absolute min cfl wattage for 5 plants

grorite

Well-Known Member
100 actual watts per plant would be min and that wouldnt get you a great yield with cfl more is better

i was running a lil over 400 actual 2 plants
 

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mr2shim

Well-Known Member
100 actual watts should be your minimum. Otherwise you're wasting time, money and seed. So 5 plants, 500 watts.
 

thatboyis1uvakind

New Member
I run 600watts on one....1355925858787.jpg....600 watts on 3...20121215_182115.jpg....its not really abt how many plants ur covering...its how much space u wanna illuminate....see what I mean?
 

FourZeroTwo

Active Member
ohh gotcha! i see lol looks like ill have to pick up some more lights then lol i guess ill try 1000 watts! thanks guys!
 

Bakatare666

Well-Known Member
Depends on your area, and if you're going to use 1 large bulb, or lots of small ones.
I vegged for a month, 1 plant, in a 2x2 area with 98w (6 bulbs)
Your question is like saying give me $1000 to make my car go fast.
It depends where you spend it.
There are better, there is worse.
6dec10_zpsa6eea805.jpg
Give us details of what you plan to do.
You don't even tell if you mean to veg, flower, or whole grow.
 

FourZeroTwo

Active Member
if your gonna be running 1000w of cfls why not run a 600w hps or mh?
to be honest i dont know much about them lol are they expensive? whats mh ? lol sry!

I ment for veg, sry! sry xD i want to grow 5 plants ( Ak-48 x2, lemon kush x1, afghan kush x2) i have a spare bedroom that i plan to use.
 

FourZeroTwo

Active Member
the whole room, i have all the windows blacked out so no light can get through for flowering. same with the door, no light can get under it.
 

Bakatare666

Well-Known Member
If you use CFL's, you are going to need a LOT for a whole room, opposed to an enclosed area.
For a room, you should really go with something stronger.
 

mr2shim

Well-Known Member
the whole room, i have all the windows blacked out so no light can get through for flowering. same with the door, no light can get under it.
You probably would want to get a large tent. Do you have a budget? What are the dimensions of the room?

HPS, MH are HID lights.

HID= high intensity discharge
HPS= high pressure sodium
MH = metal halide

MH bulbs are great for vegetative growth. HPS bulbs are great for flowering growth. As I said before they are a type of HID light.

HID lights are IMO the best way to grow bud, you get really great, dense trichome filled bud. CFL is good but not great IMO.(People will argue this to no end.)

HID lights do come with additional costs but I think they are for the better.

You're going to need something to cool the light (inline fan) and since you'd be buying that you may as well get a purpose built filter for the smell (carbon filter)

Kits can be bought on ebay/amazon for ~150-250 depending on fan size. Bigger light = bigger fan.

Air cooled reflectors are I think the best to use if you have the budget for them as they are a bit more expensive than non air cooled reflectors. Again depending on the wattage you want to run costs can be from 150-350 for a ballast bulbs and reflector.

It gets expensive fast but you can grow enough bud to pay for the setup in one grow(No I'm not promoting selling) I'm speaking in terms of value.
 

FourZeroTwo

Active Member
If you use CFL's, you are going to need a LOT for a whole room, opposed to an enclosed area.
For a room, you should really go with something stronger.
ahhh gotcha, well maybe i should put them in the closet lol probably would be cheaper! my closet is 3 x 5 feet. the room is 12 x 11 feet.

and thanks mr2shim! i deff am going to see if they have any at the store! if i were to get the HID light what wattage would you recrecommed? for the closet?
 
for the closet still get a 600w they are the most efficient and best spectrum. get a dimmable ballast so you can make the 600w run at 250w for veg. some people use hps all the w ay through with good results. adding cool white cfls to cover the blue spectrum would be great.
 

mr2shim

Well-Known Member
ahhh gotcha, well maybe i should put them in the closet lol probably would be cheaper! my closet is 3 x 5 feet. the room is 12 x 11 feet.

and thanks mr2shim! i deff am going to see if they have any at the store! if i were to get the HID light what wattage would you recrecommed? for the closet?
I really don't like growing in closets. They pose cooling issues due to lack of fresh air. If you were to grow in the closet I'd say 400w even though the size would be adequate for a 600w, the 600w would be more difficult to cool in a closet. If you were to buy a 5'x5' or 6'x6' tent and grow in the room I'd say 1k watt. I would go with the latter if you have an entire room to spare.
 
get a cool tube for the 600 and heat would be less of an issue. i would never run a 1k bulb, you get a better footprint from 600w and there more efficient..
 

FourZeroTwo

Active Member
ahh that makes sense, id probably go for the higher wattage light :) now this is deff a noob question.. lol could you use any tent? or a tent specifically ment for growing? lol
 
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