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Are 13 watt bulbs enough?

Discussion in 'Lighting' started by Grimz, Oct 18, 2011.

  1. I have a unlimited supply of 13 watt bulbs and I'm wondering if you can grow with only these or do you need 20 watt or 40 watt lights along with them.

    Also I have 2 4ft plants. they aren't very bushy, outdoor grown.
     
  2. As long as you have enough wattage from the bulbs combined, then an unlimited supply of ONE WATT bulbs will do ya! Just make sure you get them close enough to the plant to do some good. I recommend getting some y adapters or a power strip with socket-plugs, or something of the like to accommodate a large amount of bulbs. You probably want about 250-400 watts, so that's between 19-31 bulbs. I just finished a cfl grow and I have a shitload of y adapters left over, since I got a real light for my current grow.
     
  3. Hmm well I'm rethinking this now because I don't know if I have that many lamps... :(

    What watt bulb's should I get?
     
  4. get whatever watts you can afford. the higher the better, and you want a shitload of them. light is like food for a plant, so the right light and lots of it makes for a fat and healthy plant. you just want 6500k for veg and 2300k for flowering if you're using fluoros or CFLs.
     
  5. It is absolutely not true that the only thing that matters is total watts. The problem with household CFLs is that they have low light intensity and so only give good light within a few inches. The lower the wattage then the closer the bulb has to be. 13W CFLs are so low in intensity that they will do practically no good at all, no matter how many you have -- use the 23-27w (100w equivalent) or higher with CFLs.
     
  6. Okay and what should i use as the lamp I have something like this but I'm not sure if its the best.
     

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  7. For CFLs you can use anything with a standard socket. Some people use what you've got, or a bathroom fixture, or build their own. You can get socket adapters that will plug right into a power strip. You can get Y adapters to run more than one bulb off a single socket. Up to you.
     
  8. Hey just my opinion i started my first growwith cfls and realized ot becomes pricey quick and having to deal with a bunch of wires and sockets is a pain. If you have the funds and the space i would upgrade to hid (which is what i am currently doing)
    Especially witg 2 big plants like that its going to be hard to position all the lights
     

  9. gonna have to agree with you man. if i'd have known that it was gonna end up being that much in the long run, i would've just started off getting the right light. i lucked out and found one on craigslist for cheap though.

    you want to make sure you have your lights as close to the plants without touching/burning them though, or valuable light energy is lost and wasted. i'd recommend getting pulleys or something, because i had mine rigged up, and came in one day to a fallen light and a burned plant!
     

  10. Yea the same thin happened to me with my cfls.be careful.

    Also if youre really savvy with building youre own stuff and have tools lying around( which i dont college student) i think it ends up costing the smae as going hid plus way more time incested in setup
     
  11. As someone that did two grows with CFL's, I didn't find it worth the trouble and finally went with a 400w HPS. It's a lot easier to control what you are doing and will yield a lot more than CFL I am sure. CFL was fine for veg, but once I got to flowering it gave me really small airy buds. I am sure others did it better and have had successful grows with CFL, but I bet it was a lot more work. And as stated CFL fixtures, bulbs, etc. do add up in cost (I was running around 250w of CFL's for two plants). God with the money I wasted experimenting with CFL's I could have bought a HPS, tubing, and a fan lol. I did learn a lot and it was just bagseeds so it wasn't a waste of time in total, but I wish I would have just started with a 150w HPS and worked my way up from that. Try HTG Supply, they have a 400w HPS with remote ballast (makes the light lighter and much easier to hang as the ballast is really heavy) for around $119. I got a bad bulb with mine and they were really cool about the exchange. They said it has to do with how the bulb is not packaged very well at the factory. If you are interested in doing a veg chamber, search for "stealth rubbermaid" here and you should find a really cool way to hide your plants and keep as much light as possible getting to your plants. I made one and it worked great with CFL's. I had a three bulb bathroom vanity light that I got from Lowe's for around $12 and a few "Y" adapters mounted to the lid with plenty of reflective material. I wired a plug onto it and increased wattage as the plants grew. I had them in there for about a month with very little issues (other than heat as I did not adjust my light for a few days and the plants grew too close). Very little stretching too so I guess I did an alright job. Sorry if I am saying too much lol. And I am no expert at this by any means. Just wanted to share some of my successes and failures. Also I have no experience with MH for veg so I can't compare the two. I assume MH is superior as well. Maybe the difference is HID (HPS or MH) have heat issues on a macro scale (you must use fans to get plants within a good distance) and CFL on a micro scale (you must get the light really close to the plant and the bulbs get hot).
     
  12. I agree as well -- CFLs are OK for 1-2 plants (not great but OK), but when you get to 3+ plants you start getting into lots of bulbs and sockets and wires, and you end up burning as many watts as if you had gotten HID but you are stuck with the one-half efficiency of CFLs compared to HID at converting watts to lumens. So eventually you end up buying the HID, which means you've bought everything twice.

    If you can swing it, get the right setup for the grow op you eventually see yourself running, it actually will save you money in the long run to buy your equipment only once, plus you'll be getting better harvests from your very first grows.
     

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