Just an idea I had

I was sitting around messing with my plants the other day when I came up with an idea. Wanted to post here and find out what people think of this kind of lighting setup. I use an HID light setup personally, but looking through my house I found a bunch of materials I think I could use to make another light setup. So here is what I came up with.

Materials:
1 Trifold presentation board (cardboard)
1 Roll of Mylar
1 Can of Spray adhesive or Roll of Tape (however you want to do it)
3 42w cfl (6500 Temp)
1 Roll Survivor Cord (pretty strong stuff)
1 Length of string (to keep the trifold board from closing)

So what I am thinking is this:

Take the mylar and cover the trifold board with it, making a reflector of sorts.
Cut 3 holes in the board (evenly spaced) and run the lights through them.
Use the length of string to set the fold as where you want it. So it looks like /----\
Use the survivor cord to hang it over your grow area.

Considering the following:

Space is not a problem
Ventilation is not a problem
Obtaining different spectrum bulbs is not a problem (2700 - 3300 on top of 6500)
Safe mounting (you could reinforce the trifold board in many ways cheap)

Is this something you think would work for a 1-4 plant grow?

The 3 cfls isnt going to really be enough, you probably could replace the 3 cfls with 3200k and put a few clones into flower right away, try and get one cola per cfl

I would also like to mention trying a mini lst Bend the plant 90 deg as soo as you have 3 leaf sets, and place the cfl horizontal, this should make the little guy absorb just about everything the cfl will put out

muffromper1 said:

The 3 cfls isnt going to really be enough, you probably could replace the 3 cfls with 3200k and put a few clones into flower right away, try and get one cola per cfl

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I didn't really think it would be enough light. I was poking around online and found some higher 65w cfl's that are 300w equivs at 6500k with high lumens (about 3400). I was thinking about maybe picking them up instead of using the 42w. With the improv reflector and correct mounting that 3400 should go up a good bit I would think. I don't think anything will replace my 400w HID but it's always good to have a backup plan.

Those CFL's I mentioned are here:
http://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-SL65-65K-MED-Daylight/dp/B002P5U1PC/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1315945025&sr=1-1

They are pretty expensive for cfls, thats almost 100 for just the bulbs id go for a cheap mh light

What about this? http://www.gianthydro.com/product_p/SBE250.htm

From what I've heard with CFLs, more smaller CFLs are better than fewer bigger ones. For multiple reasons, a few of them being a)less heat being emitted from each bulb (although it might work out to be hotter overall), but you can get the bulb 1" away from the plant without scorching it, and b) Having the smaller bulbs makes you more versatile, they will fit almost anywhere. This way you can move around your lights when need be very easily and can get them into the optimal position/angle. Just my 2 cents, my be something to think about at least. Anyways, nice idea with the setup, its good to see people get creative and have fun with it!