Which fluorescent grow lights should I use

Question from a fellow grower!

My question is there is supposed to be some 2 ft fluorescent lights that are just as good as regular grow lights, something about a soft white and another type, I can’t remember what it is. Anyway, I have 4 two light fluorescent ballasts and all. All I need is to know what kind of lights I need to use, as I’m on a fixed budget right now and I need to get some light on the 4 that have started coming. Can you help? I didn’t see anything in the forum about it.

I’m trying to find out which of the 2 fluorescent lights I need to use that are cheap, and great for the first part of the grow. Can you help me? I think 1 is soft light, but I can’t remember the other that goes along with it in a 2 tube setup.

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Well without knowing the exact fixture and ballasts your using its hard to point you in the exact direction.
However as for lighting we can discuss that a bit.
These lights are called CFL’s and the higher the kelvins the more white the light, the lower the more red. In veg we want more blue light so anything 3500k or more will do fine.
In flower however 3500k or below (normally 3000k and below but 3500k is best of both world, to my knowledge it doesn’t come in CFL though)

CFL’s are great for starting seedlings but past that they are really not good, they must be as close as possible really to the plant as the light they give off dissipates very quickly.

The light fixtures with ballasts that take CFL’s however can also take led tunes with red and blue grow lights, I would strongly recommend trying to get those instead if you can but ultimately you will need more light if you wish to grow bud. #1 thing is good quality light.

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@Nicky OP had said 2ft , 2-tube fixtures. I know they make purple “grow light” tube bulbs for those and WAY back in the day we used’em on houseplants in winter to keep’em healthy but not sure if NEAR enough wattage, as you said, to deliver the PPFD and PAR values needed to get massive buds. I’ve never tried it though so who knows? lol

EDIT* they also are a better option for 6500k or 5000k bulbs for the 'blue" for veg and probably more options on the red spectrums/coloring also (than cfl)

When I started growing I had a 2ft T5 HO lights with 5 or 6 6500k bulbs and 3000k bulbs ( white & red bulbs) Yes it grew buds that where light and airy maybe got 2 or 3 grams. I now use it to germinate my seeds.

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@TheVirginian
Yes but are the T4? T6? T8?

@Deepsix yeah not the greatest but if that’s all they have then can at. Least point them in the direction of what bulbs to get.

Yet of course I don’t think anyone should be trying to flower with anything less than a spider farmer

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Yes I agree with that, but live and learn. After talking to @dbrn32 and @Myfriendis410 I bought a HLG led light after my first grow.

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Yea my hlg is nice, however I’ll only buy kingbrites moving forward due to price per light output. I like the uv that kingbrite also puts in its like hlg rspec with a boost.

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My problem is that I can’t trust any light from overseas, including this brand, due to their predatory marketing. No way to know without testing output yourself to know if what they claim is real or memorex.

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That’s a fair concern, with spider farmer 3rd party PAR tests are on YouTube of most of their lights if not all of them.
Kingbrite not so much but they are by far better quality then spider farmer and looking as side by side tests between my hlg and my kingbrites I know the kingbrites do a better all around job so I personally am satisfied but I can understand why many woildnt trust the Chinese. Heck I don’t trust them majority of the time.