[quote name='"Olde School"']JJ, props to the good advice you got from the others here. Hopefully I can add a few other points to help as well. One problem with lumens, other than being hard to define, is that manufacturers rate their product on initial lumens for a new bulb. Over time, fluorescents especially, degrade to 60 - 70% of their initial light output. Best point made by Morange, Toasty & Bad Kitty, however, is that HID is much more efficient at converting watts to lumens / light output. ENNYWAY, sooner or later we all just reference the wattage. OPTIONS - Sun Systems makes an integrated 150W HPS ballast / reflector with bulb that you can pick up for $100. There are some internet specials for 250W systems for $125 - 150. I bought one of the SunSystems 150W a few years ago to experiment with new strains and to play with in any number of ways. I grew out a couple of plants under it once, and if memory serves I got about 3 1/2 oz. of cured & trimmed product. By comparison of efficiency, if you stick with indoor grows, a 400W will be in your future, and your yield will be 4 - 5 times higher.But with 150W, you should keep your plant "footprint" under the light to 2, absolutely no more than 3 sq. ft. A mylar hanging curtain will definitely help by the time you get to bloom. The heat with the 150W should not be very much worse than equiv. wattage of CFL's (those DO put out considerable heat as well!!!) If you have to go CFL's I'd recommend using the 42 to 45 watt actuals. To my experience, this size is the largest wattage that will still fit in a standard socket. 65W or 125W CFL's usually take a special "mogul" style socket like HPS bulbs. Two will be minimum for initial veg of a couple of plants, but as soon as you can, go to four. Go to Home Depot and get reflectors - the simple aluminum clip-on style used for work lights. Last time I bought a couple they were only 6 or 8 bucks each. They position easily and can be re-purposed later for holding mother plants (one 42W will keep a decent mother) and for rooting future clones. Side-light your plant(s) as much as possible rather than hanging directly overhead. This results in better coverage than when your canopy thickens from overhead light and nothing below grows. Try to get a short height strain of plant, typically an indica-dominant variety. As a general rule, they mature quicker than Sativa dominant strains, which are more prone to elongating between nodes, or stretching, under less than ideal light. That reduces your final yield even further. Final advice - just do it!!! Don't be discouraged with your first try, keep improving your equipment as you go, and have fun! Almost none of us started with the perfect setup, but we started. Now, tell Granny you need an operation, & buy the HPS!!!![/quote] I'm seriously considering that 150 hps and I thinkyou just convinced.me! Here's to some good yields!. Should I still use cfls to veg? Or can I veg with the hps?
... just from reading what they posted... yea 150 should be enough light to have a good yield. dam. now im scrambling cuz i only had 60 watts on my grow.
I'm doing the same, only one plant my buddy had it in his window being abused badly. So I made a make shift box 5 cfl lights all in all box like 50 bucks. Now she's about 5 wks from harvest and going strong. Here's some pics. Be kind remember this was a rescue operation and my first grow.
[quote name='"countryboy13"']I'm doing the same, only one plant my buddy had it in his window being abused badly. So I made a make shift box 5 cfl lights all in all box like 50 bucks. Now she's about 5 wks from harvest and going strong. Here's some pics. Be kind remember this was a rescue operation and my first grow. [/quote] Those are some damn good looking plants! I hope my first grow goes aa well as that haven't decided if I'm going to fork out the cash for a 150 watt hps or just use cfls
Dude to be honest I been topping the shit out of it (until she went to flower) and super cropping it and she went nuts. I'll have some more pics tonight after she wakes up. I've been told a good grower can get 1g per watt (true watts) so you get that 150w = 150g's. We shale see, good luck remember ya got to start some where.
Yeah I don't know where this 3000 lumen thing comes from. That's one 42w bulb. You couldn't grow shit with one 42w bulb. Well actually, you could grow something, but it would be just that...shit. 100w (actual wattage used, not "incandescent equivalent" or "output" or whatever gimmicky term they're trying to trick you with on ebay) is the minimum for a decent grow. The least I ever used on one plant was 52w on a flowered-from-birth clone, but that's in addition to two red LED arrays and a UVB bulb. It was worth about a half oz. So for any reasonable sized plant, use 100w. More depending how big you want it to get.
