New Totally Cheap CFL Grow

Hacker52404

Active Member
OK So I've been lurking around here for a long time and finally decided to get some things together for a grow. To keep it interesting I wanted to stick with only things I currently had in the house.

I converted a closet in my weight room to a CFL Grow lab. I've spent a lot of time reading the forums here, so here is what I have.

A 20W Tube growlight
4x13W 6500K CFLs (with 2 extra)

I've started off by trying to grow some green bean plants, and so far have had good luck. Next I'm hoping to jump up to some bag seeds before laying out the cash for the good stuff.

Any comments? I'm really curious what people think of my extremely ghetto setup.
 

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Mystik

Active Member
it's more than enough for a single plant, you probably want to look into increasing air flow in and out of the closet though.
 

Twistyman

Well-Known Member
OK So I've been lurking around here for a long time and finally decided to get some things together for a grow. To keep it interesting I wanted to stick with only things I currently had in the house.

I converted a closet in my weight room to a CFL Grow lab. I've spent a lot of time reading the forums here, so here is what I have.

A 20W Tube growlight
4x13W 6500K CFLs (with 2 extra)

I've started off by trying to grow some green bean plants, and so far have had good luck. Next I'm hoping to jump up to some bag seeds before laying out the cash for the good stuff.

Any comments? I'm really curious what people think of my extremely ghetto setup.
Good stuff.. I'd bump up to 26W minimum.. I have the large tubes myself but I use T's where you're using CFL's.. heres what I had..
Luck..

 

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Hacker52404

Active Member
Good stuff.. I'd bump up to 26W minimum.. I have the large tubes myself but I use T's where you're using CFL's.. heres what I had..
Luck..

Thanks for the tips. I may put an exhaust fan in there to pull air out, as there is an old duct that goes right above the 'room' that I could tap into for the air exhaust.

I thought about the 26W but I wanted to give it a shot with bulbs from the house, I may upgrade if I decide I want to try to bring 2 plants up. Right now I'm growing more for the challenge than for the 'reward' although I'm not going to say that some nice home grown does not spice up the deal some ;)
 

olosto

New Member
Not to burst your bubble but your going to have a long hard flowering with that little light. Plants can veg with little light but flowering is where the lumens are needed..
 

Hacker52404

Active Member
Not to burst your bubble but your going to have a long hard flowering with that little light. Plants can veg with little light but flowering is where the lumens are needed..
Yes but won't I need 2500K bulbs for flowering? For those bulbs I have quite a few large CFL bulbs (as the light is yellow and normally used in a house). I even have some 30 and 40W CFLs at that temperature. It's just the 6500K ones, the bluish light doesn't have much other use so I didn't have too many to pick from.
 
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