I'm vegging under flouros because my plants stretched last time while vegging under 400W HPS. I know the ideal amount of light is like 100W per plant, but that's a ridiculous amount of CFL's haha. So right now I'm running seven 42-watt Daylight spectrum and one 62-watt cool/soft white. 8 plants are under it + 2 more seedlings that got a slow start, doubt I'll end up keeping the seedlings. I also have some clones coming in. I'll be doing a mini SOG in my grow cab with a staggered harvest schedule. Aiming for like 12 plants, but really it'll depend on how many clones I can acquire from my buddy, along with how many of my current 8 turn out to be females. Either way, I'm AT LEAST growing 6. I'll be flowering under 400W HPS. I know I need a bigger light, but my space is pretty small and heat is already a problem. Question is, do I have enough light for veg? I only intend to veg 'em for a few weeks before inducing flowering.
Your HPS isn't MH switchable? Why not get a MH conversion bulb? As for the CFL's, if you're going to do your veg with CFLs, 100W per plant really is the minimum, unless you have a supporting T8 fixture, like what I did. Here's a pic of my old flourescent reflector. In addition to this, I had 3 more 27W CFLs (Daylight) and 1 big ol 62W SoftWhite, and I vegged 6 plants pretty well. Hope this helps
Yeah but as I said I don't really plan on growing them out. And the reason I don't just get a conversion bulb is because of what I INTEND to do. I'm going to have a mother plant and clones under the fixture that I'm currently using. Plus I need a better exhaust fan before I run any HID's. I grew under the HPS last time from start to finish, I had NO IDEA what my temperatures were. Ends up they were running 100+ degrees, which explains my loose, fluffy buds. Temps are running about 80 right now with the CFL's. They run about 95 with HID now that I installed an intake fan. Putting another exhaust fan in for now and going to test the temps after I finish that. Trying to scrounge up 100 some bucks so I can order a real fan. I figured they might just grow a little slower under the CFL's but I plan on inducing flowering when they're like 10-12" tall.
from all my research, experiments and what ive read on board the standard for cfls is 100w for the first plant and 50w per plant after that so if you have 4 plants 250w (100+50+50+50) but idk i run by sq foot and by lumens so i guess its a little dif now (run a 400w hps over 4 sq ft plus cfl supplement to balance the spectrum) my only question is where you got the 42w daylights cfls. the most i can find locally is 27w (homedepot) 42w+ they only sell is soft white
Menards =D Dude, I had the SAME problem. Looked EVERYWHERE, and could only find soft white in anything over 40 watts. Walked into Menards and there they were. Bout 9 bucks each.
at 10 buks each wow for 50 buks 150 watt hps yard light ul need 20 cfls to get lumen eqivilancy and penetration wont even be as good
Yeah, except I don't want a HPS. I've got a 400W HPS. I need blue spectrum, so it's either MH or CFL's. I went with CFL's because I can't deal with heat issues right now. With the CFL's I'm running 86 degrees =/ I can maintain the CFL temperature with the computer fans I currently have when I finally get my mother plant up. If I got a MH bulb, I'd have to buy another fan, and all that shit I just can't afford. I'm improving it little by little =D My main concern is a good fan. Considering just buying a blower, but they're effing loud.