CFL = longer flower cycle?

I am currently on my third grow using CFL's. One thing that I have noticed so far is that my "expected" weeks of flowering may not be long enough. For instance, if a typical flowering period for a certain strain is eight weeks, mine seem to take closer to ten. I would think that my setup is big enough for what Im running. I have two 200 watters on batwings for top light and a couple 42's down lower for supplemental light to those nugs down below. This is in a 2x4 closet.

Has anyone had the same issue? Is this common with CFL's? All serious responses are appreciated.

i did notice that with certain strains but idk about all the time. How many lumens roughly are out puttin out? I try to get close to the amount of lumen output of common HPS outputs so like around 30,000-50,000 lumens with mixed spectrum when i get a camera i will take pictures of my set up. my current set up is around 44,000 lumens.

Dude, I was really seriously trying to squish that little bug in your sig. I was like "what the hell?" lol. Sorry I can't add anything other than what Junya said about keeping your lumens in a comparable range of HID lighting. I just wanted to comment on the bug.

newdude79 said:

dude, i was really seriously trying to squish that little bug in your sig. I was like "what the hell?" lol. Sorry i can't add anything other than what junya said about keeping your lumens in a comparable range of hid lighting. I just wanted to comment on the bug.

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lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i too have noticed that flowering takes longer under cfl setups. i have 12 23watt 1600lumen bulbs which is 276 watts and 19200 lumens in a box that is 39"wide x 48"tall x 22"deep. On my 4th cfl grow now and 3 different strains have all been 10 weeks.

i noticed same thing, ( longer than quoted bud times), i added more lights and buds got much bigger and ripened much faster. I had a huge wattage underage though, im still only at about 700 watts for a 4'x8' grow tent. I figured i need at least 500 watts per 4x4 area

Junya951 said:

i did notice that with certain strains but idk about all the time. How many lumens roughly are out puttin out? I try to get close to the amount of lumen output of common HPS outputs so like around 30,000-50,000 lumens with mixed spectrum when i get a camera i will take pictures of my set up. my current set up is around 44,000 lumens.

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I would be interested in seeing what your setup looks like compared to mine. I am only putting out 25,000 lumens with the light setup that I stated. With only having four lights, I dont think thats too bad. Would that have something to do with the longer flower period in your opinion? Im currently growing a couple blue dream and a couple skywalker. Actually I have noticed that the kush strains, like skywalker, take even longer. Maybe like 25-30% longer vs 10-20% longer with others.

d r0cK said:

i too have noticed that flowering takes longer under cfl setups. i have 12 23watt 1600lumen bulbs which is 276 watts and 19200 lumens in a box that is 39"wide x 48"tall x 22"deep. On my 4th cfl grow now and 3 different strains have all been 10 weeks.

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tokingtiger said:

i noticed same thing, ( longer than quoted bud times), i added more lights and buds got much bigger and ripened much faster. I had a huge wattage underage though, im still only at about 700 watts for a 4'x8' grow tent. I figured i need at least 500 watts per 4x4 area

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Ok. Glad you guys are having the same thing going on. Mine are going ten weeks minimum. Some (kush so far) are going as much as 14-15. Im running around 500 watts and getting 25,000 lumens out of four bulbs in a roughly 2x4 foot closet. Havent had a problem with quality or quantity, just the longer wait times in between harvests.

are you adding the 2 weeks before counting? when you first take your plants from veg to bud... it takes 2 weeks to actually start budding so if you dont count the first two weeks, is it inline with estimates then? just a thought.

i was wondering this the other day ...but if you had an acceptable amount of lumens i would think it would only take about or week or so extra just because cfls light isn't as intense as hps but im only on my first grow so i dont know ..should be interesting to see tho

ObiJwon said:

I would be interested in seeing what your setup looks like compared to mine. I am only putting out 25,000 lumens with the light setup that I stated. With only having four lights, I dont think thats too bad. Would that have something to do with the longer flower period in your opinion? Im currently growing a couple blue dream and a couple skywalker. Actually I have noticed that the kush strains, like skywalker, take even longer. Maybe like 25-30% longer vs 10-20% longer with others.

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When in flower i use 4 of the huge homedepot 65 watt bulbs (10,000 lumens each) and 2-4 26watts (1,600 lumens each) this set up is for scrog tho. I really like the big bulbs they just cover so much more area especially if you use a reflector or place them horizontally. i will try and borrow a cam tomorrow to take a few pics of the cab im talking about.

