Tutorial to Growing with Cfl's

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what do people think of the purple light cfl's . I am thinking of doing a small 4x2x3 box and am looking at different cfls thinking of 2 x 200w purple cfl's then 8x 20w warm white cfls from the hard ware shop along the top and 6x55 w flat cfl along the walls .My main concern for doing it this way is stealth i.e noise, easy of ventilation in a small area , less heat ( hopefully ) the lights will be on different circuits so i can turn them on as the plants get bigger, this will be a perpetual grow. I am new to this so any help will be great . Thanks

too much on your electric bill go with this instead

High Tech Garden Supply

thanks doc ^^

Hey,

What is a better setup?

A cfl bulb open with its side to the plant or pointing lengthwise at the plant in a clip on lamp reflector (the bell shaped metal ones)?

Thx

Man you are def.. the Dr. On call and in the zone!!! +rep.

Ive been looking for more info on cfl's and that answered every question I had...

One thing though are you saying the reason my plant seems stunted in growth or and thin stemmed is because im using soft white 23 watters??

And how many would you go with total for a closet grow no limit of height... I will probly be getting multiple spectrums for the complete cycle. Sorry one more question the reason im going with cfl's is my hps broke and a guy i live near in this new crap town said they give very little temp and light signatures for fly over and shit is that true?

Dr.Chronic said:

Yes the higher wattage bulbs are better for flowering AND vegitation. It is very easy to get around the mogul (E39) socket.
Mogul to Standard Reducer (E39 to E26)
This will allow you to use any large wattage CFL in a standard socket. Good luck.

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just picked up 105 watt full spectrum thanks for the info and the site... alot of great bulbs here and at a great price..Shipping is a hooker though rape me on that!kiss-ass

thanks for this tut. you really cleared a lot of things up for me...just one question. In regards to the wattage, what number will produce the best plants? i have only 3x 20w bulbs right now...should i be using stronnger ones?

the higher the wattage you can get the better,the higher wattage output the higher lumen output. some will say get more 23s for same out put for lumen per hour as compared to another,but do the math and they all equal the same amount of wattage per lumen. so if u can get a higher wattage bulb then u will have a higher lumen output,higher the lumen rating the more penetrating light power you have,thus producing a better and healthier plant,the lumen output changes for the flowering cycle,u need a higher amount to get the plant to produce its full potential.

wackymack said:

the higher the wattage you can get the better,the higher wattage output the higher lumen output. some will say get more 23s for same out put for lumen per hour as compared to another,but do the math and they all equal the same amount of wattage per lumen. so if u can get a higher wattage bulb then u will have a higher lumen output,higher the lumen rating the more penetrating light power you have,thus producing a better and healthier plant,the lumen output changes for the flowering cycle,u need a higher amount to get the plant to produce its full potential.

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If u have a bulb that produces 50,000 lumens , and 5 bulbs that produce 10,000 lumens, its still the same amount of lumens...

Great info man! I'm looking to start my own grow and the only reasonable place would be my small closet so CFLs seem like the way to go. I've been looking up as much info as I can find and came across SeeMoreBuds' "Buds For Less" book (great book by the way). He uses 6 CFLs I believe... is that a good number to start with or just for his circumstances? You can't argue with his results, and I'd love to get the most of my babies. Thanks.

Can i use any plant food on my plant

Good stuff to know

i dont mean to hijack the tread but does anyone know if i could grow 1-2 plants off
2 - 23watt cfls i donno the kalvens cuz i havent bought em yet but i wanted to know if i could gro with 2 23watt cfls the cfls would be approx 4 inches from the plant and getting short becuase 4 inches is the highest i can go regarding hight restrictions but i might be using MG soil because of my low budget for this p.s this is my first grow

What did the doc pull off with his cfl grow. Dry weight?
Or is he just blowing smoke.

I dont know what his dry weight was but he did post a pic of his new grow and the original cfl survivor was present. Looked very small but I'm sure he got a good O dry. He's got another grow going and its looking good

Chron a lil help here buddy?

ghostsamurai25 said:

What did the doc pull off with his cfl grow. Dry weight?
Or is he just blowing smoke.

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Boneman said:

I dont know what his dry weight was but he did post a pic of his new grow and the original cfl survivor was present. Looked very small but I'm sure he got a good O dry. He's got another grow going and its looking good

Chron a lil help here buddy?

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Haha Yeah i did get a little more than an 0 Dry but i harvested that plant a little bit at a time so thats why no one saw the finish because it took me a couple weeks to smoke her. That grow was just practice for my current grow anyways. You should check it out like boneman said. The link is in my signature.

well I'm standing in a store looking at bulbs typing on my phone right now. Do I need to worry about lumina on cfl's. Not a bunch of daylight temps here in Ontario

edit: I found a 2 pack. 23w and 6500k 1620 lumins. I only want to start with 3 or 4 plants. Will I be good with 4-6 bulbs?

Great info, Dr! I read pretty much the whole thread and it sure cleared a few things out. There is, however, one doubt I still have: Is there a huge difference for the plants in using 6400K instead of 6500K? I recently started my grow in a 2' x 2' x 4' box using 4 59W CLFs mounted on a sort of reflector putting out about 13000 lm and they are all 6400K. I put some plants that shared a vase outdoors with other plants so they are all of mixed height and built. It's just a test grow to troubleshoot (and trouble there is!) the box until I get some seedlings. I plan on adding warm bulbs when I switch to flowering, but might go with overdriven 20w tubulars on the edges of my square reflector.

I tend to agree that several small bulbs are better than few big ones, both for the multiple sources of light and for the heat. My 59 watters tend to get pretty hot and burn the tips if less than 3 or 4 inches away from the plants (man, seriously, swtich to the International System. Nobody uses or can figure out Imperial units and mutiplying by 12, 16, 3, fractions... With the IS, you just mess with the decimals and it's game! ) Also, if heat is really an issue, tubulars might have an edge on CFLs as you can place the ballast in a separate space from the grow, but CFLs really are more flexible in terms of placement.

Oh, and one more question: Any use for those black lights, the kind used in nightclubs to make things glow? Got 3 26w ones lying around the house and was wondering if they'd be of any help to the grow or just add to the heat.

Sorry for the rambling, congrats on the thread!

So i started growing indoors I have

one 18 inch warmwhite 845 lumens

two daylight cfl

two warmwhite cfl 900 lumens

temp between 70-80 and humidity at 30-40%

i have so far 5 baby plants i think theyre doing good any suggestions or help is needed thanks alot!!