Thanks alot Kamel.. i just added some compact flouros to my veg room to supplement my led's. The plants are finally starting to gain some vertical height. I used a few of the 26 watt daylight.
I'm glad you guys are finding it useful. It's nice to be able to answer questions by just saying...check the link.
I have a 35 watt hps and a 50 watt hps. I know a friend that has a 70 watt hps. Just my 2 cents are that they make tiny hid that put out almost no heat and alot more usable light than any cfls. I do use cfls for side lighting under the 50 watt though. I use circular tube flouros over my bubble cloner, then they go under a coated 35 watt hps, until they get used to the bright light and soil. Then they go under the 50 to veg. I think cfls are good to add some white or blue light as side lighting. But for 30 bucks you can get a 35 or 50 watt hps, which takes almost no electricty and makes almost no heat. Better choice over the cfls I think.
I saw those too at home depot when I was first starting out. I thought about it but was too lazy to want to wire it up, and then rig it up in my closet. If they could make lower wattage HPS bulbs that are self ballasted and screw into normal sockets, I'd be all over that. I'm trying out LED's now, because one of my main concerns is keeping power usage down. Some day I'll get my hands on an HPS and give it a go. When I saw this as a sticky I felt like I won the lotto. Thanks!
EXCELLENT thread Kamel, I'm seriously considering using CFL's when I do my first grow. I've read countless threads and with me being on a tight growing budget and limited space, this should be great. *Do you use the 2700k's through the vegetative stage? Or do you just add them when you're getting ready to flower??
2700k's are not good for the vegetative stage, save them for flowering. Veg with daylight, flower with soft/warm white.
Dude this is what i have been looking for all night. I just got into weed about 3 months ago and i love it. I dont really have a problem with buying but i think growing would be awesome and i would appreciate the high so much more. Great post kamel it will def come in handy
Awesome guide Kamel! Thanks Alot. Couldn't have come at a better time since i'm going to start my first grow soon and I am going to be using fluoro's for lighting. Thinking of buying my fluoro's from 1000bulbs.com. Are they a good reliable site to do business with? Im thinking of starting out with these lights 2x 85 Watt - Full Spectrum - High Definition - 6500 Kelvin - Spring Spiral Compact Fluorescent - 85W/SPRING/65K - $17.50 ea. (For Vegging) http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=9183 2x 85 Watt - Full Spectrum - 3000 Kelvin - Spring Spiral Compact Fluorescent - 85W/SPRING/30K - $17.50 ea. (For Flowering) http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=9182 Any good guys? Are those good bulbs? Appreciate any feedback. thanks
Good site, and good bulbs. Not from experience though, but I've heard the site recommended and the bulbs sound good, though the 65w daylights that wal mart sells put out more lumens than either, and cost $11. The thing with them is you need to use their fixture and have to wire it up to a plug (30 second job). My thinking is when they size down the ballast to include it in the bulb, it loses power. The Lights of America ones at wal mart have a ballast outside the bulb, and make more light. There are some others sold on ebay as grow lights, and all they really are are relabeled Lights of America lights, so if you want the extra power and can deal with the fixtures, I'd check those out. Not sure if they have a warm color though.
Awesome thread dude! Ive been looking for info like this all day. I think i will end up drowning my baby in cfl light after all thanks to this great thread. Maybe after a few harvests ill get a hps lamp for some increased bud size, but knowing that you can successfully grow using cfls is good to know for a newb like me. +rep
Are those 3000kelvin lights ok? Will it matter if its 300 kelvin off from whats its suppose to be considering that its 2700k for flowering right? Or will it work better if I get say three or four 55 watt 2700kelving bulbs?
Thanks Reverend, good luck on your grow. Yeah 3000k is good. Any higher and the PAR starts dropping off. I still haven't answered the question of 1 big light vs many smaller lights yet though.
So using around 150w of Fluros for one plant... can I expect my electric bill to go up a good bit? Or will I not notice much at all?
Nice djdew, nothin like a footlong stick of buds. Hey Cyric 150w won't cause much of an increase, maybe a few dollars but not much. The great thing about using low watts is you can offset it on the bill easily by conserving energy elsewere in the house. I'm gonna go get 2 more small pots and do a couple clones, and make one of em a test subject. I'm thinking CFL vs LED, UVB vs none, or maybe flowering in 2700k vs flowering under 6500k. I have no proof yet of a difference, yet I always say 2700 for flower. I think that'll be my experiment. Hell I might even be able to do the LED test at the same time. The hard part about lighting comparison is keeping them seperate. During this time my seed plants will become monsters which I'll then flower. I'll add my findings to the front of this thread with the guide.
man at my hydro shop it is 40 bucks for a "blue" or 6500k 105 watt cfl, and 75 bucks for the "red" 105 watt cfl, now i have seen alot of people flower under normal walmart cfls witht the ame spectrem the whole time? i would love to know if the yield will decrease? i guess this could also go into Metal halide vs. High Pressure sodium. i know for a fact that just a HPS or red spectrum alone will make plants stretch and look more like bean polls. What i wana know is do i need to go blow another 75 to flower or screw it, ill test it man i'll go all the way with 105 watt blue cfl! making moves as i say. My two cents!
What a scam, I bet it costs less to make the red spec bulb too. Supposedly you will lose yield, but we'll see. Still gotta get those pots...