callin' all cfl stealth growers

blakkmask said:

actually, with the right setup the only light moving required would be to move the lights up as plants grow. Look at the pics to see my set up. 8-42 watts and 4-23 watts. But, the 4-23 are mounted on the wall horizontally, about 14-16 Inches(never took exact measurments) from the floor. They provide excelant side lighting, usually a screen is over each fixture so that plants can get really close but not burn. Only the larger fixtures are moved by using the clamp on the socket to hold the cord.

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Bro, I'm pretty sure that uhmm with using CFL lights, you can let the plant actually touch the light because these type of bulbs do not produce enough heat to really burn the plants.

I should know this, as my last few grows I have been using the CFL method for lighting. Only CFL. Nothing else except my fan moving air. In soil. I usually use my HPS/MH lights. But I wanted to try using only CFL.

My cfl setup was; 6 100watt cfl (daytime light at 6500k) for veg.

For flowering, I used the same lights.. only thing different was the lighting spectrum. For flowering I of course used the 2300k (duller spectrum) for flowering.

Oh... and I had a reflector custom made from a anquaintance that works at a metal fabrication shop.

SOOO.. and yea there ya have it. and.. yea CFL bulbs.. bulbs wont hurt your plants.

oh and also... with cfl bulbs? It's better with any kinda lighting system actually. What am I talking about? your wondering.

Well, You want to make sure the lights are close enough to your babies so to avoid 'plant stretching'. When the plants have to really REACH to get close enough to the light, they end up bare and lanky.

I use 'LST' method also to control her height. Keeps her from going straight up.. promotes a bush effect.

Just make sure when using CFL bulbs... you want them as close as possible. Dont worry about burns.

sorry for rambling... lol.

peace.

cerebralvibrator said:

Thanks nitroman, I appreciate the comment.

I just don't understand why so many growers are against the modern flouros, they are greatly improved over the old strip flouros that everyone used to grow with back in the day, but its rare to read a CFL grow thread without someone posting "get yourself a HPS" .

For small cabinet grows the CFL's are perfect. Personally I think its better to use lots of smaller bulbs rather than a couple of big 'envirolite' type bulbs, they are easier to position where you want them around the bud sights.

The 2700k's are very easy to find, every supermarket and hardware store carry them. The 6400k 'blues' can be got online, they are slightly more expensive but not by much.

Anyway, a 'bump' for this thread, anyone else want to contribute? I'd also love to see your CFL grown buds

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Hey bro, just want to let ya know that 'Lowe's' & 'Home Depot' have them in stock.

CFL 6500K (Daylight) - for veg cycle
------------------------------
CFL 2500K ('Fall' spectrum)- for flowering time.

So, I hope that helped ya. But yea i know for a fact 'Lowe's' has both bulbs.

CFL bulbs can and will hurt your plants. Any light will..... except maybe LED or T12's. Get a nice thermometer that reads temperatures from a distance and you will see that CFL bulbs reach damn near 200 F. That fan moving that hot air away from your plant is why they don't burn. Just to clarify for everyone, so people don't think that these things don't produce any heat. CFL's will actually get much hotter than their tube- shaped floro equivalents. You are packing more surface area into less space, which yields more heat. If you don't believe me, get a CFL and a tube fixture, make sure they are same diamter. CFL=T5 tubes...and do a side by side comparison after they have both been on for 30 mins.. you will see what I mean

ganjaluvr, please stop telling people CFL's will not harm their plants. This is not the case. True CFL puts off less heat than HID, but that is because less power is being used. Pack 1000watt worth of CFL in the same room as 1000watt HID, and your going to have the same heat problem. The thing CFLs are good for is micro grow, seedlings, and clones. Unless you want to really train your canopy flat with the scrog method and use the floro tubes, CFL does not have magical powers that HID does not...atleast not when you match power consumption to output

Not that I want to post a million times, these thoughts keep occurring after the fact, but I have seen HID way closer than most people say is safe with the use of air or water cooling their hoods. Check out "Somguys" journal if you really think CFL is the way 2 go. Side by side comparison of HID and floro. If you choose CFL for just a heat issue you should do some more reading my friend

Over 1400 watts of CFL bulbs, and NO HEAT. I use one oscilating fan, NO Venting.







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Not bad, but you don't exactly have that grow enclosed, if your doors are open when the lights are on. If you put a 1000 HPS and 400HPS in there you would have same thing, but a lot less chance of fire hazard, because you wouldn't have all those different electrical connections. I'm not bashing CFL bro, I just think the technology is better used in the tube form, using the scrog technique. That setup you have there has the lights kinda close, and semi good coverage, but think if you had a flat screen and one of those T5 panels that has 8 bulbs in it. Pretty sure dimensions are 4'X4'...Anyway you could really use the benefit of floro technology that way. The tubes and scrogging will utilize each components strongest feature. You have some beautiful plants, so dot get me wrong, I am in no way telling you what you have done there is wrong, just inefficient.

You have all those bulbs and your fan on a 15amp circuit?

ganjaluvr said:

Bro, I'm pretty sure that uhmm with using CFL lights, you can let the plant actually touch the light because these type of bulbs do not produce enough heat to really burn the plants.

I should know this, as my last few grows I have been using the CFL method for lighting. Only CFL. Nothing else except my fan moving air. In soil. I usually use my HPS/MH lights. But I wanted to try using only CFL.

My cfl setup was; 6 100watt cfl (daytime light at 6500k) for veg.

For flowering, I used the same lights.. only thing different was the lighting spectrum. For flowering I of course used the 2300k (duller spectrum) for flowering.

Oh... and I had a reflector custom made from a anquaintance that works at a metal fabrication shop.

