Tutorial to Growing with Cfl's

i am using 2 45w daylight blue cfl 6400k and im going to flower next week should i change these to the red ones or get a red bulb and use both.
 
I'm a noob with this, everyone seems to say to switch to one or the other totally. Personally I think you need a mix like it gets in nature only tilted one way or the other. When I switch to flower I plan on just adding some higher temp. bulbs rather than replacing them all. Like I said I am a noob.
 
I'm flowering with 6 23 watt soft whites 5000 K, 3 bright white 23 watt 2700K and 1 68 watt 2700 K, total lumens 18,600 in a 4x2 closet. Just 3 plants right now. Have the 23 watts mid way as did not use enough watts during veg and could be more leaves under. First grown. In flower 2 weeks now, bag seed and going very slow. Are gettiing alot more leaves at bottom where needed. Think I need a HDS. Have some 4 foot shop lights but for buds to do well and faster, Wouldn't HDS work better? Also need seeds. Ever heard of anyone getting busted ordering seeds as I live in small county and sheriff is gung ho.
 
^^ I read a thread about guy that got busted in small town after ordering seeds. The cops came to his house and it reeked of weed, so they had a right to go in after that. Very rare though.

After you get to around 200 watts it becomes kind of a problem with cfl and is just easier to do a single 250 watt hid. They have 125 watt cfl lights btw, but they cost a bit with reflector. Most will yield more with hid just cause it is easier, do not have to have the lights within 1 inch of plant, do not have to have multiple lights all around etc.
 
Hi everybody....Im totally new to this growing thing and after many weeks of research, ive decided that a cfl/dwc grow will be the way i start off. I will be using a 2x4 closet. Its been wrapped in mylar. I have 6 65w 6500k for seedlings/vegging and i have 4 85w 2700k for flowering. Im in the process of building a cheap tent (made of 1/2" pvc, panda film, and plexiglass for upper shelf) so i can have a separate room for blooming and vegging. I got homemade 5gal DWC buckets with site tubes on the side 6" net pot lids, hydroton, and a homemade seedling/cloning dome to get the ladies growing. Now all i need is the seeds... :hump: If anybody has any suggestions on where a reliable source is to buy please tell me. I dont wanna start with bag seed because the stuff around here aint worth it. Thanks in advance for any advice and tips from u guys.....

Oh yea, as for nutes, i decided to keep it simple the first go around and use GH's 3 part with the FloraGrow, FloraMicro, FloraBloom. I have read a lot about the Lucas Formula. I found a post on the "addback" formula. I thought that this would be ideal, but i dont know how the nutrients other than micro and bloom will factor in. And i want to have a good harvest so i want to use more than the base nutes. Any suggestions on this will also be greatly appreciated.
 
Great information!! :D Does anyone know how these compare to similar wattage fluorescent tubes? I'm using four 18W Fluorescent Tubes in my grow room, it's my first grow and wondering if they have a better or worse impact on the yield? Thanks :)
 
Very nice I was right when I picked my bulbs. Have had my setup for about month now veg at least. For veg I have 3 26watt 5000k, 1 23watt 6500K. I just finished my flower box it has 6 26watt 2700k. But I may section off 2 of the sockets for my bigger mama plants in the future. It has been working extremely well. In veg I have Harlequin (mama + 1 Clone), White Russian(Mama + 1 Clone), L.A. Confidential (MAMA still growing), 3 Jedi Kush (only 2 weeks old), JetBlue x Grapewreck (1 week old), Master Kush (1 Week old). They all very much love the lighting in veg can't wait to see how they do in the flower box.
 
"Do what you can to avoid bulbs within that 3500K – 4000K because they emit very little light that Is useful to your plant"

Does a 25000k cfl work fine? just wondering because no cfls with an extra 0 were mentioned in the post. thanks!
 
Had a quick luminescence question. Someone told me on another forum that storebought CFL's do not have enough lumens to grow adequately no matter how many I use. This came as something of a shock to me as I was planning on growing with CFL bulbs to avoid heat issues for my specific set of circumstances.
The CFL bulbs I've been looking at are 65w (250w equivilent) and have 4000lm for the soft white (2700k) and 4200lm for the daylight (6500k). Is this correct? Should I be looking at another method of lighting entirely?
 
I found a 68 watt, eq to a 300 watt. 4200 lumens. You mean its no good?? Got it at Home depot. Guess I will have to order some online. Just checked and is 2700K and am flowering so I guess that is good. Have a total of 18,600 lumens, is that enough for 4' x 2' space.
 
mackey said:
I found a 68 watt, eq to a 300 watt. 4200 lumens. You mean its no good?? Got it at Home depot. Guess I will have to order some online. Just checked and is 2700K and am flowering so I guess that is good. Have a total of 18,600 lumens, is that enough for 4' x 2' space.
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The never-ending lighting debate drives me bonkers. Mackey, you can grow perfectly good bud under your 4200 lumen, 68 watt CFL. Keep it within a few inches of your girls, and all will be well.

Sorry, but these debates really do drive me up the wall, especially when people that don't know what they're talking about say this or that. You can grow marijuana under 12V halogen headlights hooked up to to car batteries, for crying out loud. You can grow weed under incandescent bulbs. If it produces light and you can stick it on a timer, you can flower under *any* artificial light source. Period.

Does your choice of light effect the quality and quantity of your end product? Of course it does. Are CFL's, in general, going to produce the yield and compact buds of an HPS? For the average grower, absolutely not (although it is theoretically possible to come pretty damn close).

Home Depot's 42W and 68W CFL's (the biggest they usually carry in stores) are perfectly suitable for cabinet grows and even closet grows, never let anybody tell you otherwise. Buy or build reflectors for them, add enough of them, and keep them close enough to plants, and you'll get pretty damn good results.
 
Yes, I agree. Into 3rd week of flower and beautiful buds. Thanks. Have a total of 22,000 lumens now. Was just wondering if enough for 4.5 x2 space. Didn't want to overdo either and waste electric.
 
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