CFL Budget Grow

L

LuckyReturner

New Member
What kind of CFL's should i look at getting to support 3-5 plants? Im looking to keep the lighting at $50.00 or under and will be doing 12/12 from seed. Thanks
 
easyrider23

easyrider23

Active Member
Click on the Forum tab. Pick a forum, for example, Newbie Central. Then click on the light green tab that says Post New Thread. It's self explanatory after that. Then click Submit New thread which will be located near the bottom of the page.
 
easyrider23

easyrider23

Active Member
When you're first starting out you'll want to get 6500K lights. Most of them will be 26-27 watts but they'll have a 100 watt equivalent. If you can't get 6500K don't go with anything less than 5000K. Once the plants go into flowering you'll need the 2700K lights. I myself have 5 autoflowering plants that are 35 days old and I'm only using 5 lights. Though I probably need more for side lighting because the flowers are stretching like crazy. However, I'm just going to stick with what I have even though it'll hurt my yield. Based on what I'm experiencing, I'd say that ideally you'd want to have 3-6 lights per a plant, that is assuming you're growing autos like me. This is the problem with CFLs. It can get quite expensive in a hurry to have adequate lighting. I think next time I'm going to go with a small high pressure sodium light, something like a 150W which would be perfect for 3-5 plants. I'm sorry. I forgot you said you're doing 12/12 from seed. That must mean you're going to be flowering from day one. If that's the case you'll want the 2700K lights. I've never done 12/12 from seed. What are you trying to do? Grow an 8 inch bud. I've seen pics of plants that were really short but were just one monster bud. Yep, they looked pretty cool. Let's see what others have to say. To my best knowledge, if you want a short plant it's based more on the size of the potting container during the first few weeks as opposed to the light schedule. Who knows? Maybe the 12/12 combined with a small container is what does it? Most autoflowering plants are between 1-2 feet which is pretty short. One of my autos is only 8 inches tall whereas some of the others are getting closer to 2 feet. Interestingly, the one that is the shortest had a seed shell stuck to it for the first week which probably stunted the growth. If you're on a low budget just get what you can. If you don't have to buy the light fixtures. Then $50 for lights should be enough. The light fixtures I bought from the Home Depot came with hoods and they were about $5.35 each. You can get a 3 pack of lights at Walmart for around $6-7.
 
O

ozgreen

Member
youl have to have quite a few cfls to get 3-5 plants producing a decent amount, my flowering plant at the moment has 5 23w cfls placed around the bud sites and 1 50w cfl above the whole plant and its growing quite nicely so that kinda gives you an idea of how many cfls youl need. If you really want to grow that many id look into LSTing or setting up a sog or scrog type grow so you get maximum coverage.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/105w-daylight-6400k-CFL-grow-light-Studio-lamp-bulb-E27-/130532957998?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item1e645edf2e#ht_3486wt_806

If you bought a few of them alongside with proper nutes you could be looking a few nice plants
 
L

LuckyReturner

New Member
easyrider23 said:
When you're first starting out you'll want to get 6500K lights. Most of them will be 26-27 watts but they'll have a 100 watt equivalent. If you can't get 6500K don't go with anything less than 5000K. Once the plants go into flowering you'll need the 2700K lights. I myself have 5 autoflowering plants that are 35 days old and I'm only using 5 lights. Though I probably need more for side lighting because the flowers are stretching like crazy. However, I'm just going to stick with what I have even though it'll hurt my yield. Based on what I'm experiencing, I'd say that ideally you'd want to have 3-6 lights per a plant, that is assuming you're growing autos like me. This is the problem with CFLs. It can get quite expensive in a hurry to have adequate lighting. I think next time I'm going to go with a small high pressure sodium light, something like a 150W which would be perfect for 3-5 plants. I'm sorry. I forgot you said you're doing 12/12 from seed. That must mean you're going to be flowering from day one. If that's the case you'll want the 2700K lights. I've never done 12/12 from seed. What are you trying to do? Grow an 8 inch bud. I've seen pics of plants that were really short but were just one monster bud. Yep, they looked pretty cool. Let's see what others have to say. To my best knowledge, if you want a short plant it's based more on the size of the potting container during the first few weeks as opposed to the light schedule. Who knows? Maybe the 12/12 combined with a small container is what does it? Most autoflowering plants are between 1-2 feet which is pretty short. One of my autos is only 8 inches tall whereas some of the others are getting closer to 2 feet. Interestingly, the one that is the shortest had a seed shell stuck to it for the first week which probably stunted the growth. If you're on a low budget just get what you can. If you don't have to buy the light fixtures. Then $50 for lights should be enough. The light fixtures I bought from the Home Depot came with hoods and they were about $5.35 each. You can get a 3 pack of lights at Walmart for around $6-7.
Click to expand...
What would the difference between 6500k and 2700k if i am doing 12/12 from seed?
 
O

ozgreen

Member
even though its technically flowering since day one it still needs to grow foliage and do to so it uses the 6500k light, so id keep the light range around 6500k till you see preflowers then switch to 2700k or around that mark. Good luck
 
manditroy

manditroy

Active Member
When it's time to switch to the 2700k lights for flowering, you can get what they call a 'contractors pack' of a dozen CFLs for about $15 at Home Depot. I've only seen them in the 2700k color temp though, not in the 6500k daylight (vegging) type version. If you get "Y" splitters and sockets that plug straight into an extension cord, you can even save the cost of light fixtures. Just be sure your cord has a heavy duty gauge wire and you should be fine putting several lights on one line. With a socket extender and a few "Y" splitters, you can make a small $6 clip light with reflector into a four light CFL setup. (You need to use the extender to make the bulbs clear the reflector.) If you're creative, you can make your $50 go a long way...
 
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