Enough light?

I have three or four plants growing and I only plan on keeping one or two, the extras are in case of males. I have two 23 watt and a 13watt. The problem is that one of the 23 watts is about a foot away from the leaves but all lights have domes that focus the light and surrounded by flat white walls. I dont want them big and I dont even want a huge yield... I just want SOMETHING worthwhile.

THX

PS. They are all 2700k

Well, lets be optimistic... You get two out of four are female...
you have 59 watts of CFL...
You need ten times that amount ...
OK, so you can't fit twenty lamps inside your grow area...
Put as many as will fit...MAX... you can not have too many CFL's...
And keep them 3-6" away from your plants... sides, tops, everywhere inside your grow...
I mean, you want something.... WORTHWHILE
Start there... a little light up grade...

Sand4x105 said:

Well, lets be optimistic... You get two out of four are female...
you have 59 watts of CFL...
You need ten times that amount ...
OK, so you can't fit twenty lamps inside your grow area...
Put as many as will fit...MAX... you can not have too many CFL's...
And keep them 3-6" away from your plants... sides, tops, everywhere inside your grow...
I mean, you want something.... WORTHWHILE
Start there... a little light up grade...

Click to expand...

They are 260watt equivalent

tornit said:

They are 260watt equivalent

Click to expand...

that doesnt matter, look at the lumens, you are aiming for 5k per sq foot

Sand4x105 said:

Well, lets be optimistic... You get two out of four are female...
you have 59 watts of CFL...
You need ten times that amount ...
OK, so you can't fit twenty lamps inside your grow area...
Put as many as will fit...MAX... you can not have too many CFL's...
And keep them 3-6" away from your plants... sides, tops, everywhere inside your grow...
I mean, you want something.... WORTHWHILE
Start there... a little light up grade...

Click to expand...

Ten times that amount? no, not exactly.

You do not need 590 watts of CFLs for a satisfactory first time grow. I know when I grew my first plant I was happy to have a free smoke with minimal effort.

I grew 2 plants under 3 12 watt lights for my very first grow.

Each plant finished in 8 weeks and yielded 10 - 14 gram each.

It was free, no air vent, in a walk in closet, no feed (Except miracle grow!), bad light schedule, bad watering schedule, bad soil, everything sucked.

I still yielded just under 1oz dry from 2 lowryders with 3 12 watt CFLs and tin foiled walls.

I was buzzing lol - Was a really good smoke in comparison to what i get on the street.

Wasnt even loose and airy like you would expect.

it took a few days to dry and turned a very light green dusty color... truly was epic.


I am now growing with 500W CFL but could probably still get over 1oz each plant with only 250watts...growing approx 8 plants... who needs more than 8 oz every 2 months?

I use Autopounder to grow... yields reported upto 3oz, seen over 2oz with CFL grows and less watts than what I use... 10 weeks from start to finish.

I grew two autos in a cabinet under 11 total CFL's(23w), mixed spectrum, with a total of 253 actual watts, not equivalent. The plants got about 30 inches tall and I yielded almost 4 oz's dry and I harvested early. I used those clamp lamps that you can pick up for about 6 bucks at Lowe's and a power strip mounted above with those Y adapters. You can do just fine with CFLs if you are growing for personal use and don't care if your buds are a bit fluffy. Only thing is, you gotta keep the lights close, but not toooo close, I was moving mine daily, sometimes twice a day with growth spurts. Oh yea, that was my first grow ever as well. So, yes, again, you can do it. Good Luck with your grow!

Thanks for the input everyone. I read somewhere that 3000-5000 Lumens per plant is ok. My two 23 watts are 1600ea and the 13watt is probably around 900. This is about 4000 Lumens.

what is your light cycle ? they should be on 12/12
as a matter of fact if you're not considering upgrading your setup then I would just do 12/12 from seed . and at least swap the 13 watt bulb for another 23 watt

Dabolili said:

what is your light cycle ? they should be on 12/12
as a matter of fact if you're not considering upgrading your setup then I would just do 12/12 from seed . and at least swap the 13 watt bulb for another 23 watt

Click to expand...

About to switch to 12/12

I got a timer for 12/12 and switched the 13 and 23watt so its closer

yea you're gonna need to keep those 3 bulbs as close to the plant as possible to minimize the stretch now that you're gonna put them on 12/12 . can you post pictures of your setup ? you would get a lot more feedback if you did.

I agree with the others on the light upgrade. It's the whole deal. I veg under 4 32w 6500K T8, and flower under 4 3200 32w t8. I usually do 4 females, and get about 3/4 oz per plant. I just added a 90W LED UFO for some extra. Waiting on the results on that to see if it's worth it.

I might add I haven't tried autoflowering .....yet. Next grow

Try to get a little more light on them. Also, it helps to just start with feminized seeds. Check out my fem "Speed Haze" (SSH x J. Herer) from
Black Skull Seeds ordered via the Attitude. I LST'd and topped her early on. Grown in a bathroom cabinet under a single 67w 2700k CFL horizontal lamp.

tornit said:

Thanks for the input everyone. I read somewhere that 3000-5000 Lumens per plant is ok. My two 23 watts are 1600ea and the 13watt is probably around 900. This is about 4000 Lumens.

Click to expand...

Divide that 4000 by 2 for every foot it goes down.

e.g.
1 foot away = 2000
2 feet away = 1000
etc.

Keep your canopy tight.