What to expect from an indoor CFL grow ??

When I decided I was going to try my hand at indoor growing I wondered my 8 foot high area was high enough. I've grown a few outsiders and they were Christmas trees.

I know it depends allot on the strain but the results I'm seeing from indoor CFL grows aren't very abundent.

I'm trying many different strains and a few different growing mediums including Fox Farm soil with a few amendements and DWC hydro.

Ive sprouted Northernlight/ BigBud, (Dutch Passion)=White Widow, (dinafem)=Road Runner, Cali Hash, Royal Haze, Grapefruit, Critical+ and some grab bag seeds.

My area is 3 ft x 5 ft by 8 ft high, mylar lined. I've put a combo of 6500K, 5000K and 2700K CFLs totalling around 50,000 Lumens suspended in 4 bundles of 4 bulbs to adjust height accordingly.

I have a 1200 LED array in red / blue.

I'll have 6 - 8 (48 socket total) socket light bars mounted on the walls I'll put more CFL or LED floods or spots in. Probably only 4 bulbs per bar to keep amp draw down but these bulbs will be adjustable in height.

I should have 60 -75,000 Lumens for a 15 square foot area 8 feet high.

Fox Farm 3 some for nutes.

Any ideas what can I expect growth wise?

Here's a few sprouts.

Looks like there gunna stretch...how close are the lights right now... if ur using LED you can go preety close closer than cfls because of the heat... I danno how many grows uve done or what your knowledge in growing is... so dont feel offended by my questions if u can post pics of ur whole light setup that would be great man peace

I would say close to a pound wet per plant..

Due to just about every shipping snafu know to man my hard core growing "supplies" aren't all here yet. My goods from across the pond got here first. I got the mylar yesterday and 5 panels of r/b leds so I can start lining my closet anyway. These sprouts have popped up under Eco Lux flo tubes and just yesterday were put under 950 r/b LEDs. I thought I'd get em started. The "room" to grow will be more important when these ladies (hopefully) need more elbow room.

I'll put up some pics once there be light

How come no-one is the states seems to use these lights? View attachment 1158230

I buy them for roughly $40 USD each, they go up to 300w and it's much easier and works out at least half the price of buying loads of the smaller 23w-40w bulbs. Just wondering this because I see these being used a lot in Europe but most CFL grows in the states are made up of sometimes dozens of the smaller more common bulbs.

shotgun321 said:

How come no-one is the states seems to use these lights? View attachment 1158230

I buy them for roughly $40 USD each, they go up to 300w and it's much easier and works out at least half the price of buying loads of the smaller 23w-40w bulbs. Just wondering this because I see these being used a lot in Europe but most CFL grows in the states are made up of sometimes dozens of the smaller more common bulbs.

Click to expand...

Becasue i can't seem to find smaller watt bulbs in the right spectrums otherwise i'd use these too.... allows me to put lots of them in different areas around the plant in contrast with a couple of high watt bulbs usually on the top only.

That is a very good point. I'm just finishing my first grow with these now and the plants have fantastic top growth and main colas but some very poorly developed side/bottom growth. But overall it's much easier and cheaper to use the large bulbs. I think to get the most out of them there would be a bit of training and topping involved.

shotgun321 said:

How come no-one is the states seems to use these lights? View attachment 1158230

I buy them for roughly $40 USD each, they go up to 300w and it's much easier and works out at least half the price of buying loads of the smaller 23w-40w bulbs. Just wondering this because I see these being used a lot in Europe but most CFL grows in the states are made up of sometimes dozens of the smaller more common bulbs.

Click to expand...

I use the smaller bulb in this picture, its 250 wat and you get one for red and blue light spectrum's, one for flower and one for veg they seem pretty gd so far.

