CFL question fast answer please!!!

Discussion in 'Advanced Growing Techniques' started by law_101, Jul 20, 2008.

  1. yes it will, i would look for a higher wattage bulb though
     
  2. The second light will be easier to set up, but it seems that there is a plastic cover over the fluorescent tube, you should remove it if you can. Also you will need more than one, especially if you plan on having more than one plant. Four or Five would be good.
     
  3. just get CFL's from home depot dude.
     
  4. Do you mean multiple of that bulb or what? Your going to need like 100 W of any CFL for about a square yard of growing space. You should just get a 125 W bulb and a $20 deflector, it would run you about the same price. Make sure your deflector has a normal plug for your outlet too, because it might be set up for a HID lamp, which requires ballasts. Remember sunlight is the most important thing for your plant. Good Luck!!
     


  5. Go to this website:
    http://www.plantlightinghydroponics...-2700k-5500-lumens-cfl-grow-light-p-2202.html
    Buy two of the Bright Wing 125W 2700K 5500 Lumens CFL Grow Lights with reflector shown on the webpage (and below).
    You will get 250 watts of 2700k producing 11,000 lumens, for $140! You can use the 2700k CFL's during the veg stage instead of buying 6500k lights to veg. They will work fine. Switch from the 18/6 veg cycle to the 12/12 flower cycle after one month. Run 12/12 for two months. You will be amazed at the buds you will get.

    All the 5500k to 6500k blue spectrum CFL light does is help your plant grow leaves. Using 2700k lights during the veg cycle will grow stringy looking plants. So what? Are you trying to grow leaves, or big sticky buds? Having less leaves on the plant will actually allow more of the CFL light to penetrate down onto the lower budding sights, which will give you more buds down there. Think about it.

    But if it's really important to you that your plant is bushy looking, by all means, spend at least one month vegging on 6500k lights. Then when you switch to the flowering cycle and 2700k lights, get some small scissors and trim off all those leaves you worked so hard to grow so that your buds can get some light. See what I'm getting at here?
     

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  6. yeah i see what you mean... i am planning on having about 125ish watts of daylight bulbs while having 50-75 of the flowering light during the veg cycle. I see what you mean about stringy to bushy plants but if the plant stretches is that the stringy part your talking about? When in flowering i plan on stagering lights through the plants so i have one on the top of each plant as well as 3-4 running the length on each side of the plant so i get good development all he way down. Any suggestions or criticism yet?

    Also... would aluminum foil or like disposal pie pans work decent as a reflector?
     


  7. Sorry if my first response sounded a little critical, I was just in a hurry.
    To answer your question about 'stringy plants', I was referring to the overall appearence of the plant - height + thickness of foliage. If you grow from start to finish with all 2700k lights as opposed to using 6500k lights during veg, the plants will grow a little taller during the veg cycle than if you used the 6500k's during veg. The stretching that occurs during the flowering cycle will happen regardless of what type of light you used during veg. This is all dependent on the strain of plant you are using. Some strains grow taller than others naturally. If possible, you want seeds/clones from a strain that is genetically shorter since you probably have height limitations in your planned grow area. However, if you're like me and your forced to use 'bag seed', then the best way to control height IMHO is LST (low stress training), which means tieing the tops of the plants with string to force them to grow bent over so they grow more horizontally. This is better than pruning off the top growth or supercropping because when you prune/pinch/supercrop, the plant will stop growing for some time and divert a lot of it's energy to healing the 'wounds' you have inflicted by cutting off the new growth or breaking the branches over (supercropping). This means it will take longer for the plant to fully mature and be ready to harvest. When you low stress train the branches, you have not caused any wounds on the plant, so it continues to spend it's energy growing and therefore will reach maturity quicker. Each growers method is as unique as each grow box. If you have no height limitations in the grow box, or you are lucky enough to have seeds/clones from a genetically shorter strain, then you may get better results by not LSTing the plants and just letting them grow naturally.

