complete grow with CFLs

[jetBLACK]

i have one blueberry plant right now growing under cfls. she is 9 weeks old, and in her 4th week of flowering. i have 5 30w cfls all very closely positioned all around, about 2in away. also i have about 6in above her 2 4ft 40w flos.

now i need these light are not optimal for a proper grow, but i had these all laying around in my garage. so i figure together they give me about 16600 lumens total for one plant.

for the cfls is 2in too close?? i read that you can put them as close as possible without burning the leaves. is it better to have the light focused on the leaves or the buds??

has anyone ever had good results with miracle gro nutes for blooming 15-30-15. i know i should have gotten better nutes, but i figured this was better than nothing. i might get new nutes this weekend from a hydro store.

so if anyone has done a complete grow start to finish with cfls let me know how it went

as soon as i can post pictures i will...

 

[ShecallshimThor]

very nice im doing a similar grow but i force flowered to keep her smaller
i keep the lights close to the buds and i move fan leaves that are bloking the light to the lower buds

 

[GeoffTheMess]

CFLs are simply not enough light for a grow

 

[GeoffTheMess]

looks heathly though....can you get yer hands on some bigger CFLs i got HUGE 300 watt equiv. ones at home depot for 12 dollars...mabye try that

 

[GeoffTheMess]

sorry for all the posts.....i used 15-30-15 when i was in vedge i think...worked fine...

 

[Berttieboo]

Dont bother with the MG nute in flower, it will mess your plant up big time(been there, done that,regreted it). Make the small investment and get to the hydro store. I would put your lights a bit closer then 2 inch's, they produce very little heat and can be almost touching your plant without harming it. Your plant does look ok but its asking for more light, imo flowering with cfl's is a waste of time,jmo.
Good luck

 

[Alistair]

I did a complete grow from beginning to using fluorescent lights. It worked out well, and I had nice stony, tight buds. However, whether it works out well or not is probably strain related. Some plants will do well and produce nice buds; whereas,other plants will produce wimpy buds.

From what I can see, if you finish this grow using what you're using now, you should be happy enough with the results. Just the same, it seems to me 16,600 lumens won't give you the best results. If you don't have heat issues in your grow room, why not purchase a couple 150 watt HPS lamps form Lowe's or The Home Depot and put them in with the fluorescent lights you already have?

 

[jetBLACK]

I did a complete grow from beginning to using fluorescent lights. It worked out well, and I had nice stony, tight buds. However, whether it works out well or not is probably strain related. Some plants will do well and produce nice buds; whereas,other plants will produce wimpy buds.

From what I can see, if you finish this grow using what you're using now, you should be happy enough with the results. Just the same, it seems to me 16,600 lumens won't give you the best results. If you don't have heat issues in your grow room, why not purchase a couple 150 watt HPS lamps form Lowe's or The Home Depot and put them in with the fluorescent lights you already have?

thanks for the input. i went to home depot to look for a hps bulb but i couldnt find one. if i can locate one, is it a regular bulb that can be used like in a lamp or do i need some kind of ballast for it?? the home dpot by my house must suck because the best cfl they have is 30w. maybe ill go check out lowes.

on the nutes, since i only have like 5weeks left of flowering and if i get better nutes this weekend i would lke to use them for as long as i can right up until harvest. has anyone had good results with a flushing agent right before harvest instead of stopping nutes 2 weeks before harvest?? also my plant is in organic soil does that make a difference with the flushing agent, what is the maximum length i can use the nutes??

thanks all

 

[papabeach1]

ummm.... IME and for these 150w hps light bulbs... they do need ballast, cfls dont require ballast....

hope I can clear that up for everybody.. and umm... the more lumen will yield more buds.. so far cfls does produce little tight buds... its like a longt trail to get little buds and its faster to get 1 oz from a dealer (as long you know that dealer for long time..) if yall know what I mean..

to be serious grower.. ya gotta have MH light for veggie or floursec. which is good for mother plants.. and always to have HPS lights for bloom time..

IME I have tried and see it for myself.. I has to agree with all experts who succeed.. hope my input will helps..

I did a complete grow from beginning to using fluorescent lights. It worked out well, and I had nice stony, tight buds. However, whether it works out well or not is probably strain related. Some plants will do well and produce nice buds; whereas,other plants will produce wimpy buds.

From what I can see, if you finish this grow using what you're using now, you should be happy enough with the results. Just the same, it seems to me 16,600 lumens won't give you the best results. If you don't have heat issues in your grow room, why not purchase a couple 150 watt HPS lamps form Lowe's or The Home Depot and put them in with the fluorescent lights you already have?

