CFL's are stupid. I took them down.

^-----...Soooo Nice. i plan on using cfl's as well for 3 plants

Wow, I have come to the same conclusion, fdd....I like my old-fashioned shop light floros way better than the cfls I tried for seed starting and cloning.
Too much heat for relatively little light...I'll stick with the big tubes!

it's been 4 days and i already see a noticeable difference in growth rate.

Small wattage cfls are good for only one thing when it comes to growing and thats for a small amount of seedlings or clones, I still dont believe its worthwhile growing with cfls, if you can handle the heat why not just get a 400 interchangable hid system.

I've recently bought a pack of super skunk seeds from the sensi seedbank.

Inside was an information leaflet about how their plants grow best.

This is what it says about indoor growing under artificial light.

INDOOR

Strains suitable for growing indoor with artifical light. With regard to sensi seed bank strains, artificial lighting refers to a hid lamp of 400 watts or more. This should be considered the minimum amount of lighting necessary for indoor plants to reach their full potential. Indoor strains may also be grown outdoors at latitudes of 45 deg north and below.

I completely skipped over the cfl's....I used them for about a week....until my HPS arrived. I would NEVER use anything other than HID lighting to grow.

Knowing what I know now of course. Even for a small grow...one or two plants....I'd still use HPS. If the light bill is that important....then dont grow at all. Either way your bill will go up. And if it its going up anyway...why not get the best lights to produce the best results?

Come harvest time....cfl users will see how much better an HID is.

Very interesting conversation. Do not dismiss CFLs out of hand. They definitely have their place, especially for budget growers or growers with limited space. In my personal situation, which was a combo CFL/outdoor grow, they met my needs for supplemental lighting. Not everyone can afford the $$, space, risk of attention from ordering grow lights, and energy costs of a MH/HPS light. If you are a small time grower (under 8 plants) maintaining a mother, having a MH over it seems like overkill to me, especially if you are simultaneously flowering clones under HPS. Now don't get me wrong, if money and space is no object, you definitely should go the MH/HPS route.

Agreed...lighting a mother plant with an HPS/NH is overkill. Using cfl's to maintain a mom plant is cool. Agreed.

But for growing....I still have to say go with an HID if you can afford it. Dont get cfls to be cheap when you can afford something better. You get out what you put in...and if you can put lil more effort in....the end result should show it.

I know people have success with cfls throught the grow....but I want more bang at the end. Everything else being equal...A great grower using cfls should get an ok yield at the end.
But a newbie grower using an HPS (and avoiding major mistakes) should yield a lot more simply because of the light used.

Im a newb to growing....but Im doing well beacause of the help from this and other sites/books....and the equipment/growing environment I have. Take any one of those things out of the equation and Id probably be doing alot less.

hearmenow said:

Very interesting conversation. Do not dismiss CFLs out of hand. They definitely have their place, especially for budget growers or growers with limited space. In my personal situation, which was a combo CFL/outdoor grow, they met my needs for supplemental lighting. Not everyone can afford the $$, space, risk of attention from ordering grow lights, and energy costs of a MH/HPS light. If you are a small time grower (under 8 plants) maintaining a mother, having a MH over it seems like overkill to me, especially if you are simultaneously flowering clones under HPS. Now don't get me wrong, if money and space is no object, you definitely should go the MH/HPS route.

Click to expand...

How many cfls do you have to use to maintain just the mother plant and prevent it from stretching?

its funny cfl people remind of apple pc people. deny till death that theres a much better option available. yeah you can use a cfl to grow, and an apple to browse, But when you want the real deal, and need more than easy to use, want to hang with the big boys you gotta step up and get HID. And I almost threw 4 cfls at the wall the other day after watching it stretch the shit out of my seedlings for 5 days. Had them an inch off plants and they were falling over stretching. CFLs are for kids. Its like build your grow box out of legos or wood. they both work but...If I use the cfls itll be to light a single 2inch of bud site that looks promising. So if i were to imagine how many cfls before I think i felt enough light it would have to be at least 25 cfls. That would be bright, but absolutely retarded. Same as anything over 5 or 6 cfls , i mean 50 bulbs in my eyes are also 50 oppurtunities for a fire or explosion. Where with my 1 400hps its 1 possibility. And if you havnt tried cfls yet. get one, youll see they all get damn hot. Especially after long use.

