i was wondering when u refer to cfl's are you refering to the funny twisting lightbulbs? Im also going to be growing about 4 naturally small plants how many should i use and what wattage?
Yes, CFL's are the spiral-looking bulbs, Fluros are the tubes. Yet both are infact flourecents. For plants I would say you would need a minumum of about 2 42watt CFLS per plant. I believe each bulb puts out around 2,000lumans. That makes about 4,000 lumans per plant, And yes, they should "share" some light. Although, I think around 8,000-10,000 lumans is reccommended per plant. I vegged for 3 weeks using 80 watts of Florus and got over a foot of growth out of my bubba kush clone so I don't think you will have much of a problem. But remember, with more light, come more heat. Dont get so hung up on light, the plant needs many other factors to survive healthy. By all the heat you put out using that many CFL's you may be better off getting a 250 or 400 watt hps, and combine it with a few cfls, the heat will be roughly the same, but light penetration and spectrum will be superior, especially if you use mixed lighting spectrums. GJ
Well, your gonna want about 50 watts of light per plant for veg and 75 watts of light per plant for flower. This is what i've read about cfls. Also, when your buying lights make sure to find the real wattage, not the equivelent. For example my 19 watt cfl is "equal to 75watts," dont pay attention to that! Your gonna wanna try and mimick the whole light spectrum. Most people will say get blue for veg and red for flower but I mix em. I've got a 15,19,and 26 watt bulbs in blue and a 13watt in red. I've read that adding red during veg helps the stems out.