Cfl Proximity To Foliage

Im currently using 2 85w CFL's per plant, on 3 plants, putting out 5800 lumens per pulb. These lights are rated to be 350w equivalent, and im noticing they regrowth rates are fantastic! in a 24 hour period, 3 nodes have grown thick and about half inch in height, just from installing the 85w's the day before. I dont beleive its necessary to cover every inch of plant with CFL. Its just as costly as buying a mh/hps light to veg/flower with. I used to think i would need to give the sides more light but the light output from each reflector gives enough light to reach the sides, and even those have nice thick branches with many growth nodes as well.

MAYBE if you are using lower wattage CFL's you might want to put them surrounding the plant for more light coverage, but if you decide to get some nice 68 or 85 watt CFL's you should be plenty fine with top lighting only. Side lighting would benefit growers who use a lot of clones from smaller plants, if space is an issue, to be able to have more clone cuts from top and side. And as for distance from the tops of my plant, i use about 4 finger gap method, meaning i see how warm the blubs are and use 4 fingers to space between the highest node to the tip of the bulbs. 6 - 12 inches seems like a very large gap, even with these 85w CFL's it will have too much light depreciation and lumen value will drop, resulting in stretching and longer branches between nodes. This is all from my experience from using 2 42w per plant, changing it to 2 85w per plant.

Hope my advice helps all, you can see how healthy my plants look in my journal!

I cant provide a 360 degree CFL lighting but I have created a enclosed grow space and lined all of the wall with reflective mylar, this seems to have a very positive effect but is it the same?

Laika said:

I cant provide a 360 degree CFL lighting but I have created a enclosed grow space and lined all of the wall with reflective mylar, this seems to have a very positive effect but is it the same?

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What's your grow area size? How many plants are you going to grow? How many CFLs do you have? I might be able to answer your question if I knew what you are trying to achieve besides 360 degree lighting.

I have 3 CFL bulbs from the top 2 30 or so and 1 64, my grow space is about 1.5 square feet with 3 plants, I feel because it is in such a small enclosed place that the mylar does the job for me. but Iam still thinks of putting 2 24watt 36" tube florescence on each side

check out mine i mixed with cfl hps and my current grow to!

upinchronic1 said:

Hey Gk, do you use both lighting?, cfls and hps that is, and have you personaly done any experiments or made any observations of the buds grown from both lights? A little off topic but im reall curious about the subject.

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Laika said:

I have 3 CFL bulbs from the top 2 30 or so and 1 64, my grow space is about 1.5 square feet with 3 plants, I feel because it is in such a small enclosed place that the mylar does the job for me. but Iam still thinks of putting 2 24watt 36" tube florescence on each side

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Yeah that should work if your CFLs are two 30watt and one 64watt or do you mean 46 watts and is it at 6500kelvin range? That kelvin range "6500k" is best for vegetation growth. 2700k or Kelven to 3000k is for flowering stage. You can use the 23 or 26 watters, 43 or 46 watters, or even go big time 300watters. Also are those watts, the actual 30 and 46watters and not the comparison wattage, right?

faderharley said:

Yeah that should work if your CFLs are two 30watt and one 64watt or do you mean 46 watts and is it at 6500kelvin range? That kelvin range "6500k" is best for vegetation growth. 2700k or Kelven to 3000k is for flowering stage. You can use the 23 or 26 watters, 43 or 46 watters, or even go big time 300watters. Also are those watts, the actual 30 and 46watters and not the comparison wattage, right?

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yeah thats the wattage of the actual cfls(although some ahole on amazon tried to sell me 75 replacements as 75 watts), i think its a 60 something watt cause it is a 300 watt replacment. and Iam a week and a half into flowring and the kelvin rage of the bulbs is around 2500-3500

Garden Knowm said:

see how the CFLs are on the top and all the sides of the plant...

IT IS STILL NOT PERFECT - not even close.. the plants on the far right need at least 1 more CFL...

these lights are great at 1 inch... but beyond 1 inch they start LOOSING lumens.... it is important to give the leaves as much light as possible.. ALL THE LEAVES... low branches, side branches, top branches.. etc

this is another reason it is important to flower early... when using CFLS...

it is not practical to grow big plants with CFLS because it could easily take 40 CFLs to cover a 5 foot pant... LOL

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Hehe that's one the guides I read when I was doing my homework a while back, good guide for easy basic setups! =)

Laika said:

yeah thats the wattage of the actual cfls(although some ahole on amazon tried to sell me 75 replacements as 75 watts), i think its a 60 something watt cause it is a 300 watt replacment. and Iam a week and a half into flowring and the kelvin rage of the bulbs is around 2500-3500

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Yeah, using 2700-3000 kelvin is best for flowering. You can also mix it up " the spectrum" abit by adding a ratio of 2:1, meaning two 2700k CFL to one 6500k CFL for flowering, it enhances the fattening of the colas...
Photo of the ones I use for my grow

faderharley said:

Yeah, using 2700-3000 kelvin is best for flowering. You can also mix it up " the spectrum" abit by adding a ratio of 2:1, meaning two 2700k CFL to one 6500k CFL for flowering, it enhances the fattening of the colas...
Photo of the ones I use for my grow

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thanks a lot man I check that out
ps where do you get your fixtures Ive been using these stupid desk lamps...

