Toward the end of May I was given 4 clones and I wasn’t really ready to have a garden, so I had some scrambling to do. All of my grow room was antiquated parabolic hid 400 and 1000 fixtures. I didn’t want to live in the past so, knowing less than nothing I immediately bought 2 “600w” led lights and built my own tent. The plants outgrew the two fixtures and I bought a “2000w” Amazon special and built a cfl fixture that held 20 bulbs. The math on that fixture was 23w warm white bulbs, 1600 lumens per bulb which meant I was pulling 460 watts and getting about 32,000 lumens. I put 2 plants under this diy rig and after nearly a month the cfl plants were stretched compared to the led only plants. The cfl was removed and now all 4 plants are getting nearly identical lighting and I am in week 5 of 12/12. It does appear that I am going to suffer a little bit of yield from the cfl fixture. I realize that I could have made the branching tighter if I had not used warm white cfl’s but used the daylight 6500k bulbs. For right now though I just wanted to share my opinion on warm white cfls in veg no matter how many bulbs you have on the plant. I won’t be doing that again and I am now aware of quantum boards, so my lighting is continuing to evolve.
CFL's just aren't worth messing with anymore. It's possibly the least efficient lighting you could choose. Budget people assume they're doing themselves a favor using bulbs off the shelf but when you add up the cost of the bulbs/socket/wire, and the inefficient amount of light they put out per watt they're a waste of time for anything but a clone/seedling light.
i ve always used CFL for veg ,,,i did try a larger CFL once to see what it was like for flowering .i swapped back to the sodium the CFL for flowering just didnt do it for me ,,,mac,
Right now in my situation it looks like the two that went under the cfl fixture will yield about half what the other two will. Very early veg or clones is all I can see of value. This is my first grow in years and can’t believe how much fun I am having. I’ve recently come out of a 4 year long depression and it’s really brightened my spirits and gives me something to look forward to. It’s also very cool to have message boards now. It’s a lonely activity.
as long has yiur happy growing mate thats all that matters doesnt matter how you grow or what lighting you use ,,growing is a great way to lift your sprites ,,yep growing can be a bit lonely at times ,message board.forums are great to meet other growers from big grows to small grows ,,great for learning about growing too ,,just enjoy yourself mate,,,,mac,
This place is fantastic. Its interesting to hear about your experiences with cfls. Experimenting is fun. I totally get what you mean about brightening spirits. Its an artistic activity to grow sweet buds. Enjoy!