sounds like we r in the same growth stages, I gotta small closet grow goin on 5 plants rangin from 2 inches to bout 4.5 in. I am runnin cfls but have no idea really what I am doin. hopefully I will learn alot from ur journal.....
What's Up Kronic! Definitely do the CFL's! Get the 250w 8u from ebay. The 8u stands for the number of loops you see at the end of the lights. Some bulbs have 4 or 6. The more loops the more light and lumens. Think about this...to equal a 400w HID, you'll need:
10 x 55w CFL......OR
5 x 125w CFL......OR
3 x 250w CFL......OR
42 x 4ft 40w Flourescents......OR
84 x 60w Incandescents
Any one of these combinations is about 50,000 Lumens, which is what the STANDARD 400w HPS gives off (600W=80,000 AND 1,000W=140,000). A STANDARD MH at 400w is 30,000 to 36,000 lumens. If you check out the LED lights, you'll notice that when they mix the red and blue, the ratio of red to blue is approx. 8:2 because a LITTLE blue light actually helps with flowering. This means if you're going to run 3 of the 250w RED CFL's for flowering, run 2 instead WITH a 125w CFL BLUE. That's a total of 625w, which means 20% of that is 125w...which the BLUE CFL gives EXACTLY. Hope this helps. For those in doubt, do the homework first. Also, search for, "250w CFL" on this site. There's a guy that just grew some bangin' smoke by doing exactly what I just said. He grew WW and NL....4 plants total I believe. They all looked to be at least 3 to 3 1/2 feet tall at harvest. He also posted many picks from beginning to end. Trust me, this is going to be the new way to grow, plus the LED's too. Very low heat and less problems. AND Po-Po can't pick up all the heat on infra-red!