cfl's rok!!!





that is, if you know how to use them

kp

I seriously doubt many people will argue CFLs GROW better than MH/HPS. I don't think that's the discussion.

bearo420 said:

its funny cfl people remind of apple pc people. deny till death that theres a much better option available. yeah you can use a cfl to grow, and an apple to browse, But when you want the real deal, and need more than easy to use, want to hang with the big boys you gotta step up and get HID. And I almost threw 4 cfls at the wall the other day after watching it stretch the shit out of my seedlings for 5 days. Had them an inch off plants and they were falling over stretching. CFLs are for kids. Its like build your grow box out of legos or wood. they both work but...If I use the cfls itll be to light a single 2inch of bud site that looks promising. So if i were to imagine how many cfls before I think i felt enough light it would have to be at least 25 cfls. That would be bright, but absolutely retarded. Same as anything over 5 or 6 cfls , i mean 50 bulbs in my eyes are also 50 oppurtunities for a fire or explosion. Where with my 1 400hps its 1 possibility. And if you havnt tried cfls yet. get one, youll see they all get damn hot. Especially after long use.

Click to expand...

Here is a good comparison grow by th3bigbad:

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/8513-cfl-vs-floro-vs-hps.html

oks if i figured this right for my 3x5 area i need 6892 cfl and 2 a'c for the heat and dont forget about the 7000 light sockets i need. i need ... fuck it i need hid

Sounds like a comaprison grow is in order....CFL vs HPS vs MH....experienced growers....from seed....one grower for each type lighting....nutes/light hours per day should be the same.

Seems all sides are represented in this thread.

It's been done. Check my previous post, Blood.

BloodShotI'z said:

Sounds like a comaprison grow is in order....CFL vs HPS vs MH....experienced growers....from seed....one grower for each type lighting....nutes/light hours per day should be the same.

Seems all sides are represented in this thread.

Click to expand...

Yeah Im moving slow today....long night. GF just got back in town.

Anyway...thats a great comparison grow. I wonder though....how well the cfls would have done if the grow was done by someone who only uses cfls and knows how to get the most of them (like KP).

Early on in that comparison grow thread...you could tell dude had a predisposition for HPS lighting. He called it the good stuff before the grow really got going. Cant fault him.

But having one grower for each....seems more unbiased.

That would be difficult to pull off. Each grower has his own beliefs in what is best for his grow, beyong just lighting. Everything would have to be identical - strain, growing medium, nutes, lighting schedule, pests, etc. It's hard if not impossible to replicate all of those factors.

Good post, laser. I would recommend you use your CFLs for side lighting when you are flowering, unless you are doing a SOG.

everyone is passing right by the 3' florescent shop lights. i have used 3 and 4 footers for years and will now swear by them. my flower room is full of 11 weekers so i have all the time i need. i switched things around and tried the CFL's because the 3' floro's were growing my mothers to fast. the mothers were outgrowing the cuttings. so i tried to light a bright side with CFL's for the vegging cuttings and a dimmer side for the mothers. i started to notice the plants under the 2' floros were growing better than the ones under the 6 23w CFL's. they are at the same height and the smaller plants are blocked up in height. i don't think i could have done anything any better in the arrangement i had. take another look at the pic. it's a long shelf. rectangular shaped. i need to utilize ALL the space. the room is set and can not change. the shop lights in this application are outperforming the CFL's by quite a bit.






this is an older pic. i know that seedling is stretched. i did that on purpose. i buried it to the first leaves and ended up with a 7" tap root. notice the difference in the brightness and coverage of the light compared the the floro tubes. and the mother on the left looks pretty healthy to me.