SOOO.. and yea there ya have it. and.. yea CFL bulbs.. bulbs wont hurt your plants.

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actually my friend, a 42 watt CFL Will burn the fuck out of your plants. I love how you TRY to sound like you know what you are talking about.

Boulderheads said:

You have all those bulbs and your fan on a 15amp circuit?

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I use two plug-in in that room, and two from other rooms, ran from the attic and ceiling to surge protectors in the closet. My son in law is an electrician and he helped me..

I don't know what amp they are on.

4 105s, 4 85s, 4 65s, 8 42 watt bulbs was there.

Dont you have relatives that come over or something. It looks like the grow started in the closet, but is now taking over the rest of the room. What happens when you need to be a little more stealthy. Or do you live in Amsterdam or something?

logging in...subd....will be starting my CFL grow tomorrow morning when i get back from Home Depot...cant wait this will be my first grow!

SimplyBaked said:

logging in...subd....will be starting my CFL grow tomorrow morning when i get back from Home Depot...cant wait this will be my first grow!

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You gonna start a grow journal Simplybaked?

k-town said:

You gonna start a grow journal Simplybaked?

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DAMN RIGHT! This will be my first grow. Im gonna try to get a couple going inside but majority will be outside in the wild .....i will need as much feedback as possible so anyone feel free to give me advice..i should have everything set up later on this evening...im about to head to the store in a little bit

NorthWest69 said:

Dont you have relatives that come over or something. It looks like the grow started in the closet, but is now taking over the rest of the room. What happens when you need to be a little more stealthy. Or do you live in Amsterdam or something?

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LOL,,,yes, it has evolved. First grow, I had a lock on the closet and a lock on the spare bed room. I had two Freebreeze Odor Eliminators and a $49 air filter and the one small tank in the end of the closed closet, and it still did stink bad.

Now, I put two tanks and a 5 gallon bucket in that closet, and the plants get 4 feet tall and I have to leave the closet door open, but I still leave the bedroom door closed and locked.

I have 4 Carbon Filters, and two Freebreeze air filters and a DIY home-made 5 gallon bucket air filter and it seems to work fine. I have had the TV repairman, the Satalite repairman, and several STRAIGHT house guest during a GROW and no one smelled it.

I also have a pet ferret and she makes a MUSK smell, so if anyone smells anything, we'd tell them it is the ferret.

hey rose, I am not calling you out on your setup bro, to each his own. but how much did you spend on all those lights, fixtures, and extension cords? I was looking online and those 85watters are 25 bucks a piece. 105 watts was 28, not including shipping. I am just curious with all the money u spend on all that gear and having to manipulate those reflectors everywhere, 1 600watt HPS would light that entire closet no prob, with room to spare. 1 Ballast, 1 Light, 1 Reflector, Half the power and pumping more lumens that you have now. In no way am I telling you that what you have there doesn't work, just trying to help a brother out.. thats all peace

Boulderheads said:

hey rose, I am not calling you out on your setup bro, to each his own. but how much did you spend on all those lights, fixtures, and extension cords? I was looking online and those 85watters are 25 bucks a piece. 105 watts was 28, not including shipping. I am just curious with all the money u spend on all that gear and having to manipulate those reflectors everywhere, 1 600watt HPS would light that entire closet no prob, with room to spare. 1 Ballast, 1 Light, 1 Reflector, Half the power and pumping more lumens that you have now.


Add the cost of a Vent Fan, and ducting to get the heat out. In no way am I telling you that what you have there doesn't work, just trying to help a brother out.. thats all peace

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My Grow technique has evolved, and changed from grow to grow and every grow has given me an increase in yield.

I started with a 2 65s, added a bulb later, and added a bulb later, and added another bulb, added another bulb, added another bulb later, and added another bulb, and with each grow, I added another bulb, or two. I have no idea what I have spent on them, I am discarding or giving away many of my bulbs to poor friends that I taught to grow. I do not like using a bulb for more than two grows and I just received two new 200 watt bulbs and two new 105 watt bulbs for my next grow. I'll probably use a few 105s and that will be it, I'm not sure yet. My next grow will be a lot different, much less bulbs but more wattage and much different reflectors. I just got two parabolic polished reflectors. I usually spend about $100, maybe $120 on each new grow, bulbs and nutes, to get 16 ounces of dried manicured buds from 6 plants.

I'm happy with how I do it and what I get in return, and I sure am glad I don't have to VENT any Heat.

I'm not poor and could easily afford and get HPS lights and VENT the closet too, but I'm an old lazy man and perfer the EASY route..

Like I said, to each his own, and as long as you get what you want out of it, then there is nothing wrong with that. Just trying to figure out why you went the route you did. Makes sense though, if you just keep adding bulbs as you go. I got a $15 bathroom fan dropped it right on top of my 1000watt hood and just vent into the same room just over in the corner. I mean if you have the doors open like that I don't think you would find any issue with heat even with HID, but keep rocking the CFL's if they give you what you want, just doesn't sound appealing to me buying all those lights all the time.

Boulderheads said:

Like I said, to each his own, and as long as you get what you want out of it, then there is nothing wrong with that. Just trying to figure out why you went the route you did. Makes sense though, if you just keep adding bulbs as you go. I got a $15 bathroom fan dropped it right on top of my 1000watt hood and just vent into the same room just over in the corner. I mean if you have the doors open like that I don't think you would find any issue with heat even with HID, but keep rocking the CFL's if they give you what you want, just doesn't sound appealing to me buying all those lights all the time.

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What I don't get is

Why are you responding to and posting on this thread entitled

Callin all CFL Growers?
Why are you here?

I bet you'd go to a Strip Club and yell
Put it on, put it on.