How many lumens are suggested for 1.5x2ft closet grow...

[killbros]

DWC CFL
(2) -5 gallon buckets, One plant each bucket.
Hindu Kush
Nutes: General Hydroponics
Closet Grow Space: 1.5ft x 2ft
Completely covered in Mylar.
I need to know how many lumens per sq ft I should use to get a decent yield for personal use. Please help ol' wise ones....
Thanks for reading.

 

[MizSAtiVadiVA]

Why are you worried about lumens? Basically a 400 W would be perfect.. get a switchable ballast so you can do Metal Halide for Veg and an HPS for flower. Make sure you get an Eye Hortilux bulb and it will take care of the lumens for you. If you are trying to save electricity with your CFL then give up because without an HPS bulb for flower you are wasting your time. A 400W HPS/MH will cover a 2ft x 2ft area.. so that will do you fine. Compact flouresents are good for clones, seeds, early veg and thats it... without an HPS you will be disappointed in your yield i promise.

 

[bullwinkle60]

7500 leumens per SF so you have 3 sf times 7500 and that should work with CFLS'

 

[rocknratm]

if ur stuck on cfl's, get 2-4 of the 200 watt output ones.... the biggest ive seen.

 

[killbros]

My grow space is incredibly small for all that stuff. Im just making sure that my lights would be sufficient. Im not trying to save electricity at all, just small space im working in. Plus Im trying to being semi stealthy. From what I've researched I think I will be fine with what I got. Thanks for the response anyway.
Im working with 6 27w 5000k. @ 1750 lumens per bulb.
Im in early vegging stage. Roots have taken off!
I will add 1 or 2 65watt 2700k 3900 lumens when I decide to flower.
http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/killbros25

 

[SpaaaceCowboy]

Why are you worried about lumens? Basically a 400 W would be perfect.. get a switchable ballast so you can do Metal Halide for Veg and an HPS for flower. Make sure you get an Eye Hortilux bulb and it will take care of the lumens for you. If you are trying to save electricity with your CFL then give up because without an HPS bulb for flower you are wasting your time. A 400W HPS/MH will cover a 2ft x 2ft area.. so that will do you fine. Compact flouresents are good for clones, seeds, early veg and thats it... without an HPS you will be disappointed in your yield i promise.

I would think alot of the guys who got grows going on in the Indoor "CFL Sub-forum" might disagree with you there.

 

[KawiZZR]

I would think alot of the guys who got grows going on in the Indoor "CFL Sub-forum" might disagree with you there.

Agreed. Also, since when is a 400w HPS only good for a 2x2??? If killbros wanted to go the HPS route a 150 would do fine in there without making it into an oven.

Killbros you should be fine to start veg with what you have, but when you decide to flower you may want to switch over a few more of the bulbs to 2700k. Having a heavier emphasis on the red spectrum in flower will give you a bit better yield and growth. Got any pics of your grow setup? Other than that sounds like you've got it down and good luck!

 

[racerboy71]

yah, i agree, you can get a decent yield using only cfl's.. you'll need as many as you can fit in there, and get them as close to your plants as you can.. i'd say some on the tops, some for the middles of the plants, and some down low for the lower parts of the plants as cfl light fades fast, so having only a few on the top of the plants isn't going to cut it really..
the bad thing about cfls is that you need to have them pretty close to the plants so they get the most lumens that they can from the bulbs, and having them so close is going to mean that you're going to have to keep moving them around a lot once the plants start to grow pretty good, possibly even a couple of times a day even.. if that's not a problem for you, i say go for it.. i've seen some pretty decent grows from strictly cfl lighting..

 

[killbros]

Im in early vegging stage. Roots have taken off!
I will add 1 or 2 65watt 2700k 3900 lumens when I decide to flower.

KawiZZR: http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/killbros25 <--pics of grow room. sorry lights were on, I know that one of those plants was severely burned from the lighting, so it looks pretty gnarly in the pic. Its doing great now.

Thanks for the respond.