CFL grow cab lighting Question

warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
hi im about to get started on building a grow cab pretty soon and im not shore how much light im gonna need for a CFL grow. The Cab i have now i bought and it s, too small for my unquenchable weed habbit. the box i have now is 2ft tall 16in in length and 9in deep, the box i want to make it 3ft tall 2ft in length an a 1ft deep my question is what are the lighting requirement for that space. if someone could tell me or bless me with some math that tells me what my plants need would be great thank you.
 
K

kush plant

Active Member
i got a stealth box too and the more the plants grow the bigger i want my box ima try to get a 4ft by 4ft. plenny room
 
Warped1

Warped1

Active Member
Hey warren..using cfl's you're going to want to use at least 50w/sqft..a little more if you can manage it. My cab is about 1.6 sqft and I'm using 125w of cfl's..I had 138w but one of my bulbs broke and I replaced it with what I had at home. The cab you have now is 1 sqft..I measured 16" x 9" to get 144sq inches. Divide your total sq inches by 12 to get sq ft. The bigger cab you want will be 2 sqft, so you'd use 100w of cfls minumum. You can use less lighting, but your yields will suffer
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
ok cool thanks while i was board today i went out and cut it out the frame for my box today.


its 3ft tall, 2ft wide and 1ft deep its basically 60% bigger than the 1 i have now.
i also went ahead and cut the holes out for my fans and 1 for the cords.




well thats how far i am now. anybody got any advice on anything i can really improve, altar, or really just bless me with some knowledge ya know!
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
ok so today is a new day. im gonna rip apart some old computers today and get me some fans outta those mutha fuckaas! wish me some luck. ill be shore to take pictures while i rummage through those things, and all the way up till i complete the entire box. ill see yall in a while.
 
WattSaver

WattSaver

Well-Known Member
If you can afford it go for a tube system. T5 is the best available. With a tube and reflector you will get much more even coverage and better yield per watt. + the tube fixture takes up much less vertical space, hence a few more inches for growth.
Wish I saw this a day earlier, I'd have recommended picking a light and build the box to fit.
My veg box was built to to fit a 4 bulb T8 shop light fixture, its 19 x 49 been in service for almost 2 yrs, even flowered 2 plants in it once, low yield 2 1/2 oz but we're talkin' 6sf and 128w. Tubes are better than cfl's.
Hope your new box meets your needs and kicks ass. (building it, is a great joy in its self)
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
thanks man thats a good idea i haven't started doing anything with lights yet and was also looking at alternative lighting systems. i was checking out some fans today to buy brand new but wanted to rip apart a commputer first and see what i can get outta them being that i just happen to have some old desktops lying around and there free. this is my first grow cab build and want results like my smaller version just on a larger scale.
 
shufflebotlmfao

shufflebotlmfao

New Member
u want about a 100 w per plant to get a good yield with cfl but if u place bulb between plant it is shared wattage
2 plants one 27 w bulb both get 27 w
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
what if i tyr to cram like 6 lowryder plants in there am i gonna need 600w of light evenly distributed among them? because ive heard it was really just depending on the amount of space you have per squared ft than per plant. but i dont really know im new to growing indoors, and just dont really know anything about the light spectrum needed/watts/all those little things and what not . i just wanna know all i can before i just throw some shitty lights in there and fuck an entire grow up. like i said i just wanna educate myself before deciding what to do.
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
really? damn. ive had them in flower for 3 or 4 weeks now. i was thinking max 6 more weeks.. also very limited space in the box i have now..
 
dank smoker420

dank smoker420

Well-Known Member
are the plants you have right now autos?
my plants seem to always be short and compact when i use cfls. well its the only thing ive used but i never get plants that look like yours more space between the nodes. maybe im just super close to my lights.
how many watts of cfl did you have in your old box? i just converted my box into a little bit of a bigger box and added room for 4 more cfls
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
No, this is my first real indoor grow so im just using bagseed. flipped to 12 12 about 4 and a half weeks into veg to save space. were using 3 27 watt cfls . like i said in previous posts not too knowledgable with the lights. my new cab will have 6 or 9 lights and 2 intake and 2 outtake fans. im using soil rather than hydro system both boxes for now.
i was getting real close to the lights aswell and started some lst for the tallest gal. her stem got really thick up at the bend.
howbig is your box?
 
dank smoker420

dank smoker420

Well-Known Member
nice this is one of my first grows also ive always made it to flowering but then have some nute lock out or something fucking blows. but i have a little auto ak at 4 weeks and i might add a couple bag seeds in as the weeks go on for after she is done. i had 3 lights before also and right now i have 5 i might possibly be adding more if the temp can stay down around 80. your girl is big then my plant is only about 3 inches tall but super compact the nodes are less then one or two cm apart. my box is around 12widthx22lenghtx18hieght so its not that big kinda small actually
 
warrengjustice747

warrengjustice747

Active Member
yeah im gonna get some auto seeds soon id like to get some regulars and have a batch of males & fems growing in my new big cab along with 2 sensimilia plants in my small box. figure id be set like that.
i bet they are hardy, have any good pics?
 
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