[</litz>]

are there any opinions based from experience or experimentation as to which types of fluorescent lighting are best suited for seedlings/cuttings? what about led's?

the more I read about lighting the more convinced i am that it's impossible to really know anything at all unless you have lights yourself and know how2 grow. Havin these choices and no experience..

• lamps
• tubes t12 t8 t5
• cfl's

Is one better than the other? My needs are small, no more than 20 seedlings/cuttings.

[ProGroWannabe]

T5's are your best bet. I have some hazes flowering under an 8-bulb T5 fixture and they are lovin life. We all know that you can veg plants with less light than it takes to flower the same plants, but with a stronger light you'll see shorter nodes and faster growth overall.

FWIW...I've vegged and flowered with HPS and although the plants that were flowered under the HPS were heavier, they were not as healthy as the ones I've done under the floros. In veg, it was hard for me to see any difference in health. The plants under HPS WERE bigger in veg as well, but not by much.

My recommendation would definitely be for a T5 setup for veg. Cfl's work well too and are generally a bit cheaper to replace once they go out, but I had to keep moving my plants to keep them close enough to the cfls to utilize the cfl's efficiency to the fullest. With a flat fixture (as in the T5's) all one has to do is lower the light or raise the plants as they grow.