My seeds were planted on Saturday afternoon and these pics were taken just now. I have a couple of questions. First of all, I have read the closer the lights the better as long as your hand can handle it. The problem I noticed is that it dried my soil out very quick. Is that ok? Should I water every other day? These lights are no more than 3 inches away. Second thing I'm wondering is if this will be enough light. These are 8 26 watt CFLs. I have 4 more that I was thinking about putting in there if I need to, as soon as I figure out how I will go about placing them. By the way, these are feminized Lowryder 2.
First grow, day 1 of veg. Couple ?'s w/pics.
- Thread starter pura vida
- Start date
buggs bunny
Well-Known Member
water them girls just not to much cause then you overwater them
I've grown many different lowryder hybreds, dont worry about the cfl's drying out the soil you can always add water as long as the heat isn't damaging the plants your not to close. the lights you have will grow them but don't expect a good yeild, you need better lights, the ones you have probably will get you less than 20 grams per plant and adding more of the 26w bulbs wont help. your thinking of light in the wrong terms, you can add all the bulbs you want and still will only have 26watts just spread out more. to increase the lighting you need higher watts and/or higher lumens in other words 1 26w cfl puts out around 1700 lumens, if you have 8 26w bulbs you still just got 1700 lumens its just spread out over a bigger area. To increase your yield per plant you need higher lumen bulbs not more bulbs ( 1 42w bulb puts out more lumens than 8 26w bulbs )
The best cfl's i've found for the auto's without going to a mogul base is a 55w cfl that puts out 3600 lumens of 2700K light for around 18 bucks
55 Watt Compact Fluorescents
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Wattage: 55 Watt
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Catalog Code: FC55-FEUS55W27
1 to 11 = $18.09 Each 12+ = $15.31 Each Qty
Or if you not dead set on cfl's heres a good deal on a 150w HPS
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Earnie, thanks for the information. Sounds like at a minimum I need to get a stronger CFL. I'm out for personal smoke only this first grow. I picked Lowryder and a smallish grow area on purpose to get the hang of this. At the same time though I don't want to short the potential of my plants too much. If I'm understanding that the most important aspect of lighting is the lumens, then I will have to make a change. Didn't realize that me using multiple lower wattage bulbs wasn't achieving this. How is everyone getting around the big gap in lumen output between CFL and HPS and still achieving great results with CFLs?
The lumens and kelvin temp are the most important, for vegging stage you want 5000k or above best is 6500k, for flowering you want 3500k or below best is 2700k. For autos u can and is best to use 3500k and below from start to finish.
At the very least go to the site i gave you for cfl's and look at 42w bulbs, they give the most lumen output without getting into high dollar cfl's but for about $5 more you can get the 55w 3600 lumen they last a year at 24/0 and are the right K-temp for autos. But you really should think about the HPS for 20 bucks, their perfect for auto's since they really dont have a vegg state and are easy to convert into a remote ballast system ask anyone in RIU thats cheap as hell.
Right on. Didn't realize I should be using 2700k. I thought I read someone with the auto flowering strains 6500k would be good from start to finish. I'll start thinking about what direction I'm going to go. This HPS you speak of, do they run a lot hotter than CFLs? I have a small grow area, I mean I can always make it bigger if I need to, I'm just wondering if they are going to be putting out a lot more heat, where it will become a concern. Either way, I'm set on getting a light that puts out more lumens.
It does put out more heat i keep mine about 12 inches from my plant tops.
