First grow CFL bulb question

F

Fastillion

Member
Hi everyone, this is my first grow, second post, and third time realizing that CFLs are going to be the best bet for me.

I havent started the grow yet, for a number of reason, the biggest being I dont have my new apartment yet. Heh. No worries though, once I secure the lease I'll be posting a thread on the grow.

This question is about CFL bulbs though. I know alot of people ask questions on this, but I wanted to know what you all thought for these specific bulbs.

The first ones are the ones I plan on using for vegging- http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&N=5yc1vZ1xr5Zar0oZ1z12ajj&R=100661903

These ones I plan on using for flowering- http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&N=5yc1vZ1xr5Zar0oZ1z12d4c&R=100653127

I know its not a whole lot of watts, but I was planning on growing about 12 plants, 6 vegging and 6 flowering. The strain is undetermined yet, although I'm considering some White Widow seeds from Buydutchseeds.com. With that setup, I would have 2 bulbs per plant. Because I cant exactly plan out my grow room to its full extent right now, alot of this is guess work, but if I were to go with these bulbs, would two per plant be enough? Or should I get some more bulbs? I'm trying to shoot for a yield of about an ounce per plant, dry weight.

Input is much appreciated, thanks. :)
 
iBlaze DrO

iBlaze DrO

Well-Known Member
you can start off with two lights per plant and see how it goes but i would most def go with more cfls in the long. depending on how much space you can utilize.
 
mkay420

mkay420

Active Member
if you want to veg 6 and flower 6 you are going to need a minimum of 5000 lumens PER plant so you will need quite a few cfls. you should try to start off with less plants under cfls and maybe try to do a scrog or lst type of grow. that way you will get better light to the budding areas of the plant whereas cfl light penetration is not very good. you should check out the cfl forum it will be able to answer any ?s you have on cfl growing, there is some great guides there. also check out and threads on LST (low stress training) this will help increase your yield dramatically with cfls.
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
Fastillion said:
Hi everyone, this is my first grow, second post, and third time realizing that CFLs are going to be the best bet for me.

I havent started the grow yet, for a number of reason, the biggest being I dont have my new apartment yet. Heh. No worries though, once I secure the lease I'll be posting a thread on the grow.

This question is about CFL bulbs though. I know alot of people ask questions on this, but I wanted to know what you all thought for these specific bulbs.

The first ones are the ones I plan on using for vegging- http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&N=5yc1vZ1xr5Zar0oZ1z12ajj&R=100661903

These ones I plan on using for flowering- http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&N=5yc1vZ1xr5Zar0oZ1z12d4c&R=100653127

I know its not a whole lot of watts, but I was planning on growing about 12 plants, 6 vegging and 6 flowering. The strain is undetermined yet, although I'm considering some White Widow seeds from Buydutchseeds.com. With that setup, I would have 2 bulbs per plant. Because I cant exactly plan out my grow room to its full extent right now, alot of this is guess work, but if I were to go with these bulbs, would two per plant be enough? Or should I get some more bulbs? I'm trying to shoot for a yield of about an ounce per plant, dry weight.

Input is much appreciated, thanks. :)
Click to expand...
I think you are wise to go with 42w, less heat, more flexibility, and you can put two in a Y adapter. But go to amazon and search for 40 and 42 watt cfls. I just got great buys on 2700 and 6500k and they were with free shipping.
 
G

growone

Well-Known Member
you could get some quite decent results, as many say more cfl's are better, usually
but, don't overlook reflectors, without reflectors you are losing half the light potential
home made reflector can be done quite cheaply, some thin sheet metal and flat white spray paint can work wonders
 
F

Fastillion

Member
Thanks a bunch guys!
Lot of responses so soon, and good ones too.
The space that I hope to be using is a walk in closet, about 5 feet wide and 6 feet deep. I cant get exact measurements on it yet, but thats roughly the dimensions.
I would do SCROG, but I think that for this space SOG might work better. Not sure yet though, gotta actually get into the damn place and scout it out. Hopefully soon though, got a job interview tomorrow.

More lights shouldnt be too much of a problem, hopefully. If it was like a garage or something, I would likely go with a MH/HPS setup, but I guess first things first.
One concern of mine is the wiring for the CFLs though. Given the fact that its a closet, I'm going to be forced to likely construct my own fixtures. Anyone have any good ideas on this?
Ultimately, I would like to actually have 5 lights per plant, one above and one on each side. A buddy of mine had a setup like that using CFLs, said he got good results.
 