I found some high output CFLs on ebay. 2 500w , 7000 lumens @ 5000k @ $30 ea, 2 medium ones that are 150 w, 3000 Lumens at 6500K @ $15 ea, 6 100w, 2000 Lumens 2700 K @ $25 for all 6 and 6 100 w 2000 Lumens @ 2700K @ $25 for all 6. That's 16 bulbs to move where I need them and about 45,000 Lumens for $150.

The sizes larger than these use a mogul base. I'm sticking with standard base stuff.

I'm going to use the 5 r/b LED panels down low to get light to the lower parts of the plants.

Personally I think I wasted my $$$$ on these LED panels. I might experiment with them and build a 5 sided hanger to hang over / arounf the sides of one plant to see if they are worth a shit but after seeing them, I don't think so. The 5 panels combined are less than 75w.

I'll see how these CFLs do and either buy more of these or hunt up different brands. Right now I have an arrangement set up to fit all 16 of these DFLs on 4 hanging fixtures. I plan to drape mylar over them to reflect the light where I want it.

So my supplies are slowly coming in. I got the mylar, 6 - 8 socket light bars, 4 overhead drop lights, 12 "Y" socket splitters and started on my area today. Got the mylar up and half the light fixtures. I SO want my bulbs to come!!!

Since I'll be planting in a foot high hydro tank (not here yet,...ARGH!!) and 2 gallon pots (not here yet,...ARGH!!) for soil (not here yet,....ARGH!!) grow, lights, at their lowest, are about 18 inches from the floor. I'll be installing the 3 other light bars on the wall to the right and hanging 2 more drops behind the 2 existing. The 4 drops will hold the 16 various wattage, lumen and spectrum CFLs listed above. There are shelves on the left behind the mylar for various uses so I don't want perm fixtures.

Here are some progress pics and close ups of the doubled up "Y" sockets in the fixtures.




I LOVE the 6 EIGHT socket fixtures. Easy to assemble and mount, they take 8 60w bulbs, or equivilent, and were UNDER $7.00 EACH. A $50 order got me free shipping!! I can mix n match bulbs and move them up or down at will as needed tp nearly 7 feet.

Doing a mini CO2 experiment. Divided 8 similar sprouts to 2 different tubs. Put an entire box of baking soda, unopened, in a square tupperware container slightly larger and 3 times deeper than the box of soda. Covered the box with a diluted solution of 1 part vingar to 4 parts water. CO2 is bubbling slowly. I'm curious to see how long a box of soda bubbles with a dilution of acid. Should go longer but not as strong.

We'll see .

Nothing is EVER as good as it can be and even if it were I'd try to make it better.

damn dude this looks like it could go a long way. I plan on watching this one keep up the good work!

nice setup...im using the same stuff right now...just scaled down since i dont have that much space...im ordering the same bulbs from the same guy i think...markets them as pro studio photo bulbs right?ive got the same 2 hoods..just not split like that...great way to make it all fit though.im using 2 of the giant 6500k in the hoods above the plants and then 6 smaller cfl's that will be mounted around the plants on the sides.but that amount of light is going to put off a TON of heat...i had only 4 in my box on my last grow and temps ran up to 110f...make sure you got some good airflow and keep the heat down and your golden...ill keep an eye on your thread to see how it all goes

most of the bulbs that are over or at 125 true watts...to get full use of it they require a mogul base and a ballast....or your not using them at full power...at that point might as well get a hps or hid.and when using more smaller bulbs you can get more lumens around the whole plant.i think those work great...but if on a budget and need the space..the smaller cfl's is the way to go

Soil, pots, nutes and some lights dame today. I hope my girls are hoppy now.

Soil mix is Fax Farm Pacific Forest, Light warrior, Black Gold Worm castings and dolomitic lime. Decided to go with wick watering. 3 2 gallon pots have 3 inches of spangum with a 1/3 nylon rope run up into the soil. The 3 other 2 gal pots have local river rock in the bottom with the same wick setup. Lifted pots about an inch off the bottom of the container and dropped wicks into a light solution of Fox Farm nutes with just a little molasses.

