Doing very well with CFL's

blackstorm69

blackstorm69

Active Member
i've been using a 75 watt cfl on my baby girl, and its doing great! just one bulb on one plant. she green and looking promising
 
chronickb247

chronickb247

Well-Known Member
i have 3 85 watt cfls and let me tell your my 3 plants are as tall as me which is 5'10 and my center plant has a cola two feet long. the blue spectrum is for veggin and then you get the red spectrum for flowering works like a charm. im about 6-7 days from harvesting 3 plants i will let you know the dry weight when its all cured and ready. :):):):):):):):):):) good luck on your grows!!!
 
Rick McNasty

Rick McNasty

Well-Known Member
chronickb247 said:
i have 3 85 watt cfls and let me tell your my 3 plants are as tall as me which is 5'10 and my center plant has a cola two feet long. the blue spectrum is for veggin and then you get the red spectrum for flowering works like a charm. im about 6-7 days from harvesting 3 plants i will let you know the dry weight when its all cured and ready. :):):):):):):):):):) good luck on your grows!!!
Click to expand...
where did you fine those bulbs at that wattage?
 
That 5hit

That 5hit

Well-Known Member
i am in love with that idea i will be trying that with my clones seems like you could get a lot more bud that way and faster just put more plants in a smaller grow area this method seem best for hight restricted grower the bud amount may even be = to someone who grow tall plants i really like that part about concentrating and the energy to the main stem this would be a better sea of green method all tops call it the all tops method

i wonder if i could wait til its close to fall time throw some seeds in the back yard and have some short weeds
 
Y

Yamahak1

Member
Heys i have a couple questions... just started first grow and im about 3 weeks into my grow. I got a little workforce storage cabinet that is 36" tall and about 24" long. I got 2 90cfm fans for exhuast and intake and i have the whole thing mylared.... i have six 23w cfls on them and them seem to be growing nicely. My temps are at 78f...
I would like to add more 6500k cfl's to add more light but how will i keep the temps down... i have another 90cfm computer fan that i could add, would that be suffiecient?
Also should the exhaust and intake stay on constanly ?
 
samljer

samljer

Well-Known Member
ngtybear said:
High all,

After reading endless threads on why not to do CFLs, I went with them anyway. Call me a rebel. Granted, I went with them excessively. ;) Pictures will follow soon, but here is my setup. There are a couple of questions at the end I hope someone will be able to answer.

My grow box is built from a large storage bin (36x18x24). Quite proud of it actually. Air intake on the side at the top with a 40 CFM silent fan, and an exhaust at the bottom with a 35 CFM fan. A fan in the middle providing air flow to them stems. It is almost completely silent, produces almost no external light or heat, and looks like a normal storage bin sitting in the closet.

I started with 5 24" 18 watt grow lights, with 2 on the sides and 3 on the top. This worked fine for seedlings, but as you can imagine, was simply not enough light for growth. At about 3 weeks I added 10 26 watt CFLs (6500K) to the top. Huge amount of light for this small of space and the plants responded. They are growing strong, thick and amazing. I run a 18/6 schedule and the box stays at 86-89f and about 50% humidity during "on" hours.

I am at about 5 weeks now. The box is almost full of vegetation. The growth has reached the lights and I am about to add a box under the current one to allow for more growth. I am looking forward to flowering to cut down the number of plants. The place is packed out right now.

I am about to switch to flowering and will replace the 6500k CFLs with 2700ks. I am also considering adding 6 additional CFLs for the sides (3 on each side). I may use the 6500k for the sides to save a little money.

I have two questions with which I am hoping someone can help:

o The plants are currently about 10" high and very full. How high must they grow before I switch to flowering? If I switch now, what will I lose in yields as opposed to waiting until they are 18"?

o I have a total of 10 plants in two long window boxes. They sit down inside the bottom of the container. This has worked very well at this size, but I am sure I will want more room for root growth in the flowering stage. Do you see any drawback to them all (5 plants, assuming 50/50 m vs f) being in one very large box? Will the roots from each plant restrict each other? What is the safe distance between them? Using just one box will allow for more room for root growth as opposed to 5 smaller ones.

I must say, the solution I have put together for a closet semi-stealth grow has worked very well so far. More than a little paranoid about being busted, especially after smoking. ;) However, I have had a bunch of fun. Waking up in the morning when the lights come on and the cooling fan starts pushing that sweet smell from the closet to the bedroom is grand experience. Thank you for your replies and happy gardening.

-ngtybear
Click to expand...

For the record..

24" tubes are Floro TUBES

not CFL... the C means compact
they are the smaller ones that spiral.

and CFL > Tubes by a long shot.
 
andar

andar

Well-Known Member
ngtybear
those plants are going to be very crowded if they are already 10in. imo you should switch to 12/12 asap especially if your flowering with floros. be careful when taking out the males you might (probably will) rip the females roots as well. might want to think about keeping less than 5 plants in there, you will see why when you switch... whatever works for you.
good luck with your grow:bigjoint:
 
pcl420

pcl420

Member
Im growing 1 plant now under less ten 140w of CFL 6-23w 32" tall 30" wide harvest in 2 weeks, maybe ill post some pics
 
3

3ntH3ad

Member
Glad I found this. I have been trying to plan a small hydroponics grow area in my apartment and have been getting a lot of back and forth from people regarding lighting. I thought about using CFLs but most of the comments I got were very much against their usage. I thought about using HPS Garden Grow Lights or Metal Halide Garden Grow Lights. It seems that the best lights are the Metal Halide ones. I was wondering what people typically use and what the would recommend for a very casual/newbie grower to get started.
 
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