G

growone

Well-Known Member
the simplest(and cheapest) fixture can be the 'outlet strip fixture'
take a outlet strip and socket it up with plug-in sockets. Hang it upside down and you have a bunch of cfls suspended. There is a thread on setting these up somewhere in the forum.
 
F

Fastillion

Member
growone said:
the simplest(and cheapest) fixture can be the 'outlet strip fixture'
take a outlet strip and socket it up with plug-in sockets. Hang it upside down and you have a bunch of cfls suspended. There is a thread on setting these up somewhere in the forum.
Click to expand...
Hmm...I'll have to get some of those from the home depot or something.
I've got about 4 unused power strips, so that would work great.
My main fair is overloading the circuit breaker. In an apartment, thats probably not the best thing to do, so I'm going to try and keep my total power draw below 15 amps, which is partly why i want to use the 42 watt bulbs and just use a few per plant.

Heres another quick question though, what do people think of these CFL's that are also supposedly odor eliminators? Something to do with ozone, I'm just wondering if they work or not, I might get a couple of those if they work well.
 
G

growone

Well-Known Member
Fastillion said:
Hmm...I'll have to get some of those from the home depot or something.
I've got about 4 unused power strips, so that would work great.
My main fair is overloading the circuit breaker. In an apartment, thats probably not the best thing to do, so I'm going to try and keep my total power draw below 15 amps, which is partly why i want to use the 42 watt bulbs and just use a few per plant.

Heres another quick question though, what do people think of these CFL's that are also supposedly odor eliminators? Something to do with ozone, I'm just wondering if they work or not, I might get a couple of those if they work well.
Click to expand...
yeah, you'll need a few plug in sockets, that's for the top lighting
and some socket/cord setups for the lower, pretty cheap but may need to do a little wiring, it's easy wiring by the way
i'm not too familiar with that bulb, they seem to work
not sure if they have an advantage over other methods, such as carbon filter or negative ion generator
 
F

Fastillion

Member
growone said:
yeah, you'll need a few plug in sockets, that's for the top lighting
and some socket/cord setups for the lower, pretty cheap but may need to do a little wiring, it's easy wiring by the way
i'm not too familiar with that bulb, they seem to work
not sure if they have an advantage over other methods, such as carbon filter or negative ion generator
Click to expand...

Wiring shouldnt be too much of a problem, I grew up in a family that put a large empathize on DIY stuff.

I'll likely just end up buying the money to install an intake/exhaust ventilation system with a charcoal canister on the exhaust line. I'm trying to keep alot of the heavy duty hardware stuff to a minimum though, as I dont think my landlord would be pleased if he found 2 6" holes cut into the wall after I moved out. Lol.

For now, I think I'll just end up getting the bulbs I put in my OP, and get more as they are needed.

I'll be sure to put up a thread with my blueprints and plans and all that jazz later on, as input from you guys is like input from the marijuana gods themselves.
 
F

Fastillion

Member
Those would be pretty good for flowering. I'm going to try and stick to the daylight lamps for vegging though.
I might end up getting those for my flowering plants though, its a lot cheaper to get those then the 12 pack i had posted, even with the wattage difference.
 
mkay420

mkay420

Active Member
cfls dont eliminate odor, whoever said tahtmay have been confused or just plain stoned haha... you can make a diy carbon scrubber fairly easy without much cost, there is already a fwe threads about these on the forum somewhere so i wont go into that much detail but what you want to do is basically put a can or piece of duct after your exhaust fan with activated carbon in it and it should minimize odor.

it is a little more complex than that though so you def want to read up on it
 
mkay420

mkay420

Active Member
then definitely let me know if they work cuz i was totally unaware taht they had those out, my bad, but i dont know that they will work that well with reefer smells if you are growing some super skunk or something haha
 
F

Fastillion

Member
Yeah man, thanks.
I think I might buy a couple of those.
I think those combined with Video's ONA muffin fan thing would do wonders for my setup once I get her finished.
Plus, perhaps having some of those in the regular light fixtures about the apartment would help cut down on any scent leakage.
 
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