Vegging and Flowering With High Powered 6500k CFL

Hi All!

I have a dilemma in my country as there are no high powered 2700k CFL bulbs sold here. The highest wattage you get in warm white is 20w which develops 1200 lumens.
Below is a pic of my setup at the moment:




I'm currently vegging four plants in my spare cupboard with 5 lights consisting of:

• 2 x 85w 6500k CFL generating a combined 9475 lumens
• 1 x 65w 6500k CFL generating 3600 lumens
• 1 x 45w 6500k CFL generating 2025 lumens
• 1 x 20w 2700k CFL generating 1200 lumens

This develops a total of 16500 lumens and I do plan to add even more lights to this setup.

There are definitely a lot of high powered 6500k CFL's around ranging up to 200W but no high powered 2700k CFL.

Would I be better off Flowering with high powered 6500k's or should I get a whole bunch of 20W 2700k's?

Wouldn't I be better off with the stronger penetration of the high powered CFL's during flowering even though the colour temperature isn't ideal?

Your guys help would be much appreciated!!

I would definitely go for a bunch of lower watt 2700k's. The only issue with that is the cost of all the sockets, plugs, and wiring, but if you can manage those costs, I believe your plant will respond much better to 2700k during flower.

The other benefit to using a higher quantity of lower watt bulbs over fewer higher watt bulbs is that you can position a smaller bulb over each top of your plant, allowing for better light exposure over the plant.

All that said, you'll probably need at least a dozen of those 20w 2700k bulbs. That seems like a bit of a logistical nightmare to me. No higher watt bulbs available on ebay/online?

I stay in South Africa so the quickest and cheapest place to ship from is the UK. Just had a look at Ebay and found a few options. It's gonna set me back quite a bit though. What kinda setup would you recommend flowering 4 plants? How many high powered 2700k's?

Would you recommend I mix one or two of those high powered 6500k's in during flowering as well or should I go completely with the 2700k's?

dubeedooSA said:

I stay in South Africa so the quickest and cheapest place to ship from is the UK. Just had a look at Ebay and found a few options. It's gonna set me back quite a bit though. What kinda setup would you recommend flowering 4 plants? How many high powered 2700k's?

Would you recommend I mix one or two of those high powered 6500k's in during flowering as well or should I go completely with the 2700k's?

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I would suggest you need at least 150 watts of 2700k per flowering plant. Some people will tell you it can be done with less, others will say you need more. Mixing spectrums is another judgement call, but if you are going to mix spectrums, you still need that minimum of 150 watts of 2700k, and you can supplement that with some 6400k at a ratio of 3:1.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend you grow more than one or two plants on your first run. ..Not because I don't want you to yield as much as you can, but starting with several plants invites a lot of logistical problems during the grow, which can reduce overall yield and discourage new growers from persevering with it.

This is my cheapest option on Ebay. With most of the options postage ends up costing a lot more than the actual item. Not with this item though. It costs 12 pounds for two 105w 2700k's and 1.50 for postage. They are shipped from China.

My worry is that its so cheap that they might be a bit dodgy(seller is trusted though). They're also listed as being for photography, don't think that matters though does it?



My thoughts are to have 2 plants with these two and a bunch of the 20W 2700k's. What do you think?

Here's the specs for those two bulbs:

Features:

• Provide bright enviroment for taking product photo
• Compact and easy set up
• E27 Scoket fit most standard photo fixtures
• Life Span up to 12000 Hours
• Energy Savings of up 80%
• Low operating temperature
• No noise and no flicker
• Perfect for digital camera photography.

Specification:

• Lumens: 5000-6000
• Output: 105W
• Voltage: 220V
• Frequency: 50Hz
• Color temperature: 2700K
• Life time: 12000 hours
• Socket: E27
• Size(Approx): 22L x 7W cm
• Weight (Approx):260g (with Package)/each

Sorry it's shipped from Hong Kong

Yeah, that should be fine.

If the bulbs are being shipped from overseas, I suggest you buy a couple extra so you don't have to wait for replacements to arrive when they burn out.

Ok I ordered two 105w 2700k and one 135w 2700k. Will fill in the 'gaps' with the 20W 2700k's. Thanks for your help! Don't know why I didn't check eBay sooner.