AlienBait
Enjoying the Hooka
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2007
- Messages
- 494
- Reaction score
- 398
What are Cold Cathodes? They are the lights that people put inside their computer cases to light up the components (though I really don't see the point). They are 1 foot long and use 3.5 watts each. I got 10 of them for a total of 35 watts of light, just to see if they would work for growing our favorite plants. I've never seen anyone grow with these types of lights before, so I'm doing a little experiment.
I chose to use mostly red lights because that is what the chlorophyl absorbs best, but it also absorbs blue, so I have a couple of those. I also added two white ones just to give the plants a little more variety. The white lights actually don't put out as many photons as the red or blue because (I was told) they are actually the same as the blue ones with a coating on them that absorbs some of the blue light and re-radiates in the lower spectrums. In doing so, some light energy is lost.
The lights cost about 3.00 each. With tax and shipping, the 10 lights cost $36.00.
Despite the name, they put out as much heat as a fluorescent tube. However they are much smaller and many of them can be crammed into a small space. Like fluorescent lights, they need a ballast. That is what those little blue boxes are on top of the grow box. Each ballast can control two lights. Everything is running off the computer power supply, which also made it easy to plug in the computer fan without any mods. The power supply and fan together use 15 watts for a total of 50 watts for this grow.
I am using the same 2-liter soda bottles that I used in previous experiments because I already had them and they seemed to work pretty well last time.
The plants are 1 White Satin and 1 White Widow which I grew from clones. The White Satin was vegged for 2 weeks longer than the Widow, which I vegged for 1 week after rooting. That is why it is a little bigger and thicker. By the way, the White Satin is a clone from the plant I used for my LED/16oz cup grow. I re-vegged that plant and took about 5 clones from it. The White Widow is a clone from last spring's closet grow.
Of course, one would get better results with a HPS, but for Micro-Growers, this may be a way to go. Even so, I think it's going pretty well. Buds and trichs are forming and the plants are healthy. The folowing pics are 3 weeks into flowering and were taken last week.
1) The lights glued to the top of the grow-box.
2) The ballasts. Each one controls 2 lights
3) Modified PC power supply
4) The plants on day 1
5) The plants at the end of week 3
6) WS and WW side by side
7) Different angle
8) From the top
9) White Satin
10 White Widow
I chose to use mostly red lights because that is what the chlorophyl absorbs best, but it also absorbs blue, so I have a couple of those. I also added two white ones just to give the plants a little more variety. The white lights actually don't put out as many photons as the red or blue because (I was told) they are actually the same as the blue ones with a coating on them that absorbs some of the blue light and re-radiates in the lower spectrums. In doing so, some light energy is lost.
The lights cost about 3.00 each. With tax and shipping, the 10 lights cost $36.00.
Despite the name, they put out as much heat as a fluorescent tube. However they are much smaller and many of them can be crammed into a small space. Like fluorescent lights, they need a ballast. That is what those little blue boxes are on top of the grow box. Each ballast can control two lights. Everything is running off the computer power supply, which also made it easy to plug in the computer fan without any mods. The power supply and fan together use 15 watts for a total of 50 watts for this grow.
I am using the same 2-liter soda bottles that I used in previous experiments because I already had them and they seemed to work pretty well last time.
The plants are 1 White Satin and 1 White Widow which I grew from clones. The White Satin was vegged for 2 weeks longer than the Widow, which I vegged for 1 week after rooting. That is why it is a little bigger and thicker. By the way, the White Satin is a clone from the plant I used for my LED/16oz cup grow. I re-vegged that plant and took about 5 clones from it. The White Widow is a clone from last spring's closet grow.
Of course, one would get better results with a HPS, but for Micro-Growers, this may be a way to go. Even so, I think it's going pretty well. Buds and trichs are forming and the plants are healthy. The folowing pics are 3 weeks into flowering and were taken last week.
1) The lights glued to the top of the grow-box.
2) The ballasts. Each one controls 2 lights
3) Modified PC power supply
4) The plants on day 1
5) The plants at the end of week 3
6) WS and WW side by side
7) Different angle
8) From the top
9) White Satin
10 White Widow
