them.

Looking forward to what you guys have to say!

samsonite17 said:

Thanks for the replies guys. I am planning on using the whole room (or at least most of it), and same room for vegging and flowering. I am curious as to why you guys think 600 is the best solution. It is kind of a strange problem, since I am growing in such a long narrow line. What distance would the 600w lights cover? In other words, how many would I need for this space? It seems to me like the 600 would be overkill, since it would cast much of it's light out over a distance that is much greater than my grow space. i.e. It covers a 6x6 space (or whatever it is, I don't know) but I only need it to cover a 1ftx6ft space.

How wide would you guys expect a black widow to get? I only have a 2ft wide space, so just wondering how hard it will be for me to get back there to water them.

Looking forward to what you guys have to say!

Click to expand...

600's because the plants will need them. 400's can do OK but much better yield in that skinny space with 600s or 1000s. It will be hard getting back so SCROG will be a must. Lay off the Ben & Jerry's. Rectangular air cooled hoods too. They throw a rectangular pattern and you will need the cooling in the canopy area.

You will have virtually no reflection from walls so light penetration is even more important.

Split that room in 2 a veg and a flower

How about a kind of 'vertical grow' on a light mover?
Paint both walls white, run the rail along the roof and the light hanging down with plants each side. Wire mesh 6" from each wall through which the buds are trained and 12" to squeeze through the middle. Two 600's.

p.s. at four foot high and 12 ft long that would give you a scrog screen of 48 ft square! And leave 5 ft for a split level veg (250w, 4 ft high) area and cloning area above it.

calimedds said:

Split that room in 2 a veg and a flower

Click to expand...

+1
Also I 3 600 watt will produce way better flowers. 1 light for veg and 2 for flower

If you can split the room then you can scrap the light rails...which I think make the overall use of light less efficient, but that is arguable in this space. Painting the walls flat white is also a good idea. 600w lights are good for about a 4x4 area and have about 6' of penetration so they will work fine. 12" down the middle LOL at me weighing in at 275...plus a bit-o-claustrophobia...I'd never make it

So it sounds like the consensus is to go with splitting the room and using 600w hps lights. So I think I will plan on growing 11 or 12 plants under 2 600w hps lights, and use the other space for vegging (just as someone recommended). And yes, it will definitely be difficult getting in and out of there everyday But luckily I am a pretty small guy, I can crawl on the floor if I have to ;0

Is it OK to use cfls to veg? Any recommendations on how to veg with two tiers. There is a pipe in the middle of this section, so I don't think that tube flourescents will work. What is the best way to light the vegging station with cfls?

samsonite17 said:

So it sounds like the consensus is to go with splitting the room and using 600w hps lights. So I think I will plan on growing 11 or 12 plants under 2 600w hps lights, and use the other space for vegging (just as someone recommended). And yes, it will definitely be difficult getting in and out of there everyday But luckily I am a pretty small guy, I can crawl on the floor if I have to ;0

Is it OK to use cfls to veg? Any recommendations on how to veg with two tiers. There is a pipe in the middle of this section, so I don't think that tube flourescents will work. What is the best way to light the vegging station with cfls?

Click to expand...

Go back and re-read the dudes post talking about SCROG with wire. That would produce a lot of bud.

I re-read it, but I don't know if that is a good idea. I thought that making it one plant wide in a 2 foot area would be pushing it. I think that 2 plants would be hard to pull off. Do they really not get any thicker than 6 inches total? What do you guys think?

Even if I used only one row, do you think that I should still use scrog? This will be my first grow so I would like to keep it as simple as possible, but of course I would like to have high yields.

could any1 tell me if these plants look good

racerboy71 said:

are you planning on using that whole space for a grow or only a part of it??

i personally would go with a few 600s or even 1000 watters over the smaller sized lamps.. i'm usually not the biggest fan of 1k's as they put out the most heat and are less productive than a 600 watter watt per watt, lumen for lumen, 600's put out more lumen's per watt than any other wattage light..

Click to expand...

......watt?.......

Unless you can get special reflectors, I don't see the point of going with 600s because you won't be able to orient them properly. Painting the walls flat white will be essential to make use of as much light as you can. I wouldn't put up mylar or anything like that because you're going to be squeezing up against the walls all the time. One row of plants in 2 ft width should give you room to get by. I really think you'd be better off going with more lower wattage lights but I haven't priced 250s or 400s versus 600s. If the price differential is small, I would go with 600s. You can never have too much light. However, heat could be an issue in that room even in a cold basement if you packed in enough 600s to properly cover the length of the space.

You should also consider where the entrance(s) to the space is (are) when setting up the room. You definitely want to have a separate veg area. I didn't really consider that when I set my space up but I got lucky because I was able to convert the area under the sink I put in into a veg area. It's small and a pain to get to, but better than nothing.

As far as CFL cruise around this site for info. T-5(s) are often used for veg..again be wary of your area's width. Larger CFL's work, too, but T-5's are probably more bang for the buck.
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/grow-bulbs-fluorescent-c-73.html

I use these, too:
http://www.atlantishydroponics.com/VIAGROW-Viagrow-Heavy-Duty-Ratchet-Light-Hanger-Mover-6113

2x 600's per light rail and run 2 light rails cause most rails can cover up to like 6 feet.

Even in a basement in winter it can warm up quick with a few HID lights.... so aircooling might still be an option you want to look at.

@somebody- That is what I was originally thinking would be the most efficient, but everyone so far has said 600w hps is best.

So I was thinking of getting two of these (600w hps 150$) for the flowering room
http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Light-Hydroponic-Reflector-Comparable/dp/B005HB33J2/ref=sr_1_4?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1348682279&sr=1-4&keywords=600+watt+hps
The cheapest 250w I could find after a small amount of searching is 110$ and the cheapest 400w is 135. So I suppose two 600w hps lights would be the most economical, and put off the most light for the money. Are two 600w hps lights ok for 12 plants all lined up in a row?

As for scrog, do you guys think that is necessary? Obviously, I want the plants to grow more vertically then horizontally, I thought scrog was more for horizontal growth in order to maximize the surface area of the light hitting the buds. I could put a 1 ft screen coming out from the wall I suppose. Any thoughts on this? I would like to make it as simple as possible though.