How To Set Up Fluorescent Grow Lights

The downsides of fluorescent grow lights.

How to set up fluorescent grow lights. Studies have shown that fluorescent lights have a much lower yield per watt ratio. Fixture above your seed trays. The distance between light and plant varies but at least 10 inches 25 4 cm is a good rule. Find a location in your home to set your plants and install the lighting.

A single fixture like this is perfect for seedlings and clones by using 2 or 3 fixtures above your plants you can increase the effective light zone to around 24 inches of good light. As a rough guide incandescent grow light bulbs should be at least 24 inches over your plants. Here is what you will need to set up your own grow light system. When you first start the seeds the light bulbs should be only a couple of inches max above the seed tray.

With the right bulbs in place your fluorescent shop light will provide enough light to grow healthy plants up to 10 or 12 inches tall. Place grow lights directly over plantings to mimic natural sunlight. Fluorescent grow lights this powerful actually produce a lot of heat but they are still much safer to use inside a prefabricated grow tent than bare hid bulbs. As germination occurs start adjusting the lights up but maintain them at a few inches and no more above the plants.

Fluorescent and led lights have a lower heat signature so they can be placed 12 and 6 inches over plants respectively. Use mostly blue spectrum bars or bulbs but feel free to add in some red spectrum bars or bulbs as well especially toward the last two weeks of the grow cycle. Avoid placing lights more than 40 inches 101 6 cm from the plant. T5 s are not very effective for flowering.

Aaron von frank april 2 2019 at 11 23 am reply glad to hear you had good success with your diy grow light system paula. Great for medium sized grow operations. As long as you use our grow light coverage calculator and give your plants the wattage they need the number of lights is up to you. If you have the money to splurge on a grow light system this 3 tier garden grow light kit from gardener supply is a dream.

Getting enough light to the plants is a matter of keeping the light as close as possible to the plant using reflectors to focus the light and controlling the. Set up your light system. Hang the bulbs the proper distance away from your specific type of plant. Less efficient than led or hps lights.

My husband built this set up for me last year and we used daylight fluorescent bulbs instead of grow lights and were very pleased with the results. In a smaller grow say 2 x 2 it really only makes sense to use one grow light. The best fluorescent grow light overall. If you have a perpetual grow matters can get further complicated you will need lights for cloning veg and flower chambers.

Simple to use and set up.