Hey, I was just wondering as I am new to growing.. is it possible to grow cannabis with normal room lights (50 watt)?
Not really! If it was, everyone would use them - but they don't. You need to use lights that are intense in the spectrums that are useful to plants - primarily at the blue and red ends of the spectum. Blue for vegetative growth and red for the flowering stage. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the bottom line. At this time even the "best" HID growlights (metal halide and high pressure sodium) are about 70-75% inefficient, that is to say that about 70-75% of the energy used by the lights does not produce light energy that is useful to the plant. Regular incandecsant lights just don't have the right spectrum with enough oomph! The best growlights we have at this time are still pretty pathetic compared to sunlight!
I dont understand though because one of my friends has been growing weed himself with about 4-5 normal 100watt lights... and are almost 3 feet tall... how does this work then..?
Yes, well the truth is that under 40 watt floro tubes pot can be vegged quite well for a time. The problem does become the needed red light in flowering and adequate intensity of total light. Small lights mean small yields but that doesnt mean you can grow pretty good buds for yourself using little investment. I have seen results from the 150 watt hps lights sold as security lights at home depot and a couple of them could finish some decent buds. The sun is twice as bright as the best flowering room. Some strains in my experience do well on less light than others and indicas seem to work better indoors as they dont stretch out as much even when lighting is subpar. Dont be discouraged but instead prowl the forums to find how small scale growers do it and experiment. While some strains do better outside than indoors there are others meant for indoors that excell indoors and dont do well outdoors in most climates. Some people are fortunate enough to live in a place where cannabis thrives outdoors but they are still afraid of growing outside. However you choose to grow it shows that you at least have some balls. Go for it! BOG
