Sufficient lighting?

I'm starting a small single-plant grow inside of a U-haul cardboard box. I got my mylar and I got this light bulb from walmart. Is it sufficient to have just the one bulb, or will I need to get another? I'll be switching from the cool white to a soft white when I switch from vegging to flowering.

Here are the specs of the light bulb I purchased:

45w bulb, actual 200 watt
2250 lumens
4100K

In case I missed something important, here's a webpage linking to the exact same bulb:

http://www.walmart.ca/Home-amp-Office/Home-Improvement/Electrical/Light-Bulbs/CFL-45W-T5-Shatter-Resistant-1pk


Thanks in advance for any input!

FIRST!!!!

Now that that is taken care of...

4100k is the wrong spectrum, and produces very little light that your plant actually uses. I suggest going for 6500k for veg and 2700k for flowering, everyone else on here will probably tell you the same. Also, if you do get a 42w 6500k, you can probably veg one plant under it allright, but when it comes to flowering, i suggest increasing your lighting by 3 or 4 bulbs. I run 5 bulbs per plant flowering, one of which is 42w, but i'd really rather they all get one more 42w each. Good luck with your grow!

Thanks for the reply. I was looking around for a 6500k bulb, but was unable to find any at local stores, like Walmart, or Canadian Tire. Would it make any difference to just get another identical bulb? Buying online isn't really an option, can't have it shipped here.

you can use all red spectrum if you need to, it doesnt make much of a difference if you use red or blue for veg, in the end the results are pretty much the same, i couldnt find any blue spectrum way back when i started so i used all red. Works fine, a mixed spectrum is the best though. btw, thats 45 actual watts and 200 incandesent equivelent watts, not the other way around. a 200w cfl puts out around 10,000 lumens. which is pretty ineffecient. 2 only put out about 20k, my 400w hps puts out around 55,000. 10 of my 40w cfls put out around 27,000 lumens. So more smaller bulbs seems to be the way to go if your going to use cfls if you ask me. i wouldnt use less that 6-8 40wish bulbs for flowering.

darkdestruction420 said:

you can use all red spectrum if you need to, it doesnt make much of a difference if you use red or blue for veg, in the end the results are pretty much the same, i couldnt find any blue spectrum way back when i started so i used all red. Works fine, a mixed spectrum is the best though. btw, thats 45 actual watts and 200 incandesent equivelent watts, not the other way around. a 200w cfl puts out around 10,000 lumens. which is pretty ineffecient. 2 only put out about 20k, my 400w hps puts out around 55,000. 10 of my 40w cfls put out around 27,000 lumens. So more smaller bulbs seems to be the way to go if your going to use cfls if you ask me. i wouldnt use less that 6-8 40wish bulbs for flowering.

Click to expand...

Pardon my noobness, but I think something's going over my head here. 2 of these lights would not be sufficient for a single plant's veg stage? I definitely plan on swapping out for more bulbs in a month or so when it gets to that stage. What will happen if I go against the advice of the forum and use these lights? Will the plant just not grow, or will it just be smaller/yield less? I'm learning!

Thanks for your reply. I'll definitely take everything said into consideration!

It will work, sure, but you get what you put into it, its an investment. You dont have to buy the lights all at once, you can pick up 2 a paycheck. It wont take you long to have a decent cfl grow going.

Would this be a better light to use? I can't see the color temperature, but it says cool white, and is 42w/150w

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=917986&Ntt=917986&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber#

Also, I'm thinking about taking a turkey foil tray and cutting the sides off to make a light fixture. Is this a good idea/bad idea? Is there something better to make a fixture out of, using the bare sockets and wires?

Going out to get these now. Let's hope for the best that it will work!

dude need to get bulbs that are 6500k or 5700k they are not hard to find jsut keep looking at hardware stores and i would atleast ATLEAST have 3 per plant

i would just get the 6500k bulbs wherever u can, at lowes i got a 26watt 6500k today for 4.75, and my blueberry loves it , however i will be adding to it as the days go on, the idea is as u keep getting paychecks, keep adding lights untill your lumen output is correct. you have several weeks to do it, and then several weeks when you switch to 2700k, walmart definately has what you need in most cases. i picked up 300watt equiv's at lowes and my red dwarfs couldnt be happier. dark is right, if your just experimenting, then do whatever makes you happy, but if you want your investment to yield, then listen to the guy! hes right


second im a bit concerned on the use of a cardboard box, unless your home 24/7 , thats a serious fire risk, my 2 300watt bulbs burn quite hot, and without a fan have my 4ft grow box at 100 degrees. some have used rubbermain containers, less risk - may melt but wont catch fire. i used all 1/2 thick plywood and ran the electrical professionally.

GOODLUCK, ILL CHECK BACK LATER!!

I went out to Home Depot and got a 6500k watt bulb, so that should get things going nicely. I'm not working right now, so being home most of the time won't be a problem. I'm going to take extra care to make sure that no fires break out. I'll probably even grab a fire extinguisher to keep next to it just in case.

I planted a seed in some soil for germination a couple of days ago, and see a little white sprout coming out. Hopefully soon I'll start seeing some little baby leaves!

I'm excited!

dont worry about a fire risk cfls burn cold i can grab all of my bulbs after they have been on for 18 hours and hold them for as long as i want the only way you are going to get a fire is if you spark something up if you ever end up popping the breaker but if you seen what i have going you could say that you would never pop it with only 2 bulbs

So I got my aluminum tape to attach the mylar sheets I got to the walls of the box. Since the box is 2 ft x 2 ft, I was thinking I would get a square of plywood about 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft, drill 4 or 5 holes in it for light sockets, a couple on each side for chains/rope, tape some mylar to it, and stick the sockets through, and have the wiring on the top, coming out of the top of the box. Is this a good way to do it, or should I build a light hood a different way?

MrGrowShow said:

I'm starting a small single-plant grow inside of a U-haul cardboard box. I got my mylar and I got this light bulb from walmart. Is it sufficient to have just the one bulb, or will I need to get another? I'll be switching from the cool white to a soft white when I switch from vegging to flowering.

Here are the specs of the light bulb I purchased:

45w bulb, actual 200 watt
2250 lumens
4100K

In case I missed something important, here's a webpage linking to the exact same bulb:

http://www.walmart.ca/Home-amp-Office/Home-Improvement/Electrical/Light-Bulbs/CFL-45W-T5-Shatter-Resistant-1pk


Thanks in advance for any input!

Click to expand...

Ok first off when your talking CFLs you will always have 2 wattage #s 1 being the true watts and the # you need to worry about then there is the = watts normaly larger then true watts. Like normaly 150watt= is truely only about 47 real watts. 47 is the number you need not the 150.

next is color of the lite. You need between 5000-6500k IE Cool or Cooler blue lite 6500k being best for veg. For Flower you will need between 2700-3000K IE warm or warmer red yellow orange lite 2700k being best for Flowering.

Plants can NOT use any lite between 3700k-4700k color it is 100% usless to them.

I suggest trying homedepot or lowes they have a way better selection just know what your looking for they have no clue at all.

Thanks for the reply. I've returned that light and have a 6500k bulb now for vegging. Check out my last post for what I'm using, and my current predicament, as to how to build the lights. Thanks!

Just wanted to give an update. This is what I discovered today!