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Old April 12, 2016   #3
drew51
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Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Sterling Heights, MI Zone 6a/5b
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My first thought is car lights would be no where near powerful enough for tomato plants.
You need lights you can grow pot under as tomatoes demand just as much light. What is the lumen output? I just use T5's and get over 28 thousand lumens. From VHO lights. I would see this a a minimum so however many it takes to at least get that much light is what you need.
I just want mine for seedlings thus do not need any red light, all my lamps are 6500K.
Not all headlamps are equal! The 9006 for example gives 1000lm. A D2S Xenon metal halide arc has about 3000lm. So about 9 of the latter focused on one spot would work.

I use a T5 VHO and a T5 HO. The VHO gives out over 28,000 lumens with 4 bulbs.

The T5 HO is probably not strong enough at 20,000. Great for seedlings, but 8 foot plants? No! You need hemp grade lamps.

Last edited by drew51; April 12, 2016 at 10:33 AM.
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