1St Time cabinet Grow CFL Lighting HELP!!

sweetisland23

New Member
Cabinet Dimensions

6 feet tall
2 feet deep
2 feet wide
diamond myler
2 5g bubble buckets
SCROG


Strain

RP KAndy Kush


I was thinking 250W HPS/MH but i know i would have some serious heat issues and i couldent find a air cooled reflecter under 28 inch wide so i wanted to go with CFLS but my question is how many and how many watts. Ive read 10,000 lumans per square foot.I want a good amount i just dont want to over due it and run into the same heat issues.
 

perspextoe

Active Member
well its a case of more CFL's the better,

I am doing my first grow and have 3x 30W 6400K & 1x 30W 2700K on each girl,

I am about three weeks into veg and will veg for another 10 days or so, but I can already see some areas where additional lights would benefit...

I plan on using 10x 26W or 30W 2700K(maybe mix with 6400K a little) on each of the girls for flowering.

In essence there is no correct amount, what you are trying to do is replicate what the plant expects outdoors…. bit of a breeze, plenty of sun, and not too hot or cold….

bada bing…...
 

ManiacBrainiac

Well-Known Member
I agree with perspextoe, the more light the better.

I have a cab about the same size as yours. The inside walls, ceiling and floor are painted white for reflectance.

The lighting I use varies a bit, but once the tree has moved beyond hatchling, I use eight 40w to as much as 55w bulbs above the plant. I built a tray that I move up and down depending on the height of the tree. The side walls have holes like you would find on the inside sides of a bookcase where bookcase clips are used to move the tray up and down. The whole apparatus is on a pulley system so that the tray could never fall on the tree which would damage the plant and may break very expensive bulbs.

Also, this tray has four holes in each corner where I drop down four more CFLs of the same wattage. These bulbs are set at different heights so that when turning the tree around the lighting will reach every level of the tree. I spend a lot of time and home so I can be here to handle the rotisserie.

I have managed three grows and I am on my fourth grow now. I just do one plant at a time as the trees that grow in this grow closet are above average. I also use a five gallon container.

Heat is dealt with through the use of a typical, cheap bathroom fan unit with an additional extractor above that fan to give it just a bit more umpff. Seems to do the job. Maximum heat in this closet at present is 79 degrees F. Daylight bulbs run a bit hotter so the temperatures can get close to 90 when in full grow mode. Right now, I have warm bulbs in for flowering.

Since this closet resides in a basement, the cold is regulated with a small space heater plugged into an outlet inside of the closet that is wired through a typical wall thermostat so that the space heater can be better regulated by a more accurate thermostat than the one on most space heaters. IOW, the outlet where the space heater is plugged only receives electricity when the wall thermostat determines that the temperature is dropping below 67 degrees F. Works great.

This closet has been modified many times and will be modified again after the grow I am on is finished. Just a few minor adjustments at this point. I'm a little too chicken to provide pictures. Maybe with a little coaxing ;-)

Hope this helps.
 

longarms90

Well-Known Member
I had 9 23w cfls on one plant, lst'd in a 4'x2'x2' box o made and I could have used more. You will never run into heat issues if you have a solid ventalation fan and some passive intakes on the bottom or fan intakes, as long as the intake is less than the exhaust. You want a vac not a compressor! Happy growing!
 
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