I asked the following question in Kamel's CFL Guide but only got one response (which was to ask around) so I thought I'd start a new thread to see if it would get more attention and hopefully some more answers. I'm just wondering how much you guys are yielding with CFL's? What are your grow room efficiencies like? My reason for asking is because my growing philosophy is; I'm risking prison for growing so I want maximize my harvest, then I don't have to grow as often which obviously reduces the risk. I'm planning to get my OMMP card soon so hopefully I wont have to live by that philosophy much longer but until then. . . .
i havn't heard from too many ppl here growing the whole way with cfl's. maybe i haven't asked the right ppl, but im trying it right now. my babies are a week and half old and look pretty good so far. i'll keep the forum posted on whats up with them just keep and eye out for my posts.
not too bad if you use this baby, 200 watt envirolite(cfl), built in ballast at butt end(lol, where else), very little heat but good specs. few mates use them and get good yields but not as good as hid lights...nowhere close. advantages are hard for local plod to see them with their heat seeking gear. they'd be equivelant to a tv being on. but very good in conjunction with hid lights,have them hanging down giving lower budsites much needed rays
Yes I used to use a couple of those as added side lights... for those lower branches you just can't bear to part with, lol.
I read quiet a few folks on here using CFL's straight through and doing quiet well. I've read one person that you used a total of 80W of CFL and got 3/4 of an ounce. Now I know that 3/4 of an ounce isn't much. However, neither is 80W! I've seen several grow journals with people using 12+ CFL's at 30W or higher and yeilding several ounces off a few plants. From the reason that I have done, it can be done and is worth it if space is an issue for you. In fact HID (HPS/MH) is absolutely no good to you if you're space is too small to handle it with heat concerns, etc. WIth CFL's you can get them right on the plant. I am using CFL's for my clones and veg cycle b/c of space issues. I plan to use HPS for flowering but there are numerous people out there that merely switch out their 6500K bulbs for 2700K during flower. Infact CFL's are cheap! I can buy a 2 pack of 26W 1600Lumen 6500K CFL's for $6. I've purchased several packs. Also, Walmart carries the bulb Y splitter so that you can get 2 bulbs (or 4 if you really want) off one light socket for $1. They also have the bulb adapters to plug bulbs directly into an outlet without a fixture for $1. I've seen several guys use 1 power strip and have 8+ CFL's hanging from it up side down over their plants. Also running all my CFL's only runs me $10/month on electricity. It's a waste using my 400W (460W total power) HPS/MH system on 4 seedlings or clones. I think CFL's definately have their place over HID (HPS/MH) for numerous reasons. Obviously you cannot match the yeilds of HID but, you can produce an amazing yeild off these little CFL's.
I like to put them inbetween plants at the bottoms to put light all througout the node sites. O and a cfl grow can rival a MH grow Ive heard.
check out my cfl/first grow in sig, yeilded almost close to an ounce im on my 2nd grow now with same setup, and 2 different strained clones i have are near harvest, and with the same results, if not bigger fatter buds this time round read around, and try it for yourself cheap easy, effective
i grew 2 plans in a stealth cabinet with 6 bulbs, 132 watts, and got 54 grams.... that was my second grow
Check out Dr. Budgreenjeans thread in the advanced section here and then check out his threads in the microgrow section of IC mag. There's lots of peeps who get satisfactory results. Just gotta figure out what you're doing.
Ive got 300 Watts (equiv.) of CFL's on my one female (hydro) Check out my journal for pics. I am satisfied so far. The only downside for me is the fact that there are still some dark areas in my plant, I solved this my just turning the netpot every 4 or so hours, this gives it equal light. -C
one of the biggest diffrences between hid and cfl, are bud weight, size, and density. Well personally i like fluffy bud that you dont have to break apart to smoke so personally i like clf over hid lighting. If that helps ya out but you get less wieght also that is why people do dierwolf's lst method which is in absolute beginners section. Good luck, try the flouro tubes for side lighting, and two 26 watt cfl's on top or just one if heat is an issue. Flouro tubes dont make allot of heat much cooler than cfl's
cfls work great for vegetating cause you can put them much closer making the plant have closer innernodes imo i have grown all the way through with cfls and i would only use them to vegetate the plant and then switch to a high pressure sodium (hps)
CFLs are suitable if you only have a tight space, or no way of getting HID. HID is better if you can get it, but I've gotten yeilds off of CFL, really nice dense sticky buds, just not largest, I got an ounce off of the first 2 plants I grew, and 1.5 off of another CFL 2 plant grow. I LSTed the hell out of both grows and got the lights right down into the plants. I even bought small 8 w floro tubes that I could rest on the pots themselves and light from underneath. CFLs are really great for getting light all around the plant, penetration isn't a problem at all with even the most minimal LST.
I'm flowering under about 200w of CFL's right now, about 6 days in from showing sex and I've got a good bit of buds formed already so it's worth it to me I guess. I would rather have an HPS for flowering but I'll just have to wait. As for vegging under CFL's; I see no issue with this. People say it takes longer, but whatever, it will still veg well under CFL lighting.. My baby is nearly 4 feet tall right now and was vegged out for over 2 months under 150w without any problems so in that case CFL's are fine. But if youre like anybody else on here you probably want a few plants so maybe saving for HID lighting is a better choice for you.
this is my first cfl grow so i dont really know but if you have enough lumens you should have a decent yield. i had 208 actual watts of cfls on 2 plants but recently had to get rid of one due to an extreme fungus gnat problem. so now its 208w on one plant so i guess we'll see what happens. i just started week 3 of flowering
hey dude check out my grow i could only grow for 9 weeks but it was 150w cfl from start to finish , i would recamend these lights to almost any1 with not enuff space in the grow room or doing a closet grow but as for bigish grows i would use anything but a hps with a sun screen good luck mate hope this helps and heres that link http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/215416-bubbleberry.html#post2339361