CFL Grow plan, critique, advise, and anything else encouraged!

S

SOUTHBUDS

Well-Known Member
Ok, so I have my first grow outdoors going hard right now, but my goal is to ultimately have a perpetual indoor grow.

To start, My first indoor grow will consist of a DWC set up, 6 plants, and 18 CFL's set up encasing the plants. There will be 6 on either side and another 6 either hanging overhead the plant or placed horizontally on the backside of the plant (if that makes sense, does in my head). I plan on having an even mix of 2500k and 6500k lights up. Im gonna set them up on power strips using socket-to-plug adaptors and Ill mount the power strips so they are adjustable as the plant grows. I have an entire spare room available to grow but will be doing this in the closet so I can somewhat control temps and odors and what-not.

Thats the plan, so far at least. What Im missing is the following:

1. What wattage of CFL's would be most conducive to healthy green plant growth! Size is not a major concern, im mostly interested in most bud creation, I want to get the MOST bud from my girls!

2. What kind of timer could I use for this set up? Im going to have a total of 4 power strips, 3 for the surrounding lights and another, to plug those 3 into the wall.(make sense?) Not sure how I could incorporate a timer into this since Ive never seen or used one before.

3. What kind of growth can I expect from the CFL's, both height and width wise? Ill be using bag seed for my first and maybe second go around, just until I get it all down before I put money down on real good seeds.

Thats all I can think of right now but Im sure Ill be adding to this as more comes to mind.

Any input is GREATLY appreciated, ive been sneaking around this forum for a few months now reading up and have accumulated an insane amount of info on growing, but I always have room for more!

Thanks to anyone who reads and takes the time to respond, this has already become on of my all-time favorite things to do, GROW!:weed:
 
kushed06

kushed06

Well-Known Member
Wattup Southbuds... IMO I don't think its worth using cfl's to grow more than 3 plants. Reason being, by the time you have "enough light" for 6 plants using CFL's you might as well use HID lighting. If you run that many CFL's your cab will get hot and your gonna need to run fans for an intake and exhaust. I have 12 CFL's and 1 4' dual floro tube just for my 2 plants and you seen how small they are!
-kushed
 
S

SOUTHBUDS

Well-Known Member
kushed06 said:
Wattup Southbuds... IMO I don't think its worth using cfl's to grow more than 3 plants. Reason being, by the time you have "enough light" for 6 plants using CFL's you might as well use HID lighting. If you run that many CFL's your cab will get hot and your gonna need to run fans for an intake and exhaust. I have 12 CFL's and 1 4' dual floro tube just for my 2 plants and you seen how small they are!
-kushed
Click to expand...
Would I be better off just focusing on 3 good plants then and still go with CFL's? Reason being CFL's are cheaper for me to come up on then a MH/HPS Set up id LOVE to get.

How hot would a closet get with 18 cfls, 30 watt 6400k lights? (guesstimate?)

Thanks
 
kushed06

kushed06

Well-Known Member
im not too sure man... my cab is quite a bit smaller than a closet and it seemed like before i had an intake and exhaust it was gettin too hot. I dont even have a thermometer but i could just tell things were gettin too hot.
 
I

iamscanner

Active Member
The Math

Quote:As an example:
Forty 100-watt incandescent lamps (4,000w = 68,000 lumens) require 12,283 Btu of cooling (slightly over one ton). The same site could use 27 four-lamp fluorescent fixtures (or about 4,000 watts = 240,000 lumens) at the same one ton of cooling load, yet produce 172,000 more lumens.
(Please see: Related Efficiency Upgrades - Lighting for more information on this.)
Fluorescents produce more light per watt used then any incandescent can ever do. HID (HPS in particular) produce WAY more light for every watt used. Let’s do some math:


150w incandescent = 2,550 lumens or 17 lumens per watt
150w halogen = 3000 lumens or 20 lumens per watt
150w of Fluorescents = 9,000 lumens or 60 lumens per watt
150w of Compact Fluorescents = 10,500 lumens or 70 lumens per watt
150w Metal Halide = 13,500 lumens or 90 lumens per watt
150w High Pressure Sodium = 16,000 lumens or 107 lumens per watt


Now since you’re paying for each watt used wouldn’t you want that watt to put out as much light as it could? Using an incandescent bulb you are going to pay way more in electric costs then you would if you used a

HID because you’ll need more watts for the grow to come out good. To produce killer bud you will need about 7,000 lumens per sq ft in your grow room. So, in a 5sq ft grow room you would need 35,000 total lumens (7,000 * 5 = 35,000) to reach the optimum 7,000 lumens per sq ft. To get 35,000 lumens you would need:


13.7 - 150w incandescent or 2,058 watts = 35,000 lumens
11.6 – 150w Halogens or 1750 watts = 35,000 lumens
3.8 - 150w Fluorescents or 583 watts = 35,000 lumens
3.3 – 150w Compact Fluorescents or 500 watts = 35,000 lumens
2.5 – 150w Metal Halide or 389 watts = 35,000 lumens
2.1 – 150w HPS or 327w = 35,000 lumens
 
S

SOUTHBUDS

Well-Known Member
I know a MH/HPS combo would be optimal for an indoor grow and I want to be abel to have that set up in the fuure, but I dont have $200.00 plus to put on them just yet, maybe after my outdoor crop comes through and one or 2 indoor grows under my belt Ill have enough to get this set up, ut until then im on a very limited budget and trying to gt the most ouf of the little resources I have.

