compact fluorescents

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Tom O'Bedlam

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Hi all- first time wannabe grower here. I'm wondering if anyone out there has had/heard of success with strictly CFL lighting? My space is small, I'm using 2x 125 w daylight spectrum CFL's. Space is 36"wide, 16" deep, 4 feet high. Began germinating northern lights last PM (paper towel method) and plan to put 'em in rapid rooter cubes if/when they show me something -or should I just put 'em in now? I'm kind of trying to keep this as low-tech as possible, which may doom me to failure. Any advice appreciated...AWESOME WEBSITE!!
 
hey Tom, i am growing now with cfls and my first grow with them was really awsome. i didn't have a camera then but i do now. take a look at my gallery. my first grow was one plant in a cardboard box 2 foot by 2 foot and 6 foot tall. i had 2 42 watt daylight cfls and 12 26 watt soft white cfls. plant grew to over 5 foot tall and i don't keep scales as i don't sell but it yeilded around a QP. i do believe.
 
Theres alot of folks here that grow with cfls. Incuding myself and you can get some decent buds with cfls. Remember you want 3000 to 5000 lumens per square foot, so two 42watt cfls per square foot is a fair amount of light. Also you can keep them alot closer to your plants. I keep my 42watters about 4 inches away from the top. I even put a few around the sides to maximize light to the lower branches. Try to find lights in the right color spectrum, (6500k- veg 2700k-flowering) you can find them at Home Depot or Lowes around $9.00 i hope this helps.. Happy Growing.

almost forgot look in the bud picture section for cfl buds. It one i grew with clfs.

heres a link
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26222
 
I got a grow journal using 8000 lumens, 5 cfls. Anyways im only using the 23 watters for now cuzz i couldent find none bigger wattage of cfls.. My journal is in my signature check it out its current. slowmo quick ? how do you tell what color spektrum cfl using, or how do you tell the K cuzz i looked on the box and couldent find anything.
 
Tom,

Run down to the local hardware store and pick up a cheap 4 lamp bathroom fixture, then get 4 of the "2 into 1" sockets, then you can run 8 of the CFL's on one fixture.

There is no such thing as "too much light", and the more CFL's you can add, the better.

With that much space, you should be able to really pour on the lumens once they get into flower, so plan on extra lamps for adding light to lower branch areas (or trim them off).

ISO
 
ya as long as you have space to add cfls i'd add them.

As for finding color spectrum on cfls it depends on who makes them..
At Home Depot and Lowes they come in colored packages blue, green and red. If you look it the top left hand corner on the back you will see a list of info, watts, volts, and at the bottom of that list it will simply have 6500k or 2700k.

Heres the package color for those two spectrums
Blue package-6500k
Green package-2700k

if you have the sunbeam cfls they are 2700k.
its not writen on the box you have to look them up online.
I hope this helps good luck
 
hey tom, if you don't already have a fan to blow on your plants, you will need one of those to
 
Wow thanks for the feedback. I was afraid everyone would tell me I'm screwed. THe fan is an easy one. My bulbs are the long ones with 6 small U-shaped tubes per bulb..6400K and 2700K. Any ideas about waiting for sprouting vs. just throwing the seeds in the black gold? Finally, is miracle grow OK for fertilizer?:holysheep:
 
im going to lowes or homedepot in a little while so ill check for higher wattage and my box is bluish and its bright effects or energy star. its say 1600 lumens each, 23 watts each, 8000 hours each? is K metric? Any suggestions on what brands to get? and whats best for flowering?

Tom where did you get those CFLS and do they fit in normal light fixture or worklamps? Ive had good luck with both germinating methods... Most people on here dont reccomend miracle grow products, but i have seen some people grow with it..
 
i use all GEbulbs from walmart. when you use cfls you want a good mix of light color. your soft white is good for flower and your daylight for veg., but i would mix them all together and the more the merrier!! but use your head, you need to keep the cfls about 2-4 inches from your plants and all around the sides. they do put off some heat so depending on how many lights you run you might need a couple of small fans blowing fresh air in to you box, tent or whatever you are growing in.
 
Tom, for vegging, a bit of a spread spectrum isn't bad, but lean towards the 6500k's for vegging. For flowering you will need a number of the 2700k's.

The "2 into 1" units can double the capacity of any standard socket.

I've seen some nice bud done with all those CFL's, but it'll take a gaggle of them to do it.

I would avoid Miracle Grow if at all possible. I hate that stuff..some like it, but you can do better. Check out www.greenlightnin.com for some serious nutes. I've used Fox Farms, Plant Marvel and a host of other hydro and soil nutes, and this stuff is superior to all of them, by far. Not too expensive either...made for the average grower who wants better than average harvests.

