CFL Lights

freshmoney

Active Member
free bump..... i would like to know as well. i plan on vegging for 2 weeks and going to 12/12 so i can find the males.... thank you
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Really depends on what size pots and how fast you want them to grow.

Starting them you could get away with 8 of the tiny 15w or ~6 of the 23w. By week two it would depend on the pot size. If you can get the plants close you might be able to get away with ~12 23w bulbs



These all stayed under 4 15w and 2 23w and did fine



Here's a 4x4 tent ghetto rigged for veg. Worked great.

 

freshmoney

Active Member
Nice Gas is that a all cfl grow? I plan on using a 3x3x6.5 grow tent i want to plant 15 seeds(10 craxy x seeds, 5 bagseed) vegging for 2 weeks hoping for 6-9 plants 2-4' tall(looking for enough bud to last till next harvest, half oz a week). right now i made a 2x2 square pvc pipe light with 12 light sockets . 3 on each side. i have :
Veg
4 26w 6500k
4 27w 5500k
4 23w 2700k

Flower
8 23w 2700k
2 27w 5500k
2 26w 6500k
the tent is lined up with Mylar do i need a a reflector on the lights??
Can this work??? or do i need more lights????
 

VLRD.Kush

Well-Known Member
Looks like it turned out pretty nice for you Gas, hahaha.
I think you'll be good for the lighting... Make sure you have some type of ventilation. As for a reflector, In my thread someone mentioned to use mirrors around the plants/ tent, but I never went with that idea. I did however make a hood/ reflector for my CFLs.
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
That latest post is CFL veg and HID/fluoro flower. My CFL buds looked about the same though. I ran 388w of CFL in a 2x3x4' area running between 6-9 plants at a time (rotating them in and out for a perpetual harvest) and was yielding around a zip per plant every week.

you should have enough bulbs for flower and veg but I would suggest using all 4 of the 6500 and 5500k during flowering instead of just 2 of each. Mixing the spectrum is great and the more light the better.

You don't need a reflector on each bulb but I would suggest making something to go above the canopy. I tape mylar to large sheets of cardboard and jerry rig them just above my top bulbs.

I would suggest not just covering the canopy with light but dropping the bulbs below the canopy as well. CFLs are nice because you can get bulbs and light to all parts of the plants not just the top. Unfortunately if you don't get the bulbs next to each part of the plant you end up with fluffy bud.

See here how I have bulb up top but also in between the plants? Worked amazing and provides the best utilization of light when you submerge the bulbs. Can also see how I have a movable ceiling. In this one I think it was just tin foil but as long as it keeps the light bouncing around a smaller box versus a bigger box it does the job. As the lights go up the foil goes up with it.



You might find some good info if the link in my signature - 388w CFL grow.
 

freshmoney

Active Member
@Gas, are you running 12/12 from seed.... after vegging my first set of plants a little i wanted to try out some beans when i start 12/12
 
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