 

[WeedHopper]

CFLs are simply not enough light for a grow

That is simply noy true. HID's do a better job,,but you can deffinatly grow all the way with floras. I am using 40,000 lumens(3000k AND 2700k) of floras with very nice bushy results.My two females or budding like crazy.:hubba:

 

[jetBLACK]

i just checked lowes website and they have a 400w hps bulb for $20. can this bulb be used in a regular lamp?? i cant post link but it was under lighting at lowes.com

 

[WeedHopper]

i just checked lowes website and they have a 400w hps bulb for $20. can this bulb be used in a regular lamp?? i cant post link but it was under lighting at lowes.com

NOPE,,needs a ballest.

 

[jetBLACK]

NOPE,,needs a ballest.

does lowes or homedepot sell hps that dont require purchasing a ballast?? how can i tell if i can plug the bulb into a regular lamp or not?

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

that's just the bulb they're advertising, bud... my 400W HPS I just got (bulb, remote ballast, socket, reflector, the works) for around $400... the reason the CFL's are so ideal is cuz they have their ballast built into the bulb and can be used in a regular medium based socket.

 

[pimpdaddycoolz]

Papabeach1 said you need a MH or Flouro for vegging. Not to argue or anything, and no disrespect, but you dont NEED them. Running a straight HPS grow from seed is fine as well.

Just saying if he wanted to save some money, he can go strictly with the HPS and it would be fine... but he already has the CFL's so he's good to go anyways.

And no the bulb wont work in a socket. You need a ballast and seperate socket, the whole hook up. great growing is definately not cheap, unless your outdoors. Good luck!

 

[pimpdaddycoolz]

ohh and i think your plants look quite nice for a CFL grow right now! the buds will do the job! good job as well!

 

[jetBLACK]

so if i wanted to buy an hps from lowes or Homedepot, what else would i need to buy with it?? sorry about all the questions i just want to make sure before i go buy a bulb or something i cant even use. thanks

 

[jetBLACK]

thanks pimpdaddy, my next grow for sure i will have a couple hps before i even put a seed in the ground. this plant is like an experiment for me, and i think ive done pretty good considering im not using the best of eqipment, thanks for all the input so far

 

[pimpdaddycoolz]

Dude! your plants looked better then mine did my first time!

And it really depends on how much area you have to grow. I dont know much about home depot and lighting. i mean i go there quite often, but i dont really look through the lighting section.

Do you have a hydroponics store? Thats the only thing i know for sure. Like i said, someone elses input about home depot would help

But You are going to need a High pressure sodium ballast, socket set, Hood (optional, BUT EXTREMELY recommended.) and bulb.

Optimal conditions for wattage are:

400 watt - 2.25 ft by 2.25 ft at 2.25 ft away from the top of the canopy. so coverage of a 5 sq.ft area, but all of these are optimal. You can fit more plants to include in side lighting. the closer you can get the light without burning the leaves, the better.

600 watt - 3 ft by 3 ft at a minimum of 3 ft away.

1000 watt - 4 ft by 4 ft. minimum of 4 ft away.

You want a minimum of 5000 lumens per sqft. the more lumens, the more bud.

You can also buy smaller HPS. i used a 150 watt with covers about a ft and a half at the most.

This all depends on how serious you are about growing, as well as how much space you have.

 

[Alistair]

I think that the 150 watt HPS lamps require a separate ballast. Actually, I must have been thinking about the 70 watt HPS lights. But these require a separate ballast too. I bought a 100 watt Fluorex flloodlight, rated at 6500 K. It puts out 10,500 lumens. The whole light, including fixture, costs about $65.00, and I know that I bought it The Home Depot. You need to buy a power cord for it and hard wire it to the fixture wires. Also, you need to cover the light sensor. I taped my light sensor over with electrical tape. If you can buy two of those, or even one, you'll have a good change of getting some good flowers. I forgot, you're growing only one plant. Just get the 100 watt fluorex light and you should be good to go. I doubt you'd get any better results using another type of fluorescent light. There are also 85 watt Fluorex lights.

You know, the more I think about this, and the more I return to look at the pics, I think that you're doing just fine as is. What have I been thinking! You've already said that you've 16,000 lumens on one plant. That should be plenty. Plus the picture says it all; she's looking fine. Her's another idea. Why not get a few warm white lights to help give you a more balanced and desirable range of color for your plant, and hopefully nicer flowers.

I think you'll be happy with the results if you do nothing more than you're doing now, but the more light the better. I hope this works out for you. Keep in mind, that even if you have nice tight nugs, they'd be even tighter and bigger using an HPS.

Hey! I just noticed a lot trichs developing on those leaves. Those look really nice. You'll have dank bud no matter how big the nugs are. Those will get a lot bigger, I believe.

Good luck, and good job.