Growing on the low.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

St_Nick

Two_Toke
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
3,691
Reaction score
6,387
I have 2 Plants growing inside right now under T12 tubes right now. Another 2 are growing under a little desk lamp. I wish I could post some pictures but do to my lifestyle, (I live in the boonies) my internet doesn't support it. Maybe I'll find time to stop in at Starbucks or something similar and then I can catch up on pictures.

I always hear about how you can't grow under fluorescent, they are only good for vegging, stuff like that. You hear how they don't put out enough light the yield is poor and all the rest. I personally just think its all bull. It took a while but I have been growing under fluorescent for a while now and I get a pretty decent yield If I do say so myself. What I found is what everyone says. Fl. lose most of their power in the first few inches away from the light. As a result, the plants stretch and tend to be very sparse. I kept putting more lights up, (I had a bunch at the time) it helped but not so much. Then I started to rethink the whole deal. Seeing all the grow tents and how they are focused on containing the light, I had an epiphany.

I have lived in a 5th wheel camper since 2004. I travel around the eastern U.S. and see the country. Sometimes I stay in campgrounds and sometimes I boondock it. (Live off the grid) I have a cedar lined closet that is 27" X 27" X 78". It is the perfect size for 2 plants. I lined the wole thing, walls, floor and ceiling, with aluminum foil. It has 6 double tube T12 fixtures for light. 2 of the fixtures are mounted to a white 25" by 25" piece of plywood which I raise and lower with the plants. The other 4 fixtures are mounted vertically in the corners. All together they consume 400 watts & produce a heck of a lot of Lumens. The thing is, no portion of the plant is deprived of light and the plants produce very well. Before everyone says I could save money with this or that setup,,, all I can say is, ok I agree. Lets not argue. This works for me. My last grow took six months and yielded just over 4 dry oz. If I am boondocking, which I am right now, I use solar power. I found that I can run all the fl. bulbs 24/7 if the sun shines. My MH lights don't allow the batteries to charge enough during the day to make it through the night. I have and still am for that matter, considered led for the energy savings but it appears they don't penetrate real well either.

I currently have one Sativa plant and one Indica plant in the closet. They have been on 12/12 for 8 days now and flowers are starting to be apparent on all of the tips on both of them. Can't tell you what strain they are, I have been growing the same two strains for years. I fertilized one of each back in 2000 or 01, been using the same seeds ever since. They are both very dank and both great at what they do. I use the Sative to get me through the day and the Indica in the evening for couch lock tv & sleep. They are growing organic in soil. I use 5 gallon buckets. Hopefully I'll get to a Wi-Fi this weekend so I can upload some pictures. 'Til then have a toke on me,,,:48:
 
Actually no one says that you cannot grow with fluoros--it is just that they cost about 2x as much lumen for lumen to run when compared to HPS and they produce quite a bit less bud and it is airier. Just as an example, your 400W of T12 is probably producing around 25000 lumens. A 400W HPS will produce 40,000-50,000 lumens. You could save 150W going with a small HPS like a 250W which puts out about 218,000 lumens. However if that is all you have and 4 ozs every 6 months will do you that is wonderful. We just try and encourage the use of HIDs because of the cost associated with fluoros and the fact that they produce less bud.

You might want to remove the foil as it is not a good reflector of light and it can cause hot spots that can burn your plants, especially in a very small space like you have. Remove the foil and paint with flat white paint. Flat white paint is a very good reflector of light, is inexpensive, can be easily cleaned, and you don't have to worry about wrinkles like with foil. As far as the solar goes--400W is 400W. If your solar setup is capable of running 400W of fluoros, then it should be able to run 400W of anything.

If this set-up is working for you, that is all you need
 
Thanks HG for the look see. I have considered or tried just about all of what you said. I use the al foil because of the cedar closet. I paid too much for the cedar to just paint over it and besides, I would lose the odor absorbing qualities as well. Al foil is cheap & I replace it every grow. There really aren't any wrinkles really, the walls are flat. During veg (4-6 weeks) they are on 24/7,then I switch to flower and 12/12. I dunno why I can't keep the bats charged with the KID/MH setup. I have 2 230 watt lamps and switchable ballast, at 300 watts total output they kill my batts in about 5 hours. The FL's will go all night and allow me to brew a pot of joe in the morning. Who knows? Maybe My ballasts waste to much current in heat?

The little plants I started the 1st of July are being trained for a scrog. After reading some of the threads on here I am going to be trying that the next go. With all the traveling I do, I am always looking for a more stable method of growing due to the movement when I travel. When plants are in flower they can break pretty easily and maybe keeping 'em under a screen will help. I probably lose an oz or two due to breakage.
 
A plain white shower curtain would be better than the foil. And, they are cheap (probably cheaper than all the foil).
 
You might consider investing in an LED light. topledgrowlight.com has a 300w for $166 that would cover that space and doesnt use much power. I've flowered with t5's and LED and the LED wins by a long shot.
 
Foil is bad--poor reflective qualities and it can burn your plants. You really need to do something other than the foil. If you don't want to paint it (which I totally understand), cover it with something reflective.

If you have enough head room, the LED may be a good option for you. The scrog also sounds good, especially given your situation.
 
Well, dang da bad luck. I hit the road for a few days on my bike to attend a get together with some of my biker buds. While I was gone my Sativa decided to sprout the healthiest set of male organs. Good news is my Indica looks like it may be a record yield. It has 9 flowers all fighting to be top dog.

Have one on me.:vap_bong__emoticon:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top