One 26 W CFL per Plant hopeless?

Otoole

Otoole

Active Member
Hi, this is a very helpful site. I am having a little trouble finding information I can use to analyze my exact situation, however.

Let me first say this is a half-assed operation, because I decided to make my first attempt by spending almost no money. I already had the soil (fertigro potting mix) and some seeds of doubtful quality laying around.

I only bought four 26 W 6500K CFL's, for a total of $15 investment. I germinated some seeds and started 4 plants.

I have the 4 plants pushed together in little pots, and the four lights hovering 2 inches away. They've sprouted fine and are now about 1 1/2" tall.

I keep them on a 18/6 light schedule, in a closet lined with 'emergency survival blanket.'

I have no delusions of grandeur here, but my goal is to flower and have a couple oz by Christmas (two months.)

My question is: "Am I growing stringy ass worthless plants? Do I really have to have like 20 of these 26 Watt lights going to even have a chance for a green christmas?

What changes could I make to the situation that could help me achieve my goal: A couple oz of standard bud by christmas, little or no monetary investment.

Something else to consider: I'm assuming that maybe 2 or 3 or my plants will turn out to be male (because my potting mix may be a little acidic). When that happens, the females will start getting about twice as much light with the remaining bulbs. Considering that, can I just get by with what I have until then?

My thanks.
 
DevilDogg3103

DevilDogg3103

Well-Known Member
umm... an oz is far fetched buddy. you'll need alot more lights for just 4 plants. i have a ghetto grow going on right now and i only have i 26w Cfl on it and i have a 18" flouro (daylight) on it and its flowering right now. if you are just going with one you can pick up 300w CFl's at Lowes. i just picked one 2 up yesterday for 16.95 a piece. well good luck and you should post some pics.


P.S
read Grow Faq
 
Earlytoker

Earlytoker

Well-Known Member
I think its like 2000 - 5000 lumens per sq ft?
for a successful grow? i think im right but then
again im pretty fucked up :joint::hump:
 
Batman407

Batman407

Well-Known Member
Hey man, im on my very first grow too. CFL. I only have one plant going. Its under 3-23w 6500k. Was under 4 of them but one broke last night. I dropped it lol. Im prolly gonna pick up a couple more soon but it seems to be doin ok for the moment. I also have 5-23w 2700k for when its time to go into flowering. When ever you get some extra money try to pick up a couple more lights. The 6500k were a little more then the 2700k. I got a 4 pack of the 2700k for 8 bucks.
 
Otoole

Otoole

Active Member
Batman407 said:
Hey man, im on my very first grow too. CFL. I only have one plant going. Its under 3-23w 6500k. Was under 4 of them but one broke last night. I dropped it lol. Im prolly gonna pick up a couple more soon but it seems to be doin ok for the moment. I also have 5-23w 2700k for when its time to go into flowering. When ever you get some extra money try to pick up a couple more lights. The 6500k were a little more then the 2700k. I got a 4 pack of the 2700k for 8 bucks.
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One plant? Do you know the sex? Did you start out with more?

Also, how do you support all those lights? Say, if you have 6 CFLs on one plant, what are you using to hold them in place?

Update: I added two more CFLs and a 2' double florescent tube, 20 W, 6500 K. I also replaced my survival blanket with a smoother foil paper.

I'd post a photo, but am having technical difficulties.
 
Otoole

Otoole

Active Member
DevilDogg3103 said:
umm... an oz is far fetched buddy. you'll need alot more lights for just 4 plants. i have a ghetto grow going on right now and i only have i 26w Cfl on it and i have a 18" flouro (daylight) on it and its flowering right now. if you are just going with one you can pick up 300w CFl's at Lowes. i just picked one 2 up yesterday for 16.95 a piece. well good luck and you should post some pics.


P.S
read Grow Faq
Click to expand...
Just shows why I'm growing - I don't even remember how much an ounce of weed is. I think its been years since I've seen more than an 1/8th.

Don't got no Lowes...Went to Home Depot. They had a 300 W CFL, but only in 2500K.

My biggest problem is figuring out a way to hold all these lights. I can't imagine how people get lights surrounding each plant on all sides. What is positioning these lights so perfectly?
 
FrostickZero

FrostickZero

Well-Known Member
here's some help , 26w per plant? yes that can work if you have your plants set up kinda like this but for flowering you might get lucky with this setup used for veg
kind.JPG
 
Otoole

Otoole

Active Member
Thanks everyone who replied. The setup is improved. I did notice the temperature jumped up 10 degrees with the new reflective paper and florescent tube. It's like 85 degrees now...I guess that is still acceptable.
 
N

NoDrama

Well-Known Member
Don't expect miracles, CFL's tend to grow pretty fluffy light bud, doubt youll get more than 10 grams total. but hopefully I am wrong and you do have a "green" X-mas.
 
skippy pb

skippy pb

Well-Known Member
Otoole said:
Hi, this is a very helpful site. I am having a little trouble finding information I can use to analyze my exact situation, however.

Let me first say this is a half-assed operation, because I decided to make my first attempt by spending almost no money. I already had the soil (fertigro potting mix) and some seeds of doubtful quality laying around.

I only bought four 26 W 6500K CFL's, for a total of $15 investment. I germinated some seeds and started 4 plants.

I have the 4 plants pushed together in little pots, and the four lights hovering 2 inches away. They've sprouted fine and are now about 1 1/2" tall.

I keep them on a 18/6 light schedule, in a closet lined with 'emergency survival blanket.'

