I've come to the conclusion that CFL's will grow plants, but not very well. The energy being put out just isn't very efficient at all. I've got three plants under 400 watts, and they're barely 12" tall, if that. I'm in desperate need of a new MH/HPS setup. That's my first and last time with CFL bulbs.
I use CFL's for the seedling and beginning of veg stages, but when you want serious growth and weight, there is no replacing the power of an HID setup. You can still use CFL's for supplemental lighting throughout the grow at that point
In my opinion, CFLs do hold a place in cannabis growing counter-culture. It's just that you need to know how to work with them. i.e. Plant training. Like, if you had an even canopy under a scrog with CFLs placed like 2-4 inches away, you may get a decent end product. I just hate seeing a grow box full of more CFLs in every which way direction than actual plant material. You just cant match HPS/CMH/MH intensity but both have their place I think.
12" is pretty tall I think... And are you really working with 400 actual watts of CFL and not equivalent watts? That is a a couple really giant bulbs or a shit ton of little ones. I am using 250 actual watts of 6400K (2 big ol 125W bulbs) on 3 plants and my progress is better than MH grows at the same stage that I have seen. I am now 17 days since sprouting and my plants are short but working on their 6th node and new branches are developing quickly on all the other nodes. They are like 5 inch bushes and when I start scrogging all those little branches will hold big fat colas. HID is a huge waste of money... yes you get a lot of lumens but if the light is not the correct wavelength most of it will be wasted. At the current rate of growth I will be flowering in a couple weeks. The plant will get it's height during the stretch after you switch to 12/12. Your 12" plants will quickly become 2.5 - 3 ft tall (like 2-3 weeks).
What specific 125w bulbs are you using? And what are your plans for changing your bulbs out when you flip to flower? Those 6400k's will be useless then. I'm gonna take a stab and say they are those Hydrofarm 125w 6400k CFL's which are super nice for veg. They are pushing out 7000 lumens which is decent, but two aren't enough to penetrate a full canopy in flower, regardless of the kelvin rating. I'm using quite a few CFL's in my little setup right now. 3x 200w 6500k's, 4x 100w 6500k's and 2x 48" 6500k fluro tubes. I could have downsized to just a couple of bulbs, but I want the penetration levels of spacing multiples as the plants grow through veg. I will be switching to 1000w HPS when I flip into flower. This is the first time I've used CFL's in the seedling/veg stage. These pics were taken a couple of days ago, and my ladies are doing very well under CFL's. As good as they would under an MH at this point. They were germinated exactly 3 weeks ago, this is the progress (plus 2 days, I haven't taken anymore recent pics, but they have grown since this): View attachment 1468529 View attachment 1468531 View attachment 1468528 View attachment 1468530
Yep those are the ones... I have 2 of the 2700 K and a 3x96 LED in my flowering tent. I did a LOT of reading on here before I started, check out my journal down in my sig if you want to see my set up. I go into pretty good detail w lots of pics lol
I came to the same conclusion, built a 400w cfl array out of 16 bulbs before I realized a few things... namely that you have to replace your bulbs every 9 months or growth rates start to decline. HPS bulbs have to be replaced too but it's relatively cheaper if you use bulbs that grow pounds instead of ounces lol. CFL is also harder to cool, unless you build a ventilated hood for them or are running a low wattage. Sure, HID lighting runs hotter but that's what air-cooled hoods are for, don't have that with cfl unless you build it. Not bashing cfl in any way, it's been a useful tool in my growroom to this day and I see some blades growing beautiful plants with them. I still use them for rooting clones and maybe 2 weeks of veg if I have no room under my HID's, but they can be a money pit if they're not used to their fullest potential.
Appreciate it. I'm really impressed how well these are doing under these CFL's. Today marks week 3 since the beans popped. Here's the wreckage as of this morning. Lookin mighty fine Where are you at with your Wreckage? Would love to see a pic or three.
It is sharing a 125W 6400K CFL with a Critical Hog that looks pretty much exactly the same as this one.
I am growing 2 seedlings that are about a week old under 2 6500 CFLs, I am planning on adding an LED panel. the panel measure about 12" x 12", 225 LED Blue Red Orange White Grow Light Panel Hydroponic Plant Lamp 14W Indoor. Would this be helpful to use with my CFLs?
What is the manufacturer and do you have any specs as far as how many of each diode and what the wavelengths emitted are?
Then no one will be able to give you a definitive answer... Most LEDs that are recently produced by reputable companies are really really good for flowering but that is because those companies have tested different wavelengths and are getting them dialed in so that the light emitted is exactly the wavelength the plant needs. This results in more efficient light absorption. More of the energy you are using to run the lamp is getting into the plant. Unless you are counting on this for income then why not experiment with and see what it does. I would recommend using the 6500s for a couple weeks after you flip to 12/12. During the stretch the plant will need more of the blue spectrum. Once flowers start to form then you can switch to the LED.
Yours may be a little older. My beans popped on 5/15 so I'm counting my weeks starting from popping day. I really don't start counting weeks until I go into veg, which I just began last night. Going from 24/0 to 18/6. So how long ago did your Wreckage bean pop? It's definitely larger than mine, so that's why I'm assuming the difference in dates. It looks really nice, she's gonna be a beast!