CFL's or Flourescent?

[budhead500]

I have a flourscent with 2 bulbs set up but I noticed it grew ALOT faster with my nice CFL's setup. You think i should switch over back to CFL's for my seedlings and clones? Or stay with flourescent like most people advised me to?

 

[Stopdropburn]

I gotta be honest, my belief is that generally CFL's dont generate enough intensity too produce really quality buds, however, I currently have 15 plants ranging from 13 to 18in, grown from seed and are flourishing, and I'm actually using a 65w floodlight and 7 individual CFL bulbs for nomal light sockets that I've arranged. I'd prefer at least having my 85w floodlight too, but the bulb got cracked and they aren't easy to get in my area. Most people will immediately say CFL's and fluorescent's in general are garbage, but that isn't true. Provided you are using the proper light spectrums/colors/temperatures, and high enough wattages to achieve intensity, fluorescents work great. I'll be switching to either a 4bulb (minimum) or 6bulb 4ft t5ho soon, along with a new ebb and flow or soilless setup. I like the idea of having a flat uniform light so all my plants recieve equal light with rotation. With CFL's keep in mind you will lose a lot of lower foliage if you're growing in SOG, again, because the lights can't penetrate that deeply, so it's not a bad idea to trim the bottom 3-4in of foliage in veg stage, you will focus on the canopy anyway. Sorry that was long-winded, but I have researched a lot and put into practice CFL's and I wouldn't have a full 5'x5'x1.5' garden if they didn't work. But once you move your crop over for flowering I would at least get t5ho lights, from there it depends on the area and number of plants you need to cover. Hope I helped a little, my first post. Good luck, hope you get some good results. I'll post some pics sometime when I can get on an actual computer.

 

[cannabisguru]

I personally would use a mix of both.

That way, there is no bias as to which is better.. because the truth is, is that both lights will do the job.

Therefore, if you were to use both in conjunction with one another.. you'd get both of best worlds.

peace..

 

[budhead500]

I gotta be honest, my belief is that generally CFL's dont generate enough intensity too produce really quality buds, however, I currently have 15 plants ranging from 13 to 18in, grown from seed and are flourishing, and I'm actually using a 65w floodlight and 7 individual CFL bulbs for nomal light sockets that I've arranged. I'd prefer at least having my 85w floodlight too, but the bulb got cracked and they aren't easy to get in my area. Most people will immediately say CFL's and fluorescent's in general are garbage, but that isn't true. Provided you are using the proper light spectrums/colors/temperatures, and high enough wattages to achieve intensity, fluorescents work great. I'll be switching to either a 4bulb (minimum) or 6bulb 4ft t5ho soon, along with a new ebb and flow or soilless setup. I like the idea of having a flat uniform light so all my plants recieve equal light with rotation. With CFL's keep in mind you will lose a lot of lower foliage if you're growing in SOG, again, because the lights can't penetrate that deeply, so it's not a bad idea to trim the bottom 3-4in of foliage in veg stage, you will focus on the canopy anyway. Sorry that was long-winded, but I have researched a lot and put into practice CFL's and I wouldn't have a full 5'x5'x1.5' garden if they didn't work. But once you move your crop over for flowering I would at least get t5ho lights, from there it depends on the area and number of plants you need to cover. Hope I helped a little, my first post. Good luck, hope you get some good results. I'll post some pics sometime when I can get on an actual computer.

Well, I've done cfl's for flowering the very time I grew but I'm currently using 2000Watts for flowering/600Watt for vegging. I was just curious about my babies that are 4in or smaller aka seedings/cuttings/small clones. But I see what you're saying about the flourescent light. I'm currently using 2 4ft (i believe? its pretty long) T5 flourescent also but I just noticed that plants seem to grow taller using cfls because they are "reaching for the lights"? Not stretching though because I keep them at least 2in away.

 

[budhead500]

I personally would use a mix of both.

That way, there is no bias as to which is better.. because the truth is, is that both lights will do the job.

Therefore, if you were to use both in conjunction with one another.. you'd get both of best worlds.

peace..

True, i'm thinking about doing this. More lights, the better eh?