How many watts and lumens for 3 Northern Light female AutoFlowering plants. I plan on using CFLs but wondering how many watts and lumens to be looking out for when I buy my bulbs. Thanks
I'm currently running a cfl setup with two plants and giving them about 2700k 175watts~ each and they're flowering just fine. They got the same amount in veg (except 6500k) so I'd say anywhere between 175-200 depending on how close you can get your lights. I might add a 65w 6500k during flower for some mixed light but thats all preference
as many as you can buy. Seriously, you are unlikely to be able to over do it. More watts is more weight. But for the cost of them to buy and run you are better off with HPS because they are twice as energy efficient. If you stick to CFLs then you want at the very least 50watts per square foot of area, but 100w per square foot is a good figure. An auto that's grown well can easily take up 4 square feet of area so that's worth keeping in mind. 500watts of CFLs wouldn't produce as much as a 250w HPS. So if you plan to use over 250watts then definitely go with HPS instead. CFLs are ok for small grows but keep the bulbs within 4" of the plant. Train the plants thoroughly to keep an even canopy, and you're probably best to use just the one plant with them
fair enough, well as I said the bare minimum is 50w per square foot of area. Any less than that and the plant is likely to become sickly