Laika said:

thanks a lot man I check that out
ps where do you get your fixtures Ive been using these stupid desk lamps...

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Electrical section at Lowes, they carry 3 differnt reflector sizes, but one can unscrew those off, and put in a Y socket. But the clamps really work well. I had built a woode ribbing in my grow-closet for the CFLs to clamp-on to, it works great

faderharley said:

Electrical section at Lowes, they carry 3 differnt reflector sizes, but one can unscrew those off, and put in a Y socket. But the clamps really work well. I had built a woode ribbing in my grow-closet for the CFLs to clamp-on to, it works great

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Iam so burnt I have those clamp-ons in my attic
thanks alot man im gonna get to that

Can you trim the shade leaves to allow more light to reach the bud sites?

KushMe said:

Can you trim the shade leaves to allow more light to reach the bud sites?

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Sure can, make sure not to cut to many, they do provide a purpose. I cut whenever I see one blocking a bud or topping trying to reach to the top. I even trim under the main canopy as well, so the underbud gets as much light as possible, leave a few around if ya can.
Right now I have 1 of 3 Landrace Columbian Gold that has grown 18+ main tops w/some fattening bud. She dominated 40% of my grow-closet and is still producing even more bud. She is going to make a great momma after I re-veg her..

faderharley said:

Sure can, make sure not to cut to many, they do provide a purpose. I cut whenever I see one blocking a bud or topping trying to reach to the top. I even trim under the main canopy as well, so the underbud gets as much light as possible, leave a few around if ya can.

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Thanks man I appreciate the input.

It may depend on each indoor CFL grower, but I move my CFLs around each and everyday from seedling to harvest. On my current grow I am using a number of Y socket attached to a clamp-on fixture. With 2 CFLs, 1 is a 43watt, 2700k, 1800 lumen the other 46watt, 6500k, 1800 lumen creating a mixed spectrum. I can easily place them closer to the budding colas, and it makes one hell of a difference. If your grow area has good air flow threw the plants & around your plants, temps don't exceed 85 degrees, you can have CFLs w/in a few inches from the bud. Talk about massive trichome production, colas growth/fattening and development...that's the key to providing light penatration. I even move my larger 105watters and 65watters as well and they burn cooler than the 43/46watters. So in short, keep moving your CFLs...

say no 2 soap said:

i have 1 18inch girl on 12/12 3wks with a 125w ecobloom cfl with reflector,wen this was bought in a HEAD SHOP i was told it would do from start to finish,i used LST for vegging it & it work really really well,but got too bushy for my space & had to untie it,now that its untied i had to take all the lil branches off just too get any decent buds, has any1 else been misled by headshops like i was??? I only recently found this site & its been a wealth of knowledge & good advice

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It's happened to me too. That's why I use the clubs now to buy anything

This is my first time growing and am looking for some advice . I made a closet grow room using CFL's and was wondering if i have enough light. All of my CFL's are 2700k(soft white). I'm using 65watt x4, 40watt x2, and 23watt x5 all in the top portion of my grow room which is 16 square feet. In the lower grow section I have 8 23watt CFL's in a 32 inch tall 3 foot wide 18 inch deep area with 2 pc fans blowing in air 2 pc fans inside the box circulating the air more and 2 pc fans blowing out the air. I've included pics so you'll have a better understanding of my set up. Im vegin the whole top area and just put one on flowering in the lower room. All of my clones are sativas and are atleast 7 inches tall. Should I switch them all to flowering or wait until they reach 1 foot?

kuroblack said:

This is my first time growing and am looking for some advice . I made a closet grow room using CFL's and was wondering if i have enough light. All of my CFL's are 2700k(soft white). I'm using 65watt x4, 40watt x2, and 23watt x5 all in the top portion of my grow room which is 16 square feet. In the lower grow section I have 8 23watt CFL's in a 32 inch tall 3 foot wide 18 inch deep area with 2 pc fans blowing in air 2 pc fans inside the box circulating the air more and 2 pc fans blowing out the air. I've included pics so you'll have a better understanding of my set up. Im vegin the whole top area and just put one on flowering in the lower room. All of my clones are sativas and are atleast 7 inches tall. Should I switch them all to flowering or wait until they reach 1 foot?

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You probably can switch to 12/12 now, the photos appearing that your plants are big enough. In flowering your plants will continue to grow larger by about an additional 50-60%. They called it the stretch. It appears that you have enough CFLs to do the job, however I have to ask why did you not use any CFLs in the 6500kelvin range for vegetation? Your plants didnot get a chance to bush up alittle, possibly due to using 2700k-3000k CFLs for vegging.
May effect your yield.

I didn't see any good 6500k bulbs at Lowe's. Can i go with the super generic version of the 6500k? and should i mix some in now before i start to flower? and maybe let them veg for awhile longer? They've only been in my grow room for about 4 days.