CFLs: Vertical or Horizontally Mounted?

[Dogwap]

For my 20x30x40-inch high grow area, I had planned to mount six CFLs horizontally a couple of inches apart on a homemade rack. Above the CFLs, would be a sheet of shiny metal. The idea was to raise the rack with yoyos as the plant(s) grow.

But I don’t see anyone else doing it like this.

Does hanging (rather than mounting) the lights vertically allow you to get the lights closer to, or along side of the plants?

I understand you want to get the lights as close to the leaves as possible.

So is horizontal or vertical better?

Thanks for the tips.

 

[borbor]

I think horizontal is better because more of the surface area of the bulb is directed at the plant

 

[Dogwap]

bordor,

That was my thinking.

I'm wondering if people have tried this and decided it was not as efficient as hanging the lights vertically so that they could light the sides of the buds like...

 

[borbor]

both is kinda my strategy

 

[Foolet]

I have both as well, horizontal and vertical.

 

[Xcon]

Yep, I've got a good mix going. Built it for veg but I use it for moms/clones so it's at half output. CFLs are cheaper than dirt lol, it's easy to go overboard.

 

[borbor]

Evidently! nice dude

 

[Foolet]

Wow! Thanks for that last picture! I am going to use that wood chandelier design for my veg chamber that will be up and running soon! Just gotta pick up some fans install em, get my mylar blankets and it's good to go!

 

[Hilo]

Im having really good results with them being horizontally set up in my space.

 

[Dogwap]

thanks for the input guys. very helpful.

 

[Xcon]

Evidently! nice dude

Wow! Thanks for that last picture! I am going to use that wood chandelier design for my veg chamber that will be up and running soon! Just gotta pick up some fans install em, get my mylar blankets and it's good to go!

Thanks guys!!! I appreciate the comments and I'm glad I could help. I'm still a noob at growing but I can say that my plants grow tight nodes and thick stems with the abundance of cfls (which is perfect for mother/cloning). They do well for veg too, but I'm working on skipping that step

I've never flowered with CFLs so I can't comment on the right distance for nice buds, but in veg I've had my rig 18" from the tops for 2 weeks with very little stretching. Here's some clones I just took from under that light.... (tight nodes, thick stems, not even an inch tall)

 

[radsy]

Hey dude, I've been running the cfl idea over in my head too, only with a 600w hps overhead too, which kinda complicates things.

I've come up with this:
600w hps cooltube overhead hanging horizontally
2 x 250w reflectorless cfls hanging vertically just underthe main canopy but not touching the plants.

I'll probably change the cfls spectrum to 2700k for flowering. I think this may work well if I can get even, efficient light distribution in my smallish (1.2m x 1.2m) area.

Any thoughts on this setup? Cheers

 

[Matchbox]

Hey dude, I've been running the cfl idea over in my head too, only with a 600w hps overhead too, which kinda complicates things.

I've come up with this:
600w hps cooltube overhead hanging horizontally
2 x 250w reflectorless cfls hanging vertically just underthe main canopy but not touching the plants.

I'll probably change the cfls spectrum to 2700k for flowering. I think this may work well if I can get even, efficient light distribution in my smallish (1.2m x 1.2m) area.

Any thoughts on this setup? Cheers

Yeah that sounds like it would be perfect so long as you can control temps.

As for the o.p's situation, higher wattage cfls vertical like in ur 2nd drawing and well smaller cfls I do t think it makes that much difference cause their so small.

Or if you go for putting the higher watt ones horizontally then get a really decent reflector as a lot of light will be wasted otherwise.

 

[borbor]

Actually radsy I've seen on some graphs that blue spectrum (6500k) prevents stretching a bit and has some other good qualities all the time. though not being the ideal flowering light, since your high pressure sodium puts out so little light in the blue spectrum I'd use those 6500k fluoros on the side to give your plant those added advantages in flower

gotta say though, that's just my logic, not experienced enough to be able to tell ya for certain