HPS and CFL side by side flowering comparison - Blue Mystic

I have just bought myself a 250w HPS set up, because of restrictions from my wife means i'm stuck with 2 plants (which I was able to convert to "2 plant rotation", giving me 6-8 at any one time ) has meant that I vegged longer for bigger plants, which weren't impressed with my CFL output.

I set up yesterday and placed my two most mature ladies which had been on 12/12 for 32 days under CFL's... and they instantly loved it!! (they'll be journalled here too )

I have 2 other ladies ready to be flipped now, So I decided to do a test, and will put one in with the HPS, and one in with the CFL's all to itself.

The plants are both approx the same size, have been topped once, and LST'd since, in 10 litre buckets.

STATS:

Plant One:
1 x 125w and 2x 30w CFL's, all 2700K - 13,000 lumens

Plant Two:
1 x 250w Dual Spec Sunmaster, 4 x 30w CFL's, all 2700k - 40,000 lumens - but further away and shared between 3 plants
40,000/3 = 13,333 lumens (you see what I'm getting at)

10litre Buckets with BioBizz light Mix, added perlite, added worm cast, and added clay pebbles
BioGrow, BioBloom, and TopMax

Obviously this is not a scentific expermeriment, and appreciate other factors will have an affect, but it'll be interesting to see how they develop, especially as this is my first time with HPS

The CFL Room:

This is made up in my closet, and is a bit smaller then 2x2

The main bulb is a Plug and Grow, if you are gonna use big CFL's, I found these to give much more light per watt, then cheaper ones, and are longer too, giving you more usable grow space.

The 2 smaller Bulbs are from Green lamp, again amazing supplier, who make their own bulbs.

The HPS Room:

This is a 2x2 tent, with 4" TT extractor and Prima Klima filter. For circulation I have a 3 or 4 inch fan hanging under the HPS bulb, allowing 5-6" from canopy, and much much less for the CFL's.

Megabright Digi Ballast
Sunmaster Dual Spec 250w Bulb
3 x 30w CFL - 2700K
1 x 23w CFL - 2700k

There are 2 ladies in there halfway through flower (and they got to this point under CFL's, swapped to HPS yesterday)

Plus the sister of the CFL which will be flipped to 12/12 today.... that reminds me, must take clones today!!!

this is a awesome side by side man would like to see the results im subed!!
+rep for the experiment!!

subbed.....this should be a good one

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.... I know that waiting for the lights to come on at 10:30am every day is gonna kill me! It's day one and I'm already chomping at the bit!!

And while I'm happy for the odd compliment on here (everyone loves a pat on the back)...the main discussion question page is https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal-discussion/552564-hps-cfl-side-side-flowering.html#post7837491

So I decided to lower the CFL's in the HPS tent, and do some cable tidying...I set up in a rush and lacked discipline, and noticed that I had left the blue film on my new reflector, after specifically reminding myself during setup. I seem to have issues with short term memory, but I have yet to figure out why

Anyway, some pics of the ladies side by side. Not a lot has happened in the 4 days since flipp, but I had them out for a watering anyway, and you can already see the HPS plant stretching some stems more.

Also below are some pics of the new CFL heights, you can see how those bad boys are right on the plants, under half inch, and fortunately my refelctor pretty much fills the 2x2 tent perfectly, so they reflect nicely off that. The 2 Flowering ladies are my first more serious attempt at training, and are 30 days flower (35 from flip)

Enjoy!!

Hettyman said:

So I decided to lower the CFL's in the HPS tent, and do some cable tidying...I set up in a rush and lacked discipline, and noticed that I had left the blue film on my new reflector, after specifically reminding myself during setup. I seem to have issues with short term memory, but I have yet to figure out why

Anyway, some pics of the ladies side by side. Not a lot has happened in the 4 days since flipp, but I had them out for a watering anyway, and you can already see the HPS plant stretching some stems more.

Also below are some pics of the new CFL heights, you can see how those bad boys are right on the plants, under half inch, and fortunately my refelctor pretty much fills the 2x2 tent perfectly, so they reflect nicely off that. The 2 Flowering ladies are my first more serious attempt at training, and are 30 days flower (35 from flip)

Enjoy!!

Click to expand...

looking good man keep them happy

Just realised, i'm now running 40,000 lumens in the HPS tent, in 4 square foot, that's 10,000 lumens per square foot!! I remember reading somewhere that 4000 per foot is what you want, and upwards of there is bonus....so I really am hoping for my first real bumper harvest... droool!!

good shit im subbed. this one is gonna get some attention for sure... great idea man ive always wanted to see a side by side myself but i guess after everyone gets HID they say fuck cfl and dont even bother.

choop said:

good shit im subbed. this one is gonna get some attention for sure... great idea man ive always wanted to see a side by side myself but i guess after everyone gets HID they say fuck cfl and dont even bother.

Click to expand...

I would, but the 250 HPS just isn't enough for the rotation I want to run, and still have plenty of life left in high end CFL's, so have a CFL veg cupboard, and a CFL cupboard for the first half of flower, keeping them short, then finish in the HPS. After this test, I will be using the CFL as a trial room, where i can just put the odd small plant of different straiins while keeping my staple Blue Mystic.

My re-organised supply cupboard , and had to make a temporary veg room for seeds and clones with 5 minutes and what I had... genius

Looking good man!

good rig up man looks like something i would do

Well sorry to all of those who have subbed, this one has been abandoned, and you'll see why.

IN the pics the better looking plant is the CFL one. Due to mites in the HPS tent, and the plant struggling to fight for light with it's 2 aunts, it was just suffering and falling behind.

That said, now the othre ladies have been harvested, both these plants are now under the 250 HPS, with a better share of light each.

Maybe in my next house i'll try something like this again when I have more space.

CFL:

And here is the HPS lady:

ah that sucks to hear mate. better luck next time, it happens to all of us eventually if you grow long enough.. best wishes in the future!

Thankyou for your empathy. Its all good though, the plants live on, it's just the experiment that ended

Hettyman...Sorry to hear about the mites. I hate the little bastards. You probably already know that NEEM Oil, Aza-Max and Hot Shot No Pest Strip all work pretty well. Had mites last year...gnats and white flies this year. Used the above products,,,problem solved.
Your CFL grow looks as good as the HPS. I used nothing but CFL's last year. It took longer, the buds werent tight and the yield was less, but all in all, I learned a lot and had enough "pretty good" smoke to last until this years crop. HPS penetrates better and I am glad to be using the 250 W set up, but a complete grow is possible using only CFL's, when one's situation does not permit using HID lighting. I still have a small tent using only CFL's. Veg. using two 105W 6500K...Flower using two 105W 2700K and on each end, hang a 48" T12 Aquarium bulbs 2100K(same as my HPS), to supliment the CFL's. Good growing to you!!

All my first were cfls but with bagseeds, this is my first grow with good genetics femmed seeds and hids, I got two 400watt mh for veg and two 400 watt hps for flower, and its in a 54t x 24d x 40w with also 6500k led bars that are 30 watts each and I have about 25 of them around the sides for grow where top mount lights cant get. Im runnin dinafems critical + and g13 Labs pineapple express running one each. Two plants total, and they are bushes. My cabinets wont even close now. So its been moved to a spare room so the doors can stay open. And I jus flipped to 12/12 yesterday.but I can tell a huge difference from cfls to hids and thats jus veg cycle. Good luck with the grow...