Starting a medical grow. I have a space 10x6 feet in a basement with compact dirt type of floor. Would like to use low heat lighting if possible. Organic Soil (want to make a tea then go pure water with a good soil mix, already have clones goin, this will be a flowering room) 10 plants are 6 week hybrids (local strain) and 5 afgoo plants. We want to get a large soil harvest, so we were thinking of an extended veg period and a LST or SCROG system to get lots of nice bud sites and make the most of our space with 15 plants. Can a pure CFL system work, if you have lots of lights? I was thinking of using 20 or so 42 Watt - CFL - 150 W Equal - 6500K Full Spectrum Daylight - Min. Start Temp. -20 Deg. F - 82 CRI - 67 Lumens per Watt - 15 Month Warranty - TCP 28942-65 | 1000Bulbs.com I know many people say just get a hot light instead, but wouldusing 20 of those and getting them close to a scrog screen work for flowering?? What do u think abou the dirt floor. I know spiders are in the basement sometimes, but thats normal. should we line the room with plastic? We would like to keep are budget around 500 dollars for everything. so maybe like 300 to set up lights. Let me know please any opinions.
alot of people on here use cfl's, but if you want to use the entire area, just go with a couple of 1000watt HPS's. also spiders shouldn't be of concern since they are a predatory and will eat all other bugs they find. every single spider i find in my growshow gets to live, until i seem them in the rest of the house. just make sure you have fans on the plants to prevent them from making webs on the buds. 500 bucks isnt that much, but if you go with magnetic ballasts sourced locally then you could feasibly go the HPS route. you will also have to factor in airflow, ventilation, wiring(if necessary), nutrients, soil, containers, hoods, etc. the list goes on and on. And you dont have to necessarily go with 15 plants, i have 8 in my flower chamber right now that easily take up a 15x6 foot area.
You can get a decent closet set-up going for around 500$ , but I dont think anything that would get you any Large harvests ! perhaps a 400 Watt HPS for flowering, you could do 4 or 5 medium size plants under that and pull a decent yield. I would shy away from Cfl's if you want any volume at all. 10x6 is a pretty large area. It wouldnt be a bad idea to use some sort of liner , or at least set the pots in a a drain pan. It wouldnt be long before you had a mud floor, and the extra humidity could cause problems. You could consider a 4' T-5 panel, they are fairly cheap, and Mrs.Ed did a scrog under one of those and pulled 4 zips I do believe. Do you have plans to partition the area for Veg and Flower ? Good luck ! If you need any more help, Feel free to PM me. I am also subscribed to the thread !
If you want big plant you need either 600 Mh or 1000w hps. Also the available space for root formation is a big factor also.
well we want to use 5 gallon buckets. We would like to harvest around 2oz per plant, but the more the better ofc. Ideas like this... on the scale of 40sq ft. How many lumens per sq/ft would u recommend to achieve results similar to these. I have a design alll drawn up for the space and ideas, but im trying to research peoples experience.
I hate to be the "bubble buster" But your goals are probobly to lofty for your budget ! Those scrogs look like they are under at least 1000 watts ! The problem with CFL's , is they dont have the penetration like the HID's do, if you do a mini sea of green with only clones , you might be able to achieve 1/2 OZ's per plant if you keep them short, and the CFL's very close throughout grow. Veg times and larger plants would probably not help much if your using CFL's , since they wont be able to light the entire plant ! There is some nice CFL grows around the city, so others might no more about CFL yields than me !
For 40 sq ft I would us at least 4 600watt lights. With cfls you have no chance of 2oz plants. Havent used hid but I have seen a few of my buddies. those thing work well you just have to do some shopping to find them big enough..
Listen to russy. i agree that for $500 you probably wont be yielding that much per plant. i have probably spent over $1000 dollars alone on my lighting, and that is with buying used and un-assembled magnetic ballasts, getting my hoods from a private seller, and sourcing all the bulbs from a discount supply warehouse. cfl's will work, but you will need A SHIT LOAD of them, tightly spaced, a few inches above the entire canopy. IMO, try to save up a little more funding before starting this endeavor, the more money and time that you put into it at the beginning, the less problems, and wasted cash on crappy items you will have in the end.