    This is why there is no 'one perfect method' of indoor growing. There are so many variables involved, size of your grow box, type of light you are using, type of strain you are using, type of watering you are using, type of fertilizer you will use. And all these things have to be taken into account in order to maximize the potential of your grow (dialing in). Let's start with your grow area. What size will it be? How many feet wide by how many feet deep by how high? Also, to better help you, I need to know, why are you going with multiple smaller lights as opposed to one or two higher wattage lights like I described in my last post? Is it because you need to get everything from your local hardware store, and that's all they have, or is it because it seems less expensive to by the smaller lights? I need to know what your limitations are in terms of your grow box size and money you can afford to spend on lights to better help you.

    Also, go to ICMag.com and look up all threads started by DrBudGreenGenes. He has threads here at GC on the subject of CFL grows you should also check out, but his newest threads on the subject are at ICMag. He is the 'Guru' of small CFL grows. You'll be amazed at what he's able to do with small grow areas and small CFL bulbs. You want to really do your research on the subject before you invest any money on lights or build your grow box. Otherwise, you might spend a lot of time and money trying to grow before you get results. Most of us who want to grow indoors do it primarily for the purpose of getting good cheap smoke as fast as possible. You can spend $1000 or more setting up a grow box. But if you have that kind of cash you might as well just buy $1000 worth of smoke. The idea is to get as much smoke as you can for as little money spent as possible. To do this you really need to plan ahead.

    Get back to me with the answers to the questions I asked above and we'll talk more. :wave:
     
  8. Skunk, thats the setup I just got for my first grow at my local garden store! But I'm on the cheap and pretty sure 125W isn't going to cut it, even though I'm only growing a couple of plants in a small area. My question to you is, what do you think about just getting a couple of cheap 40W bulbs from Lowes or something, and hanging them around the main light, for some supplementary lighting. Do you think that would be effective?
     
  9. More light is always better!

    If your grow area has no height restrictions (like a nice closet where you can use all the space from the floor to the ceiling), then get another overhead 125 watt light and follow a SCROG method. Your plants will be taller and only have buds on the top of the plants, but you can get some big yeilds this way once you do a few grows and tweak your system out. This is IMHO usually the best method for begginers, because having all your lights over head and just letting the plants grow to there natural height is a hell of a lot less work and takes a hell of a lot less experience than trying to low stress train, or super crop your plants. The plants will also mature faster, because like I said in my last post, when you start pinching and super cropping, the plant has to spend time and energy healing from those 'wounds', which means it takes longer for them to mature.

    However, if your vertically restricted in your grow area, then you would probably benefit more from having just the one 125 watter overhead, and having some additional lights hanging down around the sides of the grow box to supplement budding from the lower parts of the plant. You can move the side lights around in your grow area as needed to maximize light, like you might want to place one of the side lights between the two plants so each plant gets the full benefit of the light, then have an additional side light on the outside of the plant so that side gets plenty of light.

    Either way, you'll need to either paint the ceiling and walls of your grow area flat white, or put up some reflective foil paper or mylar to get as much light reflection going as possible. The more light you can reflect back onto your plants, the less lights you'll need in your grow area to get the desired results. Mylar is the best for light reflection, but isn't cheap. From what I've seen, tin foil on the walls and ceiling works better than flat white paint. But if your on a budget and you happen to have a gallon of flat white paint, go for it.

    Also, if your on a budget don't be afraid to use bag seeds! Weed snobs act like bag seeds are worthless, but if the smoke that the bag seeds came from got you high, then the plants you grow in your controlled environment with those seeds will probably get you even higher! Again, indoor growing is about getting your hands on some good smoke as quick as possible for as little money as possible. So give bag seeds a try before you spend the ridiculous prices on a 10 pack of seeds that most of the seed banks charge you!
     
  10. I'm not saying that Skunk is wrong, but a "stringy" plant isn't a great thing.

    6500K lights won't help with flowering, and big leaves aren't what you smoke, but the more leaf you have the more energy the plant makes. That gets stored in the roots and fed to the buds, and the whole plant is healthier and stronger.

    If nothing else, hit up HD or somewhere for some 26w daylight (6500K) bulbs and use them to supplement your lighting in both veg and flower (but definitely have some 2700k's for flowering). It doesn't hurt the plant at all and bigger leaves help build bigger buds.
     

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