You can feed it to your soil plants, just fine. I use a tsp. (= to 5ml) per gal of each (part A and B), every other feeding.

Here (t-nail) is a pic of a 10 day old ATF plant that was a small but well rooted clone. DWC plants grow fast, and with GL they grow twice as fast...and they grow the root structure to support the upper growth, too.:cool:

ISO

061008 004.jpg
 
Toke, I ordered them from a gardening site and no they don't fit into a regular socket. I had to buy 2 ballasts/sockets to go with them (the cord does plug into regular electric outlets). Kinda pricey bulbs, etc., but way less than all the HPS jazz...I just bought some GE 42w bulbs from the hardware store...something like 2700 lumens, but no info on temperature. One of these days I'll post a pic of my little grow-cabinet.
 
Hey Tom, CFL's work well but even better with reflectors. Each bulb should have its own reflector (in my opinion) and should be quite close to the plant. Generally, if foilage is touching the bulbs, they will burn over time unless you have a stream of air flowing throughout the box.
You can check out my grow journal for an example of what CFL's can do.
 
I don't have a link for it, but somewhere I've seen that guys take soda cans and a pair of tin snips, and make that can into a very nice CFL reflector. :cool:

ISO
 
Ok, this is gonna turn into a grow log pretty soon. I germ'd about 2.5 days ago and planted 5 good looking ones, leaving 4 slowpokes in the towel (one looks like it's gonna pop - the other 3 maybe not. Anyway, threw the 5 into rapid rooters "tip up" (see pix - and PLEASE TELL ME ASAP IF THAT'S WRONG!!) and then put them in a tray on a heating pad in my little container. THe container is some old stand-alone shelving that I covered with "panda film" (black on one side, white on another) with a window fan up top. I'm having some fun with this...please lmk if you see any glaring errors. There are more lightbulbs than you see in the pix, and I covered the rapid rooters with a tiny bit of black gold soil. ;)

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/for...ent.php?attachmentid=63356&stc=1&d=1213369456

P6130058.JPG


P6130052.JPG
 
The white "tip" is the root and goes down. The seed should be a 1/4-1/2" under the surface of the medium. You could probably put your light closer to your plant. Fluoros put off very little heat.
 
thanks- it's confusing...I've read some posts where guys insist the root tip should be "up" b/c the root always has to make a U-turn, and planting "tip up" is the way to go...makes sense to me that the root should be pointing down!!
 
For me CFL's, for the time being, are the way to go. They don't consume as much energy as sodium bulbs and when I am done with my grow I can use them around the house so its win/win. I have had no problems with my grows using CFL's. I mean in all honesty I am sure I didn't yield as much as what I could have with a full blown proper growing set up, but electricity consumption was a huge issue for me so I played it safe.


You can have the lights like two inches away to stimulate good grown once it germs. After it pops through the surface I would knock it back to having the light about three inches above the top of the plant to start with and if that isn't enough or if it is to much adjust accordingly.

One question though, do those rapid rooters have any kind of fertilizers, chemicals, or nutrients in them? If so you may be running the risk of burning your girls.

Also for me it was cheaper to use them to learn off of than to invest tons of money into all the accessories that go with proper lights. I say CFL's are good to start with, but once you get the formula down and learn how to be efficient with your electricity moving on to sodium bulbs and the like is the next reasonable step.
 
yeah i agree with pussum i am on my 4th grow now with cfls and i average about 3\4 to 1 oz per plant ... i have a smaller armour that i put a door on so my area is small but i use 8 26watt and 1 42watt from veg to harvest.. i just can't get the right nutes and i am stuck with mg so but n-e ways cfls are the way to go if u don't have alot of money or room .. and just for personal its perfect .....
 
I like to stay with equipment in my grow room that I can easily disperse back into random parts of the house and make them blend in, in case I have to ever disassemble the garden in a hurry. CFL's in todays world are quite easy to justify having in the house. It is a bit harder to persuade people that a ballast and huge high intensity bulbs are in the house because you need proper lighting to read in bed, you know?

Which also brings me to another pretty good point. Unless you are doing hydro, which involves, not a large amount of equipment, but a fair amount. You should always try to ensure that your garden can be disassembled and packed away in five minutes or less. I know that, that is an insanely small amount of time and pretty unrealistic, but you never know if a heads up about potential threats coming your way is going to give you an ample amount of time to properly disassemble your garden or not. Especially with all these strangely "random" inspections utility companies are doing recently where they just pop up on your doorstep unannounced.
 

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