sm315
Active Member
Before I get started I will say I've read a bunch and haven't been able to find something that specifically addresses my questions.
I've got things working ok at this point. About 1 1/2 months ago I germinated my first seeds - did 6, got 3 to sprout, one died, one was a male, and I kept the female. I had kept them in a combo of the window sil and outdoors, and under a weak (inconstant) 'grow bulb' my gf had. Obviously not the best set up, but I didn't want to set anything up yet as I just moved in here.
Decided this last week to go out and buy some things to set up a decent lighting rig. I built a reflector out of a piece of white foam board, as well as enclosing my plants in a very white closet, there is also a cardboard reflector to trap light in the front. For refrence I have about 20"x20"x70" in terms of space.
My questions are:
1) I have 4x 23W 6500k daylight cfl's (rated at 6400 lumens without the reflectors I've built in addition) - is this going to be enough light for this space, so should I try to double this? If I do, is the top the best idea, or should I focus on putting more bulbs at different angles/heights?
2) This is related to the first question - if you notice the plant is kind of "reaching" and thin, I'm sure this is to do with inconstant lighting outdoors (there was a lot of cloud cover here this year), and the other bulb I think produced like 200 lumens (not literally but it sucked). Any how - now that I have it under some good lights I've noticed it starting to blossom some more at the lower branches. I plan on leaving her to veg another 1-2 months, is this going to fill in better? Will I need to top the plant? (don't want to really, as you can see it's growing a lot thicker now).
3) Finnally I see that a lot of cfl set ups have a couple different kind of bulbs going at one time (some 6500's and 2700's), I assume this has to do with the spectral output of the lights themselfs? Is there some good info on this, what is the best balance, etc?
I've got things working ok at this point. About 1 1/2 months ago I germinated my first seeds - did 6, got 3 to sprout, one died, one was a male, and I kept the female. I had kept them in a combo of the window sil and outdoors, and under a weak (inconstant) 'grow bulb' my gf had. Obviously not the best set up, but I didn't want to set anything up yet as I just moved in here.
Decided this last week to go out and buy some things to set up a decent lighting rig. I built a reflector out of a piece of white foam board, as well as enclosing my plants in a very white closet, there is also a cardboard reflector to trap light in the front. For refrence I have about 20"x20"x70" in terms of space.
My questions are:
1) I have 4x 23W 6500k daylight cfl's (rated at 6400 lumens without the reflectors I've built in addition) - is this going to be enough light for this space, so should I try to double this? If I do, is the top the best idea, or should I focus on putting more bulbs at different angles/heights?
2) This is related to the first question - if you notice the plant is kind of "reaching" and thin, I'm sure this is to do with inconstant lighting outdoors (there was a lot of cloud cover here this year), and the other bulb I think produced like 200 lumens (not literally but it sucked). Any how - now that I have it under some good lights I've noticed it starting to blossom some more at the lower branches. I plan on leaving her to veg another 1-2 months, is this going to fill in better? Will I need to top the plant? (don't want to really, as you can see it's growing a lot thicker now).
3) Finnally I see that a lot of cfl set ups have a couple different kind of bulbs going at one time (some 6500's and 2700's), I assume this has to do with the spectral output of the lights themselfs? Is there some good info on this, what is the best balance, etc?
