Waste of money!?

Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
Hi i'm fairly new to all of this and i'm having a bit of trouble working out weather the light i've got is actually damaging my plants growth or if it's just very very slowly producing growth , i know i went on a wimb with the particular lights that i got mainly because the price was extremely cheep and i don't have a lot of funds to get anything better for a good 2 weeks , here is the light i have got and i am clued up enough to know that there not great but i'm just wondering if they are worth even having at all , any advice on a cheep efficient light system would be greatly appreciated as i'm looking to expand on what i have anyways , i have about 11 plants off assorted strains at about 5 inches tall each.
Would appreciate any help and advice! Thanks :)
 
Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Sorry bro you got taken. Those nead to be touching the plant and even then are not that great - just really old LED technology. I would go with compact fluorescent bulbs if you need to go cheap. 6500k (light color) for veg and 2300k for flower. 23w bulbs are like $1 and put out a bit more light than that LED panel - I would use several bulbs though.

Here is a link to an easy cheap set-up https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/165396-first-cfl-grow-help-appreciated.html
 
secretweapon

secretweapon

Active Member
Yes it would help but for 11 plants its not going to be powerful enough, it would be cheaper and better for the plant to just grow with CFL's. Save up moniez for a good HPS setup.
 
Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
secretweapon said:
Yes it would help but for 11 plants its not going to be powerful enough, it would be cheaper and better for the plant to just grow with CFL's. Save up moniez for a good HPS setup.
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Well the thing is as i am not sure which are female and which aren't that number will drop considerably when i do.
 
sso

sso

Well-Known Member
well, a 11w cfl will "work"

but you want at least 4x23w cfls per plant or a bigger cfl(to get more than a half a gram from it)
 
Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
sso said:
well, a 11w cfl will "work"

but you want at least 4x23w cfls per plant or a bigger cfl(to get more than a half a gram from it)
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Yeah i know it's hardly ideal i just find a few bits and bobs lying around the house kinda thing , so coupled with the led light i have will that be enough for say one plant ? :/
 
Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
Okay cool i'll order some of those now then , couldn't point me in the right direction for some good fairly cheap flowering lights could you ? Sorry for the hassle just wanna make my first grow a succesful one! Cheers :)
 
Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
I'm having trouble finding those lights at the price you mentioned anywhere where did you get yours from? , bare in mind i live in UK cheers dude
 
F

frmrboi

Well-Known Member
Tyler Nowicki said:
Okay cool i'll order some of those now then , couldn't point me in the right direction for some good fairly cheap flowering lights could you ? Sorry for the hassle just wanna make my first grow a succesful one! Cheers :)
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there's probably some on that same site, you just want Warm White instead of Daylight. I know both GE & Philips make them. You can use them with the Daylight at the same time for flowering. say 50-50 combination.
Warm White are slightly cheaper than Daylight BTW.
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
How big is your grow area? It's going to take a pile of those 23 watt CFLs if you want to get any real bud at harvest time, at least, 2 per square foot.(placed within 1" of the plants' tops)
 
Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
jawbrodt said:
How big is your grow area? It's going to take a pile of those 23 watt CFLs if you want to get any real bud at harvest time, at least, 2 per square foot.(placed within 1" of the plants' tops)
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As big as necessary really I live in a house with plenty of space, and I'm going to order a load of CFL's in a couple days once i got the money.
 
TaoWolf

TaoWolf

Active Member
You have 11 plants though right? That's going to require a crazy amount of bulbs, wires, and plugs if you go the CFL route! I don't have anything against CFLs - not bashing. But if I were you I'd be looking at getting a high wattage HPS or two or at least HO T5s.
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
frmrboi said:
be sure in making or buying reflectors for them or you'll be throw awy 75 % of your light.
There's a whole sub forum for cfl growers: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/
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Bingo. I couldn't agree more, 'cause I see way too many guys assuming they can skip the reflector, when using CFLs, which are already weak and inefficient, to start with. Every single lumen counts when you're already the underdog, if ya ask me. :wink:
 
Tyler Nowicki

Tyler Nowicki

Member
TaoWolf said:
You have 11 plants though right? That's going to require a crazy amount of bulbs, wires, and plugs if you go the CFL route! I don't have anything against CFLs - not bashing. But if I were you I'd be looking at getting a high wattage HPS or two or at least HO T5s.
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Hmm thing is i don't want something that requires a ballast to run really haven't got the money i'm looking for the cheapest but effective lighting i can find.
 
sso

sso

Well-Known Member
but the thing is, what are you looking to get out of this?

that 11w you mentioned, would enough to keep 1 plant, barely alive, barely growing.

4 23w cfls will grow 1 very small plant and give you maybe 5-6 grams of bud (if everything goes great and you have a good strain for yield)

so what do you want out of this?
 
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