first time grower/help please

Any input appreciated. First time grower. On my first batch I grew 7 (sage) plants dwc. I only yeilded about 2 oz. I'm guessing I didn't veg the roots big enough before flowering. I vegged for 4 weeks. This time around I have 12 plants. Can anyone tell me what you think I did wrong. I followed all the basic guidelines with the nutes. I have 2 cfl's each 200 watts in my veg room. I have 6 cfl each 200 watts for the flower room. Total 1200 watts for 12 plants. 8 ft ceiling to work with. 2 tubs with 6 plants to go in each tub. This time around I'm 4 weeks into veg. When should I flower, and what did I do wrong last time? Thanks for any input

I'm a soil grower, not hydro. Did you yield 2oz total, or 2oz per plant?

I think I would struggle to yield well only using cfl's. If I was forced to only use CFL's I would only grow 2 plants maximum and concentrate on getting them as healthy as possible. When you flower you can spread the lights right around the plants. I wouldn't even consider flowering 12 plants under my 600W HPS and 250W CFL, so under just CFL seems complete overkill to me.

Try 2 plants like I say. Veg them till they are about 6 inches tall, then tie them down to the side of your container. Wait till the plant recovers and develops multiple tops, and gets to about 15 inches (you can tie down again any tops that dominate) then put it into flower. That is how I maximise yield in my set up - would equally work for you I feel. But consider some HID lighting, even 250W HPS will make a big difference.

Oh and CFL's should be inches from plants - but I assume you know that.

If your yields are low it's probably due to the cfls but i would think you would have yielded more than 2oz combined for 7 plants. I would also veg longer, like 8-10 weeks. That way the plant is mature and will flower quicker and grow bigger. Those 200 watt cfls aren't that great, your better off with a bunch of 23 watt cfls scattered all over the place and on the sides of the plants. my guess is very poor light penetration.

The reason you had less yield is because of the lighting you used, i had the same problem using cfl's. they can be effective during vegetative growth but typically cfl's don't pack enough punch to really flower the plants very well. i reccomend switchinig to a 600w hps and try that see how it works.

Bigby, yes it was 2 oz total for all plants combined. Thanks for the input everyone. I had a feeling it was a combination of roots not big enough before flower and lighting. I'll definetly get some hps lights for the flower. Is it ok to use cfl's for the veg cycle?

Yes, a lot of ppl on here will tell you that they use CFL's during vegging with great results.

I forgot to add that each light has 1400 lumens. Does that matter?