Hello Everyone, Been reading up as best I can, but I can not find any documentation or opinions on how far one should keep a single plant from a 125w Self Ballasted CFL. Thank you everyone, Hornchen
As close as possible without touching...unless we are talking seedlings...that would be true for any CFL
I don't know exactly how hot that bulb is but really it should be as close as possible without burning the plant. Depends on your ventilation but i would imagine 2-3inches should be ok as long of theres air moving around and you check it often enough so it doesn't grow up into the bulb
Had my plant about 4 inches away as suggested and she got burned, not bad but def a little too close. Box temp is low 70's, so ill just scoot her away another couple inches and see how she does. Fingers crossed!
I have 6 fans total - 3 fans for exhaust, one fan blowing across the top of the light and 2 fans to circulate air in the box itself. One is angled down, one up - they alternate on a timer every hour. First picture is at 6 inches away, second picture is of 3 - 3 1/2 inches away and final pictures are of fans. Any help is greatly appreciated! Hornchen
What's the humidity in your box? Maybe the plant is just drying out vice burning? In veg, I would be looking for 50 - 60% humidity...maybe even a little higher. In flower, you would try for 40 - 50%. Pests - like spider mites - also tend to love dry warm conditions.
Good call on the humidity - it is as 50% right now. The reason I was thinking it was the distance is that for 3 days I had it about 6 inches away and it was growing slow, but steady ( original pictures of deep green seedling ) and then I moved it closer before I went to work and when I got home it looked like that. The only variable that changed was the distance from the light but I will def check out the humidity and watch for the mites. Thank you! : ) Edit: upon closer inspection, leaves curled up and in, edges browned.
Just an idea would you consider a hps bulb? I'm not sure but would a 100 watt hps be cooler than the bulb you have?
I have not looked into the hps, I ended up going with the 125w vitalume 6400k and 2700k that I will switch to during flower. I heard the hps may be a little expensive also, these bulbs ran about 30 bucks each. I also need to check out the lumens output, these are a little over 10,000 lumens.
I used cfl for my last grow but hps seems much simpler, it doesn't need to be so close to the plant and you don't have to worry about wavelengths and colour temperature. I've heard that 2700k cfl is better for flowering but then ive heard from other places that the 6400k cfl has far more light wavelengths that are useful to the plant even in flower, just something to think about. The hps bulbs don't seem that expensive they're less than 10 euros or dollars on ebay and the ballast depending on wattage are maybe 30 -40. It's just that i was thinking 125w of cfl seems like alot, i can understand up to 70watts but after that you're going big and should be looking at hps or metal halide.
My previous experiences have been with a pair 600w HPS and never really thought about them being in lower wattages. I saw these bulbs at the store, had the server case laying around and decided to jump in haha - looking back perhaps I should have gone a different route? That being said - I always read that 100w per plant, 50w for every after and the 'more the better'. I was hoping that 125w for 1 plant would be more than sufficient, but now I am not so sure. Today it is looking the same to a little better - at least it is not getting worse. Humidity is now up to 58% - moving in the right direction at least. Do you all think it is a total loss and start over? Would rather spend the next 2 weeks working on something productive than fighting an uphill battle haha. Thanks again, Hornchen
I see what you mean about fighting an uphill battle ... to be honest im not experienced to answer so i will let someone else But at a guess maybe leave it another few days and if anything you will learn and know for next time, it's always good to experiment.
put a good fan directly on the bulb giving good airflow through the bulb. Until it is cold enough to keep you hand on the bulb as long as you want. I had 5x 40W CFLs that were all within 1'' of my plant. One branch actually went inside the bulb without any burn lol. a PC fan is not enough airflow to cool the bulb unless you tape the fan on the bulb haha. Buy a small 6'' or 8'' fan for the bulb and it will also provide good airflow inside the box. Without any fan I could barely touch the bulb for 3 seconds before I burnt my hand, with the fan I can hold it in my hands no problem.
I hear where your coming from Yomandude, but a 40w cfl ( or even 5 ) is a totally different beast than a 125w self ballasted CFL. If I put my hand 1" from the light it is too warm to be comfortable. I know that normal CFL bulbs will lightly to moderately burn plastic but the 125w can actually start a fire - as I said, they are not even close to being the same type of light. As I said earlier with the attached pictures, I have 6 fans in the box, three 4 inch exhaust fans, two 5 inch circulating fans and one 4 inch fan blowing over the bulb. Hopefully that is enough. Their is enough negative pressure pulling air into the box to hold paper against the intake ports. I am going to give it a couple more days and then pull the plug. Its only an experiment but at the same time, I def feel like I killed it by not listening to my gut. Sigh - maybe the next one I'll just use a proper seed instead of bagseed haha.
yeah I have never used a 125W but I read they are actually colder than 40W. I suppose it might depend on the brand, the one I read about was the lotus. ooorr I read BS and my 25W bulbs are actually hotter to the touch than my 40W lol but they do put out less heat they are just a lot more compact.