How many grams per watt for CFL growing?

ups420

Well-Known Member
you'll never get an exact answer to that, lights are only one factor when it comes to yield, you also have to consider room to grow, your medium, the ph of the soil and water, the nutes you give it, room temp and humidity, and there is lots of other stuff...if it's your first time, just be happy if you break an oz.
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
and with cfls, you will need more than 2 bulbs, i'm still on my first grow, i'm on day 50 now, and i have 14 bulbs spread all around my 3 plants
 

Untold

Well-Known Member
You want an average of 160 actual watts/plant. The light must be distributed to all sides of the plant or else you will only produce small nugs on the lower branches.
 

jmiller786

Active Member
I mean like how a 20-watt equals 100-watts light...

How much for 2 plants with normal value 200-watts of light?
Right now i'm flowering two Hindu Kush plants with 3 42W, 2700 Lumen CFLs. Everyday the buds are getting noticeably bigger. I actually started with 4 42W lights and one 90W Daylight lamp but my obsession with perfection resulted in me breaking two of the lights while trying to adjust them, so now i'm down to 3 for right now.

Even though they seem so to be doing they're thing, I can tell you that i'm in desperate need of more lights. I'm even considering getting a HPS to finish the job. If you're gonna go with CFLs though, you'll need a lot of them. I would say at least four or five per plant. You'll still have to position them and make sure the leaves are getting dried out by the light which is why I find myself adjusting them almost daily. Do like me and be happy with whatever you get. Consider it practice for your next grow. Good luck
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
here is my setup 14 bulbs total, 2 days into flowering, no buds yet :-( got about 12 more days til i will have any kind of buds, but it's 33 inches tall, and 33 inches across, i find it really helps with cfls if you help lower branches pass through the fan leaves
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
i moved them up for the pic, the tops were hard to see clearly with the lights right there, right now they are about 2-3 inches above it
 

rbtime

Active Member
here is my setup 14 bulbs total, 2 days into flowering, no buds yet :-( got about 12 more days til i will have any kind of buds, but it's 33 inches tall, and 33 inches across, i find it really helps with cfls if you help lower branches pass through the fan leaves


hey mate those look pretty good, wouldn't it be more efficient to run a 400w or maybe 600w HPS rather than 14 cfl's?


sorry for the hijack
 

Untold

Well-Known Member
hey mate those look pretty good, wouldn't it be more efficient to run a 400w or maybe 600w HPS rather than 14 cfl's?


sorry for the hijack
Not everyone can afford HPS or MH lamps. The other thing to think about are small grows don't need a huge light. Also HPS give off alot more heat and require ventilation systems most of the time. With CFLs in a small grow you can pretty much mask the smell with anything.
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
thank you for not beating me, nothing worse than gettin beat for the wrong reason...i have a 400w hps and the ballast and everything being offered to me by my brother who was 90% done with a crop when my mom found it so the bulb and ballast are just sitting at my mom's...my brother is an electrician so he said he would rig it up and everything...but this is my first grow, and not that i want to take it shorten my yield, i just want to get one grow under my belt before i try dealing with heat issues from an hps...for now i can only see the potential of my first grow, i already started my next generation though and in a week or two i'm gonna have a room split in two, one side veg, one side flower
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
yes, and with cfls, i have them on all 4 sides of the plant, not updated in the pics, and 4 bulbs above it...and my plant is basically in the shape of a big X so the two lights that aren't hanging are in between the rows of branches, one up high one down low
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
i know this is my first grow, but everyone says you want bushy plants not tall one...well with my current stats at 33inches tall and 32ish inches wide, now that i'm flowering will it continue growing so bushy?
 

ups420

Well-Known Member
i dont' know what you guys pay for electricity in your area, but around me it's .11/kwh so running 14 cfls, only caused my elec bill to go up by 30 bucks, AND that 30 dollar increase also includes me running 3 air conditioning units almost non stop...i love how cheap electricity is, i thought my bill was gonna double
 

domread1985

Well-Known Member
think off it like this 1000 watt bulb would cost you 11 £ or $ an hour so 1:30 a day min and 9:10 a week no bad really!
 
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