I have no delusions of grandeur here, but my goal is to flower and have a couple oz by Christmas (two months.)

My question is: "Am I growing stringy ass worthless plants? Do I really have to have like 20 of these 26 Watt lights going to even have a chance for a green christmas?

What changes could I make to the situation that could help me achieve my goal: A couple oz of standard bud by christmas, little or no monetary investment.

Something else to consider: I'm assuming that maybe 2 or 3 or my plants will turn out to be male (because my potting mix may be a little acidic). When that happens, the females will start getting about twice as much light with the remaining bulbs. Considering that, can I just get by with what I have until then?

My thanks.
Click to expand...
Fuck that bullshit that everyone tells you about how if you dont have a $400 hps bulb and 50 different nutrients your going to grow swag weed.
I grew one plant with a single 30 watt (2300 lumen) cfl and it turned out quite well. Conditions were very harsh on the plant, veg'd with a 24/0 and the tempurature was insane. Tons of problems and everytime I posted an update on here tons of people would say looking good.
Now im not saying HPS bulbs and Nutes don't do anything because that would be a lie. Yes there very helpful but im saying there not necessary for guys like you and me who just want to grow as a hobby for personal use and such. And not dedicate so much time to it. Im just telling you from my experiance it can be done and you can get very good bud out of it. Compared to everything ive smoked it was up there. Definately not the creme of the crop but by all means it wasn't bad.

Although some will argue with me the soil and light cycle are not what determine the plants sex entirely. There sex is predeterminded in the seed, thats why you have feminized seeds and the seed banks. So the acidic soil isn't going to turn a potential female into a male.
However what I have heard can happen is the 24/0 light cycle and other problems like that will increase your chances for a hermaphrodite.

Oh and for your christmas plans im not to sure on that one. You growing abilitys/skill come into play there.

Hope this helps you out man.

Good luck
-Skip
 
dum

dum

Well-Known Member
Sorry, but I don't think that you will be able to harvest in time for Christmas. Keep in mind that if you want your bud to taste good (although it probably won't matter if you have a bong) you should spend about a week drying. To give you an idea of what to expect at harvest time I'll tell you about my first grow. It wasn't as advanced as yours, I had 3 plants (2 died for no reason, they just stopped growing) in one old cat litter box, about 6 inches deep, under an 120w incandesent light bulb. The bulb claimed to be for plants but the only difference was the bulb was tinted blue. I can't really remember the timeline but I remember that my mostly sativa 2' plant gave me about 5g. I think that it took longer than a month of vegging but thats my own fault. Also, EVERYTHING put together was less than $50.

You'll probably be happy with the yield but it will come a little late.
 
jesus420

jesus420

Well-Known Member
you could harvest by christmas but some potency and yield will be lost (approx 25%), the smoke would be a light clear head high. if you could ride it out til a week after new years prolly be good.

if you have a greenthumb you could conceivably get 10-15 grams. if you don't you'll probably get around 7 grams or about a quarter. this is a total guestimate but i bet i'm right!

and yeah once you harvest, you can smoke it right away but you'll have to rapid dry in an oven or microwave to smoke it.

usually people will take some of their harvest and quick dry it for immediate smoke (it won't taste good but potency will be there) then air dry the rest for a week. then you can cure it over a month for some sexy sexy smoke.
 
YungMune

YungMune

Well-Known Member
what lights are you using for flowering? 6 23 watt bulbs should be able to grow it....dont use foil to reflect light use the emergency blankets..or if ur closet is already white then just dont hang nothing at all.
 
Otoole

Otoole

Active Member
For flowering I have two 150 W CFLs, and two 20 W (2') 2500K florescent tubes.

(I already have all these lights due to two separate occasions of mistakenly buying the wrong spectrum.)

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think it's pretty clear I will miss my Christmas goal. Luckily I have a birthday around the end of January. I have improved the lighting and reflection, so my original question is now moot.
 
homegrwn

homegrwn

Well-Known Member
everyone will tell you what is good in there opinion... Let me add mine... I have 2 27 watt daylight >for veg< and about 6 23 watt soft>Flowering< and its going better than i expected being a first time cfl user.. I have successfully grown outside and with hps sog inside but moved to a new state..yadayadayada and im making due with what i have for cheap... Great info on the lowes deal just hit them up and found what i need in 300 watt cfl... ill be hitten them up friday. Id throw up a quote but swag got me sleepy and you know the rest... Check out my profile for my closet grow pics... i have the cfl shown and my only girl. males suck. its also pretty much a shit luck thing on feminized i got two males out of five seeds supposedly femenized from attitude.. maybe a f up or just ran out of what i wanted who knows... Good luck and keep the temp down.. over 85 stresses them out alittle.

 
YungMune

YungMune

Well-Known Member
Otoole said:
For flowering I have two 150 W CFLs, and two 20 W (2') 2500K florescent tubes.

(I already have all these lights due to two separate occasions of mistakenly buying the wrong spectrum.)

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think it's pretty clear I will miss my Christmas goal. Luckily I have a birthday around the end of January. I have improved the lighting and reflection, so my original question is now moot.
Click to expand...
2 150 (46 watts?)wat cfls wont be able to flower it...ur plant will stretch and wont have thick buds...youll need atleast 4 of those to get something descent.
 
O

onthedl0008

Well-Known Member
Theres a thread i started in here that should answer any of ur questions as far as what type of lights u should use and any alternatives u may have.newbies answer to lighting cflvshps yaydyaydyaydydad
 
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