As for the longer flower period how tall are your plants and how many u got?id use10,000 or more lumens per plant so about 6 cfls per plant.
It sounds like a lot but its necessary.
What are you growing in? Are you using nutes? I notice cfls take a lot longer to flower a plant the taller it is, which is why i feel scrog is the way to go for cfl grows. With an even canopy, you can focus all your lighting on the screen vs wrapping your plant in lights.
soil grows can take longer because of improper ph balancing and contaminates in the water or overfeeding causing your plants to kind of lock up and stop progress. My water is filtered, airated and ph'd before touching my plants. now im just rambling but hope i helped.

i made a mistake on my lumen output just reread the box and its 10,000 hours not lumens. 4,500 is lumens so actually my lumen output is around 19,000 but thats for one plant so still not bad.

tokingtiger said:

i noticed same thing, ( longer than quoted bud times), i added more lights and buds got much bigger and ripened much faster. I had a huge wattage underage though, im still only at about 700 watts for a 4'x8' grow tent. I figured i need at least 500 watts per 4x4 area

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is that equivalent watts? cuz 700 watts is a ton of cfls

tokingtiger said:

are you adding the 2 weeks before counting? when you first take your plants from veg to bud... it takes 2 weeks to actually start budding so if you dont count the first two weeks, is it inline with estimates then? just a thought.

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I was under the standing that once you flipped the switch to 12-12, that is when you are to start you week count. Not when you show signs of budding. What would you count as those two weeks that it takes to start budding? Lost in limbo? Am I missing something? Maybe I didnt understand what you are trying to say.

Junya951 said:

i made a mistake on my lumen output just reread the box and its 10,000 hours not lumens. 4,500 is lumens so actually my lumen output is around 19,000 but thats for one plant so still not bad.

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Was gonna say damn bro, where did you get those? Im doing four right now in soil and I am using mild organic nutes. Dont think thats an issue. My water isnt filtered or anything like what you are using but I do ph it and my soil stays in between 6.2 (wet)-6.8 (dry).

Where do I get the bug in sig? By the way I have 2 x 250W 2700k + 2 x 105W 6500K in my 2'x2'x52" grow area. 710 total watts and its so bright I cannot literally look into my room, seriously! 2 weeks into 12/12 and my white widow is 2' high and plenty of bud sites. 3 plants in total to stay legal. 82 degrees in the room. First grow period.

Everything is right on track!

is that equivalent watts cuz if not those are some big ass cfls!!! What is the true wattage and lumen output? I try not to grow my plants taller than a foot to a foot and a half before flower because of the stretch during flower. Its gonna be hard to keep the whole plant covered in light so your lower buds might end up small. i would consider scrog for my next grow if i were you. try to keep the temp between 70-80 over 80 is stressful to your plants and will require you to water more often and can promote bug problems. Do you have good air flow?

sounds okay i would lower the temps if possible and try to keep the tops and sides of your plants as close to a lights as possible.
good luck

sounds okay...hmm..... idk ive heard that cfls give of some UVB light and that UVB is good for your plants in small doses but not in large amounts so maybe that is part of it but seriously im out of solutions. Ohh and i was out of town for christmas today just got back and will have a camera tomorrow to take some pic of my grow cabs. I also decided to grow two plants this go around so when i get the cam maybe ill start a grow journal.
Hope someone else is able to figure this out waiting 2 extra weeks to dry your bud is 2 weeks too long lol

Junya951 said:

is that equivalent watts cuz if not those are some big ass cfls!!! What is the true wattage and lumen output? I try not to grow my plants taller than a foot to a foot and a half before flower because of the stretch during flower. Its gonna be hard to keep the whole plant covered in light so your lower buds might end up small. i would consider scrog for my next grow if i were you. try to keep the temp between 70-80 over 80 is stressful to your plants and will require you to water more often and can promote bug problems. Do you have good air flow?

sounds okay i would lower the temps if possible and try to keep the tops and sides of your plants as close to a lights as possible.
good luck

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That is the ACTUAL wattage. Yes the two 200 watters are pretty good size. Thanks for all the info, but I wasnt asking how to grow. This post was all about cycle time using CFL's. My grow's come out just fine.