clone lights strength

[blondlebanese]

what strength flourecent light bulb do I need to support clones?

 

[AluminumMonster]

I use one 13 watt cfl for one tray of cuts.

 

[Hushpuppy]

That depends on what you mean by supporting "clones". When you have cuttings that are rooting, you don't want a lot of light. A 2 bulb 2' T5 place about 20" above the cuttings will work fine as the light will dissipate at that distance and be just enough to keep the cuttings alive but not enough to induce veg growth. Once the cuttings have rooted and you see them begin to grow, then you need to move the lights down to about 1' above so that they get more light to support their growth but not switch them fully into veg growth yet.

At that point you can begin ffeeding them 1/4 strength nutes for about 1 week then go to half strength for the next feeding then to full strength once you see them responding well. As you increase feeding, you also should move the lights closer to support the growth and not cause stretching. After a couple weeks the lighting needs to be increased to full doses of lumens. If you have a 4bulb T5 either in 2' or 4', you can start with the 1 bulb then switch to 2 then to all 4. Then as the clones outgrow the space off the 4 bulb light, you need to add lighting to match or move the clones to the "veg tent" ffor full on veg lighting.