Kamel's CFL Guide

[morbazon420]

ok hear goes my grow room is 3.5' x 5.5' 8 feet tall I want to grow 12 feminised plants in 5 gallon contaners I alredy have a 400 watt MH grow light I was wondering if I can use that and alot of cfls 6000k and when flowering comes switch the MH bulb with a hps converson bulb like agrosun gold (that one had good reveiws) whould that be enough to get light to get a good yeald. allso how many watts of cfls per plant not including the 400 watt MH light .hope to see one of you soon
morbazon420

[SmknVTEC]

Hey morbazon420,
IMO to grow 12 big plants in large 5 gallon buckets, you will need around 1000 watts of light. So 1000-400 hps= 600 watts worth of CFL's that you would need to add. That would give each plant about 80 watts per plant. It can be done with less watts but, the end result would be that you get the same yield as if you had grown half the plants under 400 watts hps plus a few CFL's. Of course growing with 1000 watts you need to have a strong exhaust/ventilation plan.

If you want to grow them at 50 watts per plant, that would leave your 400 hps plus an additionall 200 watts of CFL's for a total of 600 watts. The choice is yours. If I were to grow 12 plants I would probably just get another 400 watt hps and have your 800 watts which would render 67 watts per plant. The Agro Sun Gold is a good bulb but, a Hortilux bulb is even better. The Hortilux has 55,000 lumens and 430 watts vs. the standard which is 400 watts and 50,000 lumens. The Hortilux bulb will work in a 400 watt ballast.

[morbazon420]

well maybe I will just get a 1000 watt hps MH combo from htg supply
the only thing is will one 1000 watt light be able to cover that area
i supose that I can allways ad the 400 watt mh to cover more area

[SmknVTEC]

The best light watt for watt and lumen for lumen is the 600 watt HID. You could get two 600's and that would for sure cover 12 kick ass plants w/100 watts each. Or you could get one 600 watt and add the 400 watt to that. Of course the 1000 watt light would work well if you added the 400 watt to it. Wow, so many choices, you are probably more confused now than before subscribing to the thread. I definitely like the digital switch able ballasts. Do you ever plan on going to more than one room such as a veg and flower room?

[morbazon420]

well vtech now am thinking that I will try to just use my 400 watt MH
how would I do a sog with a 400 watter could I use 12 pop two liters and flower after there 6" high I hear when this is done they form one solid cola
would it be possable to yeald .5 onces off them each or would that be pushing it
any help or thoughts would be great thanks
morbazon420

[SmknVTEC]

Yes, if you plan to only use only the 400 hps, keep them in 1-2 liter pop bottles and flower them at 6 inches tall. That's a great Sea of Green SOG method. Should yield you about that.

[thebullmc]

i have been using this guide and now have a fine indica pland from seed i got at sensi seeds.
i just used the pot luck method, not even checking the spectrums or lumens or anything like that.
i juse went into the diy shop, bought 2t5s, 4 bedside lamps and 4 cfls of various type.
total output light is 450 wats not including the t5s, and i have grown a fine fine plant,a big bush about a foot and a half high outa a very small pot. feeding it with tomato food once a week, a little plain tap water every 3 day as it needs it.

doing fine.

1 question, tomorrow i plan to put it on 12/12.
i have read in this forum that plants in flowering can double in size?
should i transplant it into a big pot, or leave it as it is............
i dont want to upset it and im not looking for a massive yeild,so im thinking "why mess with it"
but if a plant does indeed grow whilst flowering, maybe a bigger pot would help with flowering ,giving the roots a little space as it were.

what do you think guys?

thank you all for your time.

[SmknVTEC]

thebullmc, Welcome to the City.
Here is what I would do. Do you know the sex of the plant[s]? If yes, transplant now to a bigger pot. If no, turn the lights to 12/12, identify sex THEN transfer to the bigger pot. That way you don't transplant wasting time and dirt for a male. You wait to identify sex before transplanting also because time will be slowed recovering from transplant, while you are dying to know what the sex is. Otherwise, if the pot is big enough, they can double in height during flower.

[Gibson1888]

ok so i got 4 plants goign right now..3 have sprouted and the other should any day now.. im figuring im only going to have 1 or 2 females which is perfect since thats all i really have room for heh

they are watered every other day and fed once every 4 or 5 days, for lighting im using 2- 470 lumen flourecent grow lights (tube) and 2- 1850 lumen CFL's, the temp is always 73-77 at night and 79-82 in the day..i use constant ventilation from a high powered fan blowing under my bed to the other side where they are..and keeps good air flow..now my first question is..is it possible to use these lights throughout the whole growth period? i kno the CFL's have a more reddish spectrum to them which is ideal for flowering but im still in the vegetative growth stage and they require more of the blue spectrum..which is put out by the 2 420 lumen tubes but not as much as i would like.. im on the broke side here and this is all i got to work with..i have the proper supplements and fertilizer to take it through the whole process.