Made a boo boo in the first mix. Used Tiger bloom by mistake. Second batch used Grow Big. We'll see what happens.

Hung the lights, set up a fan, vent and air intake from the basement. After hanging the lights and arranging the room got to near 100. I set up a small fan (have a 4 inch inline 12v 270 cfm bilge blower coming with a thermostatic control). When I quit the room was at about 90 but I think it will vent out cooler. What IS a good temp??

So. 2 girls in 2 gallon pots and 6 others in small pots to fit snugly between them. All have great drainage and wicks dropped into nute solution. Now we wait and see how the little bitches like there new digs.

ADVICE?? I have the high lumen lights on a 20 hour timer cycle. I'm leaving the 3 R/B LED panels on as night lights. Plants still photosynthasize by moonlight. I might run a 24 hour grow cycle once I see the ladies aren't stressing out or stretching.

I'll tell you, when I was working on light placement and left the room I was BLIND in normal light!!

Here are some pics with LIGHTS ON!! Added 3 led panels in back.


After I'm done fussing I hand a mylar sheet over the girls to optomize light. I flip up a corner and direct the fan in to keep em comfy.



The other light will come into play once we see what we've got going on.

OH. DEAL ALERT!! I was at 1000bulbs.com looking and happened across some 42 watt 2700K 2800 Lumen CFL bulbs for like $3.65 EACH!

I know they aren't high output or high lumen but for flowering they should be good and at that price they are ultra affordable.

Well the hydro finally came. I transplanted some newer seedlings but I didn't wash the roots and put them in rockwool. Is that bad? I just seem to loose plants hen I mess with roots and they looked so healthy I didn't want to screw up. A couple are in spagnum and the rest are in as small a ball of the original pacific forest, black gold, light warrior, dolomitic lime mix. It's an experiment but am I making a mistake? One of the "?" free seeds I got is going NUTZ!!! It sprouted way after the NL/BB but is as big as the best one. Any ideas what it might be?

I added 2 CO2 bubblers. One is a 5 gallon office cooler jug with a hypo needle run into a bubbler and it gives off a bubble a second unless shaken. When shaken the ballooon on top expands and it speeds up some. I can tell if I have CO2 if the balloon is standing. Pretty good setup.

Please take a look at the leaves closely and tell me what I'm doing wrong. When I transplanted them I nuted them lightly but maybe not lightly enough. Do you think the browning of the leaves is a little nute burn? PH is good. Maybe over watered? I've been having a bit of heat problem and the room was running 85-90. Is that maybe why the leaves look a little puffy and distorted?

Got a fan, exhaust and intake now so it's running cooler as of today.

So take a look at these photos compared to the ones from 9-15 and tell me what I'm doing right and wrong. It's been just over a week.

Don't be affraid to critisize. I want this to work.

9-15 they looked like this.



Here's the update pics from today, 9-23. It's been 8 days. The big bushy ones in dirt below are the sprouts above. 8 days ago those were the only sprouts I had. All the others popped up since.








I've been trying something different because I'm always doing something different.

I have a bunch of CFLS and 5 red/blue LED panels. I have the fan set on the light timer and run fan and CFLs with LEDS 18 hours. When the CFLs go off the fan goes off. Since plants like the CO2 and photosynth needs light I give the CO2 a shake after the CFLs go out and the fan stops.

My therory is that the plants get a little grow / heat break but still have the light from the LEDs to keep them breathing in the now concentrated CO2.

I think it looks like things are off to a decent start.

My plants in soil seem to be doing good but the ones in the DWC hydro don't seem to be doing much. Maybe they are spending their energy sending out roots. I hope so. I thought hydr was supposed to be faster than dirt.

I'm seriously thinking about transfering them into soil but I'll wait a few days and see if they take hold.

Here are 2 in soil and the best one in hydro at 11 days.