LED mixed with CFL

Hello all!

I recently started a post asking about LED panels and got some great advice and have since bought a 65W Hans Panel. I started out a Blimburn Critical Automatic with a 200W 2100K CFL which I had some success with in the past with 2 Royal Queen Diesel Autos. There's a journal somewhere on RIU in the auto section on that one.

But, 'cause my curiosity got the best of me, I decided to try LEDs. Since I grow very few plants at a time and heat is a problem in my neck of the woods, especially in Summer, I decided that a LED might be a good idea.

Anyway...I have a Blimburn Critical Automatic and a small little Easy Bud (which was sent to me to replace the previous one which never germinated) and this is the setup just as I got the HansPanel:
The panel was placed a bit high up for coverage and the little one had just started to sprout. Here's some pictures of them about 11 days ago:
This is the Blimburn Critical Auto at about 30 days. She was first started under the CFL. and this is the little Easy Bud at about 4 days..

Of course, what happened next is that it got too cold in the room and the girls weren't liking it too much! The Critical Auto and easy bud looked like this after a week: with the Easy Bud not growing at all and the Critical Auto starting to show signs of cold stress and not enough nutes (which, I admit, was my fault). So, I needed to add something to heat it up in there and not wanting to risk burning the place down with a space heater, I decided to put the 200W 2100K CFL in there...like this:

The Critical Auto was already doing good after the warm up and some flowering nutes:
but the easy bud was her same ole self:


Now, here are some photos from yesterday of the Critical: and the easy bud...which is slowly but surely starting to recover: And here is the set up as it now stands:

I am awaiting a little mini 23/32W panel from Plant Photonics for some additional lighting and will probably add a Cidly Apollo 8 with my own specs to this grow. The Photonic panel should arrive within the week!

So, I finally got my PP 23/32W panel which is just as pretty as I'd imagined:
(just beggin' to be used!!)

I've placed the little beauty in my little set-up like this:


There's the Easy Bud behind the girl which has actually been promoted to "FULL LED" and is now under the two panels while there are currently two airpots with two germed Royal Queen Diesel Automatics (the remaining two from my first all CFL grow) which are under the CFL.

I'm thinking of ditching the CFL cause it consumes too much! I'll try and throw a new pic of the setup with the CFL in a while...

The heat is rising in the ten, so I turned on the extraction fan but for Winter, the temps aren't so bad which is all the merit of the CFL...any suggestions, opinions, etc?

What size tent are you working in? How's the hans panel working.... Thought about getting one. I'm doing a critical+ auto from Dinafem is that where yours is from.

My tent is a 3ft x 3ft x5ft. The Hans Panel is working nicely, although I haven't been able to really use it to its full potential cause I had started out the Critical Auto with a CFL before deciding to go with a LED. I used just the LED in the beginning and it was too cold so, I had to add the CFL in there to warm up the tent. The Critical Auto I'm using is from Blimburn seeds but I think you'd do well also with Dinafem. They're highly reputable. I should have bought two Hans Panels for the size tent I have but wanted to check out the quality, which is pretty good. If you're only doing one or two plants then I think one panel is enough.

you could easily ditch the CFL, you got plenty of light in them LED Panels for them two small plants, maybe consider to hang em side by side with the CFL in the middle, Im sure you could cover at least 3 small Auto`s if not 6 (in two row`s)

I would ditch the CFL, use it as a heat source if needed.

Thank you Budman and Slipon for the advice. I was using the CFL to add a bit of heat to the area but now that the Plant Photonics 23/32 has been added, the temps seem to be more under control, so I removed the CFL (which was really consuming a lot of wattage) and the set-up looks like this now:


The blooming little girl (Blimburn Critical Auto) in the front only has about three weeks left on her and the girl in the white pot (RQ Easy Bud) is just beginning the veg stage. There's also two Royal Queen Diesel Automatics which I had success with in the past using only CFLs. They are in the air pots in the back. One has already poked her head above the soil, so I removed the plastic wrap whereas the other has yet to show her little head (I think I planted her a bit deeper).

I expect that the Blimburn will finish soon enough that I can try the veg settings on both lights for the Easy Bud and the other two girls and use the lights to their fullest!

Nice upgrades brother
you are really going to be surprised how dense your buds will be compared to cfl
when i was just using cfl and led i would use 2700k cfl for veg and lst it out then switch to led's after i got it positioned for flower i know how you like the natural look but with led's you really want a flat canopy to make use of every bit of light you have

How much did that PP panel cost you with shipping?? If you don't mind me asking

Looks good keep it up