Hey Everyone,
I am in the process of upgrading my set up. I currently have a 4x4 running and want to incorporate a veg setup to allow for less downtime between harvests. I am a little strapped on space, as well as funds at the moment, and was wondering if anyone has any insight into the minimum requirements. Would something like this allow me to keep several plants in 1 gallon pots going in veg?
If they don’t get enough light they get all stretchy and what not. I got these fixtures off amazon and bulbs from walmart, for my small chambers, but I don’t know how safe it is. I’ve gotten a small electric poke a couple times on the small metal parts inside the cut open bulbs if it hits my arm just right. Its a poor mans set up for sure, but pumps some decent light over a small area. A fixture that spreads the bulbs out a little more might work better for your situation.
Save your money I wouldn’t even try to clone with those.
Are you looking to just keep them alive or keep them alive and thriving?
A couple shop lights or t5 fixtures with lamps will keep them alive, and with enough of them they will even thrive. Light and photons are an integral part of photosynthesis.
How many is several plants in the 4x4 space in one gallon containers? You can use some basic formulas to assess your setup and compare it to what others are using and how it’s working for them. 4x4 = 16sqft
With 250 watts of HID or T5’s that’s 15.6 watts per square foot. That’s about the minimum amount of lighting that would keep several plants alive and borderline healthy in that space. Slightly less if not using the entire footprint, and more I’d you’re wanting to accelerate growth. Unfortunately those 20 watts lamps you linked won’t do what you want. Much love
yes these are great. i have one from amazon that holds 7 LED bulbs i got from the dollar store and its not only ok, its actually an amazing veg light. i use 6 cool white bulbs around the outside and one warm white in the middle. very cheap and effective and should last for years
I’ll throw in another vote for the led light bulbs (commonly called “sils”). They make a fine veg light, and if you get enough of them you can flower under them too! Maybe not the best solution, but definitely workable. 
There is an example on another forum of a guy who uses only sils in bathroom vanity strips in a micro grow to grow some ridiculous sativas from Ace, really impressive stuff. That is the example that got me into using the sils.
I agree that LEDs rule.
I’m a bit confused. Are you trying to light up a 4x4 or set up a veg space to accommodate a 4x4 for flower?
Conventional wisdom says something like 20 w/sq ft. My veg light is way overpowered for my space but I like to flower with it sometimes too so it was a good move.
Thanks for the info, I am looking into finding a suitable veg space that would allow for me to flower in my 4x4 which can accommodate 4 plants in 7 gallon pots.
I would love to have them thrive, and allow for them to get to a size that would provide somewhat of a seamless transition to my current flower area.
My veg is a 2x2 and my flower is a 2x4. It works but the last few weeks of veg can be a little dicey space wise.
I would do it differently if I had more floor space but I don’t.
I run regs, if you’re running fems it would work even better. My veg light is 100w.
Genetics can play a big part in how much veg the plants need before flowering. If you’re looking for an all around general approach I would suggest 100-200 watts of T5’s at minimum, up to 400 watts or higher. I’m not as wel versed with the LEDs so can not really speak for them or against them but many use them and they seem to work fine too.
It’s mostly about usable photons by the plants across an ideal or as close to ideal wavelength as possible. If the veg thing is that much of an issue, maybe working with some sativa influenced hybrids would help offset the need to veg your plants a bunch before flipping.
In my example earlier I mentioned around 15 watts per foot, with decent horticultural lamps, should suffice at bare minimum but that’s really asking a lot of the genetics, your skill in keeping up with things, and the lighting equipment itself. Closer to 20 watts per foot and more, things start to become much more manageable, but it’s definitely doable with less. With the less lighting route I would recommend smaller containers to keep the plants closer together while they’re vegging out and maximizing the throw of the lamps. You can use BOGS double potting method to help conserve floorspace while maximizing root space as the plants grow, while at the same time maximizing the throw of the light. In essence, with the bare minimum approach, efficiency becomes paramount. You don’t want any light being thrown on the floor when it could instead be throwing onto a leaf surface. Much love
Thank you so much for this response! It has been very helpful in explaining the methodology! I am dealing currently with a suboptimal setup and space issue, and it seems my enthusiasm for growing seems to have outmatched my existing equipment. I have had a blast running plants both in veg and in flower outdoors this summer, and want to keep the train on the tracks indoors.
I think a good stopgap measure until I can get more equipment is to make use of some skylights in my home to allow me to at least start some plants in veg while the current flower run goes through the motions.
Just to add, the universe sure works in mysterious ways. I found someone selling a
1200w Mars Hydro Mars2 light, and I managed to get it for 20 bucks. Looks like problem solved for now.
Ah yes, the good old days of blurples, when manufacturers thought it was acceptable to list wattage on LEDs by adding up the individual wattage of every LED on the board rather than how much wattage they actually consumed from the wall. 
Not a bad deal for what’s probably a 120w equivalent though; other than looking ugly for pictures, they’ve always seemed good enough for veg to me.
Nice. That’s definitely the better choice. I run a Mars light too. If you really want to dial it in, for veg the best amount of light is between 300-500 par. That’s according to scientific studies. For flower you can max out at 1000 par unless your room has higher amounts of co2. Most people don’t have a par meter so you should go by the recommended hanging height or see if someone else posted a par map with hanging heights for that light. Watts just tell you the amount of power not the amount of light.
I use 3 generic $50 120w led grow lights. In my 4x4 veg/auto tent. You can find similar specced lights (mine was discontinued) on Amazon from $30-$60.
These are $10, 20 watt --100 watt equivalent. They can be color turned to millions of colors and are controllable remotely.
Certainly not a Valvoline product, but it will do. 
