How many plants can I grow with fluorescent grow light? Guide for Cannabis Beginners

How many plants per light? 

This is sometimes an issue for novice growers and it has a pretty simple solution. The amount of plants per fluorescent grow light depends on the type of plants and how you grow them, apart from the space you have and the potency of the plants.

Practically all bulbs and lights can illuminate the same amount of space, and your plants will adapt to that space and the power of the lights; if you plant four 3 month autoflowering strains with a 600w light, with a 250w light you’ll do the same; the difference is that with a 600w light you can get 400-500g and with a 250w light you can get 120-200g. The second lot will grow slower but you’ll still fit the same amount of plants under the lights.

The Size Of Your Grow Space

When growing cannabis, a good rule of thumb is to use a minimum of 50 watts of light per square foot of grow space/grow tent. We want to flood our plants with light ( food ) so that they have lots of energy to produce big potent buds.

Therefore, we need to calculate the square footage ( length x width ) of our grow space. We’ll then multiply this number by 50w to give us the rough wattage of light we require.

How Many Plants Can I Grow?

In general, each cannabis plant you grow requires at least 1sq ft of space. After germination, I like to pot one plant in a large 5 gallon fabric container, which has a diameter of roughly 1 sq foot. My plant will stay in this pot until it flowers.

Choosing the Right T5 Grow Lights

To use T5 grow lights properly, there are a couple of things you need to know that will determine how successful you will be at growing under these lights. The first thing is how to choose the right T5 fixture and the right bulbs.

Fixtures: When it comes to choosing a grow light fixture, there are a couple of things to think about. First is the size requirements for this grow light. There are more than a dozen size variations, so you need to figure out the size of your indoor garden and then fit the lights to your space. T5 grow lights typically come in two different lengths and around six different bulb configurations. The most common T5 grow lights are 2- or 4-ft. long and have 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 or 12 bulbs per fixture. If you are thinking of growing only a few small plants, you might get away with having a 1- or 2-bulb set-up that is 2- or 4-ft. long, but if you want to grow a whole bunch of plants, you will have to invest in an 8- or 12-bulb set-up that is 4-ft. long. This larger size will cover a lot of plant mass without using too much electricity.

Bulbs: When it comes to choosing bulbs, there are even more options to choose from. Bulbs not only come in different energy varieties, but also in different color temperatures. When choosing between normal output (NO), high output (HO) and very high output (VHO) bulbs, I recommend going for the middle ones. HO bulbs are the best of both worlds—they are efficient, yet long-lasting, and will provide super-bright light for your plants.

To conclude, there isn’t an exact formula to follow when determining how many plants belong under each light. We recommend taking the following factors into consideration:

Type of plant being cultivated
Light fixture’s total output
Amount of space available — both horizontal and vertical!