[quote name='"countryboy13"']Here's some new pics of my rescue white rhino.[/quote] What WAlighting set up you using for those beautiful ladies?
Dude i had two 6 way plugs like for a computer (plugs right into my timer) and then got some light sockets that plug into the 6 way. like less than a buck each. Threads on one side two prongs on the other. A four pack of 6500k and a four pack off 2700k bulbs. Plus now that she's flowering the light can't get penetrate as deep so I add one more below to shine up (similar to a t-5 sun blaster) seems to be working well. Just remember more light makes more heat. The rule of thumb that I was told is twice as much exhausting air as fresh air will help maintain your temps.
great info in here guys edit: IMO cfls are almost not worth using. For me, after dedicating 4 months and spending a little doe, pulling only a couple zips wasn't satisfactory enough. I believe they are nice for supplemental lighting, and fun to poke around with growing. But i dont think its possible to set up a perpetual grow that will yeild enough so that you have more bud than ya need. and thats what growings for yourself is all about, not having to rely on other people for bud 'fore i go into a cfl rant ill jus say this.. .... If you have the option to use HID's by all means do it
[quote name='"KB Grower"']great info in here guys edit: IMO cfls are almost not worth using. For me, after dedicating 4 months and spending a little doe, pulling only a couple zips wasn't satisfactory enough. I believe they are nice for supplemental lighting, and fun to poke around with growing. But i dont think its possible to set up a perpetual grow that will yeild enough so that you have more bud than ya need. and thats what growings for yourself is all about, not having to rely on other people for bud 'fore i go into a cfl rant ill jus say this.. .... If you have the option to use HID's by all means do it[/quote] I've.been looking into a 150 watt.hps would that be.okay for 1-2 plants and should I veg with cfl or can I veg using hps as well as flower? any opinions?
i haven't read through the whole thread but shop by price. the 400 switchable systems are cheapest these days. It will get her done for you.
Sure, the CFL's can be used to veg. They will take longer, but they can do the job. They're much more appropriate for that than blooming. Plus the blue / cool color spectrum of CFL's is optimal for a plant's veg cycle. Honestly, I've never tried to veg under an HPS bulb, whose color range is in the red color range optimal for blooming. But the light strength is certainly stronger (now we're back to lumens!!!) so if you get the HPS first, veg under it as well. I bet it will be faster and work just fine; maybe just not quite as fast as a metal halide. But here's how you can get ahead of the longer veg time under CFL's (this is the premise behind what's referred to as a "perpetual grow"). Near the end of your first crop's veg cycle, take a few cuttings from each plant. Label each parent plant and its matching cutting, and root the cuttings under your CFL's. By the time the cuttings are rooted, you should be able to sex your parent plants already in their bloom cycle. You can discard the male parents and cuttings (not usually a problem with real fem seeds). Start the veg cycle of your cuttings under the CFL's, and they will be growing through their entire veg cycle while you finish your first round's bloom cycle. Of course you need another corner of a different closet so the long veg cycle lighting does not interfere with your 12 hour bloom cycle's dark period. But you only need like 1 sq. ft. for this so no biggie. OK, now we've done lumens and color spectrums, and clones and mothers and perpetual grows... hope this isn't more than you really wanted to know, but... NOW - you've got a veg setup. AND you've got a bloom setup. PLUS you've learned how to take cuttings - OK, we're supposed to call them clones. AND everything you learned in veg-ing under the CFL's teaches you the basics needed to select and keep a mother plant. And you've learned how to take time off successive grows by running the next veg cycle parallel to the current bloom cycle. Man, keep this up & you'll be answering questions for us next!!!! Hope this helps & wishing you the best.
i just completed my 1st ever grow and got near 7oz dry bud from 4 plants, in soil inside using 29- 26w 6500 k bulbs for veg and 29-26w 2700k for flower. worked ok. raised elect bill 20- $30 per mo.
3 and 4 per bundle using the "y" sockets above the canopy 3-4" some desk type lamps along side elevating them on books for proper height. its tough to penetrate with cfls so ya got to adapt. bulbs cost about a buck each and with adapters or reflectors, do add up but it got me thru my 1st grow with minimum problems and expense
Holy crap, Scatman, you may have just set a record for the number of bulbs in one grow. Gotta smile & like your style!!! If you're gonna go, then go large.