I recently began my closet grow set up, again... interesting story if anyone is interested, and now have a 3.5^2 ft grow space. Last time I grew indoors I had 2 15 watt CFLs which did enough to grow my plant about 9". I was wondering what bulbs I should use in the CFL family and any reflective materials to optimize the light absorbtion of the plants. I am on a limited income at the time so if ideas submitted are inexpensive, Huzzah! I welcome all comments, advice, and criticism. Thank-You The Knatty Fatty Dread Man
I'm in the process of setting up a small, single plant grow and found it pretty easy to mount the lights on sheet metal that's been painted white. It's much easier to adjust that then the bulbs individually. Generally speaking, you want 100W per sq/ft. Personally, I like 120W sq/ft when using CFLs. I also like using a lot of smaller CFLs rather than a couple of large CFLs to get more even light coverage. That being said, I will only scrog with CFLs as they don't penetrate very well. I would suggest about 420 (nice) watts (120 x 3.5). I would use 9 bulbs. 3 of one spectrum, 6 of the other (depending on the stage of growth). I think a 400W would really pay off... if its in the budget of course (I'm strapped for cash too). Good luck!
hey, i found a good supplier called HTG supply.com they all kinds of stuff for our type of growing. they have 400w HPS/MH full set ups for only $120.00 USD.
HPS get hot. Real hot. If you think you can just get a bigass HPS without any ducting or a cool tube to get the heat out of such a small space well...more power to ya haha. Trust me I tried with a 250w HPS and it wasn't pretty. You don't even need that kind of power for a micro grow anyway. OP needs to get some 26w and/or 42w CFLs in both 6500k spectrum (for veg) and 2700k spectrum (for flower) and the best reflective material is 2mm Mylar. A 4 pack of CFLs will probably be like $10-$20 depending on where you live and get them, the mylar would be like $25, more or less if you got a bigger or smaller roll of it.
I had a 400 HPS in a 3x2x4 grow box. Also had another 170W of 2700K CFLs. Even in the middle of southern california summer in an upstairs apartment with no A/C I was able to get the plants 2" away from the lights without burning. But like MrMatrix said, I used a cool tube with fresh (outside the box) air. Had great results. And I personally don't use mylar. I've switched to white paint. Easier to clean, setup, etc. Pretty damn close to as effecient as mylar as far as I can tell (but I'm no photo-ologist, lol). Mylar is as good as at gets when it comes to reflecting light for plants though. Either way will work great.
I'm very interested in this. Can you show some pics of you're closet? That's where i'll be growing pretty soon. I hope to use the 400watt HPS for flowering as well, and use the cooling tube because HPSs get very very hot. But ill have to look into it more before i start.
i use a 400w HPS in a closet that is pretty small and i use mylar and the only cool air that comes in is from a vent that runs through the closet. i just let a little bit of ait come out of the vent and my closet stays around 73 f during the light and 68 f with out the light on. if i dont have the air on it stays at about 80. the 400w hps doesnt kick out that much heat.