My second question is ..is it possible to keep these plants short? more like a bush then a tree?

so overall do any of u think this is an adequate setup for personal use? im not expecting god like buds..not with my setup atleast but is this suitable to grow all through?

thanx

[SmknVTEC]

Gibson1888,
The answer to both your questions is YES.

To keep short, keep them in small pots, LST, and/or top. There is a sticky on here with directions on how to LST and top.

[sensisource]

i heard something about you can use reds just at "sunrise" snd "sunset",to mimic nature, dose this change your yield any?

[sneakers]

I am starting a grow using CFLs. I went and bought a bunch of stuff today. Waterfarm guts and 5 gallon buckets, 10" baskets/lids for the buckets., Hydroton growing medium, Flora nutes etc. I didn't have anything to start with and got stuff to make 2 buckets.

For lights I have 2 of those clampon lights with reflectors rated at 150 watts each. I bought 2 of those plus Y sockets so I can put 2 bulbs in each one. I have 4 75 watt CFLs (75 watts each) so each fixture will have 150 watts of light output in the light spectrum at 6000k. I wasn't able to find any 100+ watt output rated bulbs that told me the color spectrum so I got a couple of 100 watt bulbs (unknown color) that I probably won't use. I will go looking for more bulbs tomorrow. I plan on adding at least 2 100 watt bulbs per plant that will come from the sides. A couple of lamps found at walmart wont work so they will be exchanged for something else tomorrow. Perhaps just use those same clampon fixtures without the clamps or reflectors and hang them from above down beside the plant when they grow some.

When I was getting all of the hyrdo stuff, the place I was at had some nice CFLs. Huge ones. One was 95 watt power usage and another was 125 watt power usage. From what I have seen on the others would make these as bright as a bulb rated at 300-450 watts. They cost $125-$140 (for bulb and fixture w reflector) and came in both color spectrums. I will have one of those to flower with. They also had some double fixtures for the 95 watt bulbs.

I took everything that would be exposed to my plants and put it in the bathtub. Using a weak solution of clorox everything was sterilized, rinsed and dried. I rinsed the Hydroton and dried it. I assembled everything, tested it to be sure it all worked (it did) and mixed up 5 gallons of nutes in distilled water and divided it between the 2 buckets. Everything was placed in a closet that is about 2'X6'X8".

The place had sold me some peat cubes to use for germinating seeds. I thought about it and figured there had to be a better way. It might take a week to realize there was a seed that wasn't going to germ right and I prefer to do them in paper towels. I had even started some earlier this week of some bagweed that wasn't anything special and placed a couple of those babies under some of the Hydroton, turned on the airpump and 2 of the 75 watt lights (1 hanging over each bucket) as close as I can get them to the Hydroton. The lights are basically hanging from the clothes rod to about 1" above the bucket with the reflectors attached.

Then I remembered the PH. I tested it and it was below 5.5. It was adjusted and is close to 6 now, maybe a little higher..

Here is what I don't like about the Waterfarm system. The concept is great but the ring that the nutes drip from onto the growing medium is too big. It goes around the outside edge of the 10" basket. When I place a sprout or seedling in the very center, I'm not real sure it will get the nutes rights. It may take a week or more to develop roots out that far so I moved them closer to the edge.

I am going to see if I can find tubing to use to make another smaller drip ring out of to use when seedlings are first planted then use the bigger one when they get larger, maybe the smaller one may work fine for the entire grow. I am seeing this first grow will be more of a learning experience (hopefully with a little benefit).

I plan to LST these plants. Considering seeing if I can find some styrofoam about 1'X1' to put a hole in (for the plant) and have a good surface to push wire or pipe cleaners into. I also want to do a square LST. These 1'X1' square pieces of styrofoam will be set on top of the bucket to hide everything below and make a good surface for my square LST.

I'm sure there is a lot that I am doing wrong. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be appreciated. For now I am just waiting to see if these will peek through the Hydroton in a couple of days. If so then we will probably be ok.

How big and expansive can I expect the root system to get inside of each bucket?

[SmknVTEC]

sensisource, the 3700k bulbs mimic the red light during sunrise and sunset. We use that bulb because in the Fall when the sun is not as high in the sky as during summer, it appears more red because the rays have to travel through more atmosphere. This combined with shorter days is what triggers the plant to flower.

sneakers, all sounds good except that your pH should be as close to 5.5 as possible. Expect those roots to take over the entire bucket once it starts going.

[sensisource]

Originally Posted by SmknVTEC

sensisource, the 3700k bulbs mimic the red light during sunrise and sunset. We use that bulb because in the Fall when the sun is not as high in the sky as during summer, it appears more red because the rays have to travel through more atmosphere. This combined with shorter days is what triggers the plant to flower.

sneakers, all sounds good except that your pH should be as close to 5.5 as possible. Expect those roots to take over the entire bucket once it starts going.

i think i read the article about what i was talking about was in one of kamels post dose anyone know what one it was?

i think he did an experement on it?

[sneakers]

Stealth might be best. A cheaper price my change my mind though. Getting it the day I actually want it and have the bux for it means something too.