First grow - closet (cfls)

I'm gonna take a guess and bet for what all those lights cost, you could have gotten a 400w mh/hps dual ballist kit.  Based on the size of your grow room and the amount of seeds you have started, it looks like you have big ideas but not the light to back them up.   If you manage your plants and lighting right, you could grow 4 plants.    Any more than that and you are really just neglecting all the plant's lighting needs.
 
HPS lamps are really to cheap these days to use CFL as a replacement.  CFL may be a little cheaper on a smaller grow but hps isn't much more expensive and you get a lot more bang for your buck.

 

There is more to deciding between CFL and HID than just cost of the bulbs. Heat is a major deciding factor, as HID puts of MUCH more heat than CFL. If you can't vent the closet a 400W MH/HPS will almost certainly cause a heat issue. Also unless you have a dual spectrum HID, while you might gain a lot in yields with a HPS,you will sacrifice quality as HPS produces virtually no uv-b, and thc is produced by the cannabis plant mainly to protect its self from uv-b. Mixed spectrum is important, and CFL is much more forgiving as they produce a much wider spectrum than HID lighting, which have very narrow bands of light. This graph should show what I mean, the Blue line is a 5500K CFL and the Green line is a 5500K MH. They have the same visual color temperature, 5500K, but they actual output is different.  That being said, you will have the same issue if you only use the 2700K for flower, you need 1/3rd of the lighting to be 6500K because that's where you will get most of your uv-b. If you go for an HPS for flower, use some 6500K CFL as supplementary lighting for the same reason. Also be warned that the small CFL bulbs will have a more limited range than bigger bulbs so you will have to get them closer to the plant especially side lighting, or else you won't get penetration to lower branches. 

 

LST is a good form of canopy management, with the number of plants you've got (even after you throw out the males) Scrog might be a good way to go http://forum.grasscity.com/plant-training/48363-scrog-method.html I'm only growing one plant during the indoor months so I don't know much about it personally but people seem to get amazing results and if you plan on keeping most of those plants it might be something to seriously consider.

 

 
If he can't vent the closet then 400w of cfl will be just as much of a problem as 400w hps. It's going to get hot in there, lol. And stinky

 

True, it will still be a problem, but not nearly as much of a problem. I am running 283 real watts of CFL for one plant in a space much smaller than a closet and one tiny little converted computer fan keeps it all nice and cool. That wouldn't be the case with close to 300 watts of MH/HPS. That's why you can put almost 150w of CFL into a computer case grow, but you would never put a 150w HID in there.

 

While this is true, you can not really compare 150w of CFL to 150w of HPS.  At best it, would be comparing 150w CFL to 75w HPS. even a 50w HPS would likely be better.  I would put a 50w HPS in a PC.

 

 
150w hps = 16,000 lumens, or 240w cfl. If you were running a 150w hps you'd be getting the same results but yea, you might have to run an extra watt or two on your fans.
 
I wouldn't run anything bigger than 250w without a cooltube anyway, my 1200w tent runs a lot cooler than my 400w cfl box ever did, lol.

 

Here's a better comparison: when I replaced my 400w cfls and 25w bathroom fan with a 250w hps and 4" 90w fan, my 340w HPS box ran cooler than my 425w cfl box

 

I agree with both of you, I was just saying that within the context of the original statement, 400 watts of CFL will not generate as much heat as 400 watts of HPS/MH. I know the light output will be vastly different, I was just responding to the first comparison which was 400w to 400w.

 

I would actually say that once a day is probably too much. Wait for the top inch or two of the soil to be dry before watering. Also distilled, reverse osmosis, and/or spring water are all about $1 per gallon and are fine ph. In general though if you are growing in soil ph isn't that important as the soil will buffer the ph and keep its self at whatever it wants to be. More important are the total dissolved solids in your water, in particular the amount of sodium. If you live close to the ocean it can get very very high (>50 ppm) and cause lockout.

 

hello guys.
subbed and rated
 
during flowering buy a basil and put it in your house near the window/door and a carbon filter or an ona gel is a MUST in your tent.
let's wait until then.
 
how many plants you will keep? bagseeds are a difficult situation since you don't know the gender.
 
http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1268757-closet-cfl-bagseed.html?hl=closet

 

This sounds like a solid plan for the time being.  I personally grow small plants under 100w and once they are bigger and wider with extreme LST I move up to 200w of CFL for one plant.  This has given me the best results in my experience.
 
As for odor.  expect to have that handled ASAP if this is something you consider an issue.  While my Lemon Skunk Auto seems to produce minimum smell,  My first bagseed grow and current cotton candy plant have major odor than becomes very distinct by early vegging.

 

Fill a bucket with tap water and let sit.