
There are many types of lighting to choose from however, florescent light is mainly the most valuable and professional source of artificial light to grow hydro weed marijuana seeds and to achieve an optimal weed crop.
Florescent lamps are the long tubes typically seen in institutions such as offices.
They require a fixture to contain them which contains the lamp sockets and ballast or transformer which can work on an ordinary house current.
Lighting Tubes and their fixtures can range in lengths as small as four inches to long as 12 feet.
The most commonly used florescent tubes are around four feet to eight feet long.
The problem with smaller tubes is they emit too little light for the marijuana plants to grow dynamically where the longer tubes are bulky and are extremely hard to find.
The growing quarter must be large enough to hold one or more of these lighting fixtures through a height of at least six feet.
This is the ideal length you want the marijuana to be as the marijuana plants begin to grow. Light Fixtures come in various forms; some may hold from one to six lighting tubes and may include a reflector which is used for directing more light to the marijuana plants.
Other light fixtures are built with holes in the reflectors to provide a way for heat to escape and not burn the marijuana crop; these lights are ideal for areas where heat builds up quickly.
Try to get fixtures that have tubes spaced apart rather than close together to prevent heat problems and risking the marijuana crop burning.
The fluorescent tubes and their suitable fixtures are available at several different wattage or outputs. Standard or regular output tubes use about 10 watts for each foot of their length.
For example, a four foot tube has about 40 watts and an eight-foot tube about 80 watts.
High Output (HO) florescent tubes use about 50 percent more watts per length than regular output tubes and release about 40 percent more light.
An eight-foot High Output (HO) tube runs on 112 to 118 watts.
Very High Output (VHO) or Super High Output (SHO) tubes emit about two-and-a-half times the light and use nearly three times the electricity (about 212 to 218 watts per eight-foot tube).
The amount of light you supply your marijuana plants and the length of the tube determine the size of the marijuana garden. Marijuana will grow with as little as 10 watts per square foot of growing area.
But the more light you give the plants, the faster and larger your marijuana grows. The ideal minimum wattage is at least 20 watts per square foot.
The minimum-size garden will provide a four foot fixture with a pair of 40 watt tubes which equates to a total of 80 watts.
Dividing total watts by 20 (watts per square foot) gives 80w divided by 20watts/sq. (feet=four square feet) (an area one by four feet).
A four-tube (80 watts each) eight-foot fixture would give: 320w divided by 20w/sq. ft. = 16 sq. ft. or an area the length of the tube and about two feet wide.
Very high output (VHO) and high output (HO) fluorescent tubes in application don’t illuminate as wide an area when the marijuana plants are young.
Because the light source is one or two tubes rather than a collection. Once the marijuana plants are growing well and the light system is raised higher, they will illuminate a wider area.
You can figure about 25 watts/ (ft*ft) for high output (HO) and 35 watts/(ft*ft (or foot squared)) for very high output (VHO) to determine garden size to grow hydro weed.
A two tube, eight-foot very high output (VHO) light fixture will light an area the length of the tube and one and a half feet wide.
Always remember that the more light you give the marijuana plants, the faster they will grow. Near 50w/sq. ft. a point of diminishing returns is reached, and the yield of the marijuana garden is then limited by the space the plants have to grow.
For maximum use of electricity and space, about 40watts/sq. ft. is the highest suitable to marijuana seeds grow hydro weed.
When you grow hydro weed under this much light the growth rate is unbelievable.
More than one marijuana grower has said they can hear the plants growing meaning the leaves rustle as growth changes their position.
A standard output tube can work as well as even better than very high output (VHO) lights if four or more eight food tubes are used in the garden.
When you grow marijuana seeds hydro weed it is difficult to compute the size of a marijuana crop because of the entire variables that determine growth rate.
A traditional estimate for an efficient marijuana seeds garden is one ounce of weed that being pure smoking material per square foot of the garden every six months.