Their not anyone who says they have gotten great results with cfl's probably havent grown with HPS or MH before. you can get good results with cfl and they are defineately cheaper to run but the GREAT crops are grown with the bigger bulbs. Think about it light is food for plants and most plants will eat like dogs till the get fat and explode with buds LOL.
unforgiven1420
Well-Known Member
forgive my newbyness here. i'm only familiar with cfl's and have always stayed away from hps because of the price and the fact that i don't know anything about electrical. i screw in my cfl's and have had very good results. but that price seems amazing. how do you plug it in? would i have to wire the ballast or is it all set up already? is it a remote ballast so that it could be mounted outside the room? if these hps lights have just been over complicated in my mind im going to order that thing today. i guess what im asking is what else would i need to be able to put that light in aside from the light itself. any help is appreciated.
you might have to get an extension cord and wire it in
you can take them appart and move the internal ballast if you so wanted to.
the ballast comes inside the light, since it's only 150w it dont need some huge ass ballast to run it, same with the CFLs, notice how they are thicker at the bottom (where the screw is) than normal lights it's because they have a mini ballast built in, they also take a little while to get full brightness, like HID lights.
i'm probably gonna try one of those 150w hps too.
BadBadBong
Active Member
Hey man I'm a fellow CFL grower and am just starting a grow room using CFLs and just wanted to get in on the conversation as I too have questions about my CFLs and want to yield more with them. There 30 watt spring light- 6400ks for a 3-4 week veg and than I am going to switch to the warm white-2400ks. Now I have a little more wattage at 30 but my kelvin(6400k) is higher; i just wondering what the numbers I'm reading are, how the yield will be, and how to improve my lighting thats not too expensive...
unforgiven1420
Well-Known Member
see thats the part that scares me. me wiring anything sounds like an equation that = fire. i have never done an work on anything electrical. is it as easy as you make it sound? im assuming theres 2 wires hanging off it (black? and red?) and i would just match them with the 2 in an old extension cord? couple wire nuts and i'm good to go? what kind of area will that cover? i know i can still use my cfl's to supplement.
Actually there are 3 wires, (white nuetral) (black positive) and (green ground), sometimes the ballast will have white, black and a wire with no covering/color. it would be the same as a green wire, if you use the heavy duty outdoor extension cords (3 prong orange kind) they too have 3 wires the same colors just match the colors and attach with wire nuts. or you can get a cord kit from the same site
E-2HCP61
3/4-in Hook, 6-ft. Cord, Locking-type Plug for 120 volt
$7.90
unforgiven1420
Well-Known Member
thanks for the help and the links man. placing my order now. +repActually there are 3 wires, (white nuetral) (black positive) and (green ground), sometimes the ballast will have white, black and a wire with no covering/color. it would be the same as a green wire, if you use the heavy duty outdoor extension cords (3 prong orange kind) they too have 3 wires the same colors just match the colors and attach with wire nuts. or you can get a cord kit from the same site
E-2HCP61
3/4-in Hook, 6-ft. Cord, Locking-type Plug for 120 volt
Everyday Low Price
$7.90
I spent a lot of time and money on cfl's before i went to HPS and still use my CFL's as secondary lighting.
Heres the skinny on CFL's. the first pic is a 26w CFL compared to a 105wCFL (the 105w is the biggest u can get without going to a mogul base and puts out 6900lumens of 6500K for around 25 bucks)
The second pic is some lowryder 2's i grew in an aerogarden with 26wCFL's i got 8-12 grams per plant
the 3rd &4th pic is a diesel ryder i grew under two 105w cfl's i got 40 grams from her.
By the way i've grown several different hybreds of auto flowering and so far the diesel ryder has been the best quality, the auto AK47 would be my 2nd choice with the highest yield. (around 45 grams per plant under a 150w hps) also dont waste your money on feminized auto's you will get about 8 out of 10 fems when u buy regular seeds and the males will show b-4 the fems start to bud (about 17-20 days from seedling) so when u buy regular seeds you get more fems for less $. and the option to grow your own seeds!
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BadBadBong
Active Member
... Interesting, so once I get this first batch going and clone 'em i could have some steady bud going with pretty fair yields? but because im using less energy and you have more will that effect the quailty of the smoke?
It's been my experience although some disagree, that the lighting doesnt effect the strenght at all just quantity, if you have a good strain it will be good little buds or good big buds. It's mostly in the genes anything you do as a farmer wont change the thc or cannibinoid strenght much at all. Although the methods you use for harvesting, drying and curing will make or break the QUALITY of smoke in terms of taste and smoothness.