I've seen some really nice CFL grows on this forum and they give me hope that mine will be ok.

On 1000 bulbs I can get 12 30watt 6400k CFL's and 6 30watt 2700k CFL's for less than $80.
As far as CFL grows are concerned, Is this a good deal? and is this a good set up as far as light spectrum for the grow?
I plan on getting more 2700k lights as the grow progresses so by the time they hit flower ill have mainly 2700k light on em.
 
S

SyNiK4L

New Member
ya dude cfls are fine...i have 16 for 5 plants now...but started with 8....2 died and one ended up being male...i hear what ur sayin man bout the HIDs for the amount of plants....but u gotta realize those are expensive and are also expensive to run...not to mention the heat issue...i have 16 cfls and have had no problem with the amount of plants i have.

and sounds good 2 me...12 30 watt 6500k cfls and 6 30watt 2700k bulbs is fine...i basically did the same thing...and now that im in flowering i switched ovr to 12 2700k and 4 6500k and my plants are doing fine...

on the heat question...when i had more daylight cfls during veg...my closet ended up being over 90 degreez so i had to get more and more fans...now i have 3. 2 of them are inside the closet blowing on the plants and bulbs...and then i got one of those bigger box fans and stuck it at my door to blow cold air from my room into the closet...once i got those fans my temps nvr got above 85 even when i put the sheet down to cover my doorway so that light doesnt get in or out. but now that iv switched to 2700k bulbs the room is alot cooler just cus the bulbs are cooler than daylight bulbs. so now my temps never get above 80. just remember 90+ will kill ur plants.

on the question of how much they will grow...is based on how close u place ur lights and where u place them...take a look at my pics on my grow thread in my sig..the entire time iv had my lights about 3-8 inches above my plants with a couple that i clamped onto the pots themselves so they get light to the lower parts of the plant. get urself any timer u can find...i use one that i usually use for my christmas lights lol. if u have anymore questions let me know. but id say just stick with cfls if ur goin the budget. everyone keeps yellin at me bout using but, iv had good results so far from them. and i dont wanna spend 200-600 dollars on HIDs so i hear ya on the budget thing. GL man keep us upd8ed ill check back on ya.
 
grow space

grow space

Well-Known Member
most important is that you do not go under a 23 watt cfl.thats the minimum wattage one lamp should have.
 
S

SOUTHBUDS

Well-Known Member
Thanks Sy and grow space, Im still getting all my equipment together for my DWC CFL Grow so Im trying to get all the final details down before I dive into it. Im pretty confident Ill be able to produce a very decent yield by the time I get to growing those, my Soil grow is doing real good right now and has been really more of an informal experimantal grow thats given me alot if insight into what I need to watch out for and what not. Sy I checked out your thread and your plants look awesome man and your light set up really reenforces my thoughts about using CFL's, Im not hell bent on only CFL's its just all I have to work with given my current resources (or lack of haha)

One thing Im sure og is that you dont need to invest a shit ton of money in order to grow weed. If you can then its obviously better but if not then you can use what little you have and make the best of it. Im working on my first grow right now and I know I havent spent more then 30 bucks gettin it to where its at right now, check it out and tell me what you think!

Thanks for all the info and responses they have all been very informative and helpful

https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/209518-need-advice-first-outdoor-grow.html
 
S

SOUTHBUDS

Well-Known Member
SyNiK4L said:
ya dude cfls are fine...i have 16 for 5 plants now...but started with 8....2 died and one ended up being male...i hear what ur sayin man bout the HIDs for the amount of plants....but u gotta realize those are expensive and are also expensive to run...not to mention the heat issue...i have 16 cfls and have had no problem with the amount of plants i have.

and sounds good 2 me...12 30 watt 6500k cfls and 6 30watt 2700k bulbs is fine...i basically did the same thing...and now that im in flowering i switched ovr to 12 2700k and 4 6500k and my plants are doing fine...

on the heat question...when i had more daylight cfls during veg...my closet ended up being over 90 degreez so i had to get more and more fans...now i have 3. 2 of them are inside the closet blowing on the plants and bulbs...and then i got one of those bigger box fans and stuck it at my door to blow cold air from my room into the closet...once i got those fans my temps nvr got above 85 even when i put the sheet down to cover my doorway so that light doesnt get in or out. but now that iv switched to 2700k bulbs the room is alot cooler just cus the bulbs are cooler than daylight bulbs. so now my temps never get above 80. just remember 90+ will kill ur plants.

on the question of how much they will grow...is based on how close u place ur lights and where u place them...take a look at my pics on my grow thread in my sig..the entire time iv had my lights about 3-8 inches above my plants with a couple that i clamped onto the pots themselves so they get light to the lower parts of the plant. get urself any timer u can find...i use one that i usually use for my christmas lights lol. if u have anymore questions let me know. but id say just stick with cfls if ur goin the budget. everyone keeps yellin at me bout using but, iv had good results so far from them. and i dont wanna spend 200-600 dollars on HIDs so i hear ya on the budget thing. GL man keep us upd8ed ill check back on ya.
Click to expand...

Hey Sy I got another question for you since youve been using CFL's, how much does running the CFL's run up yur light bill? Is it a significantly higher amount or is it reasonably low? Like I said Im planning on runing about 18+ light of at least 30watts so im just trying to get a ballpark as far as the light bill. Thanks!!
 
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