Need advice- Indoor CFL AND Sunlight?

Need some advice here. I have an auto MI-5 that's under LED and two CFL's on the sides. Would like to know if it's ok to put them into the sun when it shines through window- about 6 hours a day, then back under lights for the rest of the light cycle. They are on 18-6 cycle. In Soil with Floranova Bloom 4-8-7 at double strength, (no burns yet!).

Just added a third CFL- 65w 2700k 4200 lumen. Had to adjust fan intake/circulation/exhaust configuration for heat control-
Between this and putting her under sun window for 4-5 hours when available, it should be fine. Any word on flushing the last few weeks?

Hmm, I don't see why not. I guess it depends on how much sunlight is getting to your plant. Since there is really no way of knowing how many lumens would be getting to your plant you really can't say for sure. But I don't see why you couldn't do it. My buddy in the summer puts his plants outside when the sun is hitting the side of his yard, then brings them back inside afterwords. Same concept your thinking of except he just puts his outside and its during the summer. It works fine for him. You could always try it out and just take note of how much growth your getting per day/week and compare it to growth when you only keep them under artificial light.




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Thanks Kratose. The sun is pretty Bright when it comes through, and under lights getting around 6200 lumens from a 2700k and 3500K, plus however many lumens from the led light above it,(red,blue,white,orange). The specs on that say equal to 250w HPS, but don't know about how true that is. I have flower on it, still 5 weeks to go. I will put some pics up tomorrow.

Here are some pics. some from when under window, others under light.

She sure is looking good and healthy. Your not going to yield a whole lot from it but its going to be some bomb as bud I bet.

So how many CFL's are you running. You really should get some HID lighting like a 400W HPS to start.

Yeah, probably won't get a massive amount, but it is killer, still in training mode, learning. I just added another cfl. Total- 3 cfl's, 1 led. I tied down top, guess that's LST? As for HID's, I am weary of the heat signature (thermo, infra, etc.). That's why I originally started out with just LED. Anywho, it seems to have started bulking, now that it's in the latter part of life. I had an Snowryder before this that I was messing with, but I messed it up, not being patient- That's ok, though, I have some more of those seeds, just don't want to start anymore till I get at least one completion.

Ok. I have finally swerved over to leaving my girl under light during cycle until the very last week of intense. My reasoning comes from the fact that when things go in a cycle, and are steady, and regular- They are better/healthier, in any aspect of life. So- I'm gonna see. What do you think?

RockCreekRanger said:

Yeah, probably won't get a massive amount, but it is killer, still in training mode, learning. I just added another cfl. Total- 3 cfl's, 1 led. I tied down top, guess that's LST? As for HID's, I am weary of the heat signature (thermo, infra, etc.). That's why I originally started out with just LED. Anywho, it seems to have started bulking, now that it's in the latter part of life. I had an Snowryder before this that I was messing with, but I messed it up, not being patient- That's ok, though, I have some more of those seeds, just don't want to start anymore till I get at least one completion.

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Yes that would be LST. If all your worried is the heat signature I wouldn't worry much because your growing indoors and with only one light it would be very hard and very unlikely they could tell you were growing. Only people who have to worry about that are the people who have whole rooms outfitted with HID lights, or a whole house. If your just using one light there really is nothing to worry about. A lot of new growers think that and its understandable.

Yeah once it is in full out veg you will notice it start growing very rapidly. Some strains totally take off and become a huge bush.

And CFL's are great for vegging. Honestly that's what I use to Veg. I start out with CFL's then when they are ready to flower they get put under a HPS light in the flowering room. Once they hit that light they really start stretching and about double in size before they start flowering mode. Its funny because I notice how much it starts growing when I put it under the HID. It just goes crazy with growth.

Yeah that's a good idea. Get a grow under your belt before you crack more beans.

RockCreekRanger said:

Ok. I have finally swerved over to leaving my girl under light during cycle until the very last week of intense. My reasoning comes from the fact that when things go in a cycle, and are steady, and regular- They are better/healthier, in any aspect of life. So- I'm gonna see. What do you think?

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I agree. You can confuse your plants I have seen it happen. I have seen plants revert back to veg while they were in flowering mode because of light leak or because someone didn't turn on/off the lights at the same time everyday.

So when you said your leaving your girl under light during cycle until the very last week of intense do you mean sunlight?

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Thanks again for helping. Yeah, I plan just to leave them steady under the lights to maintain the "usual". Just seems that everything works better in perfect cycles. Exposing to very intense light on scattered days then back to lower light may make the plant expect that bright light always and react negative. Does that make sense? I almost confused myself on that one.

Yeah I can understand your way of thinking. It does make sense.

Although when you grow outdoors the plant gets exposed to bright sunlight on somedays, and cloudy days where there is not much light at all. But I agree that a steady cycle would be better for the plant.