New To Cfl...

im sorry guys but i am very new to this...I tried to do a search but coudlnt find to much, is it okay to use soft white CFL's? Thanks alot!!

daylight for veg, 2600K i think. then 5600K for vegging. itll say the temp on the package

I believe you have that backwards, it is 6500k for vegetation (cool white I believe) and 2700k for flower (soft white?). But really the best thing you could do is mix the two to have a spectrum closer to the sun's.

But really depending on the size of your grow it is probable that you might want to take another look at a HID lighting system. CFLs are good for a couple plants but anything over about five and you will be spending more on bulbs and places to screw them in than if you would have just got the HPS. Not to mention that a they would put out way more light per watt.

Really do what works for you though, who knows you might come up with some really interesting solutions that can help others out.

Greed has the temps right. How many plants are you growing, and what strain?

Check out my grow...
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/51756-lowryder-2-cfl-s-my.html

Im attempting(?) 10-13 plants with cfl's. You can grow as many as you have lights for. The money you will spend will be equal or more than what you would pay for a hps or mh.

grow how you grow man,don't buy into the hype on hp cost.use the best reflective walls you can efford,and the biggest cfl's you can efford.cfl growing is about makeing the most out of the lite you have and doing it cheap.check out my thread{BIGGER,BADDER,BAD ASS.}I'm 30 days in veg now and looking damb good.10 plants in a 4'x4' area.i've spent maybe $350 totel and hope to get a good yeild[just like HP growers] check out the cost of HP and even a little 400w set up will cost more then that and from my research and grow i'm getting the same amount of good lite on my baby's.

good luck.

A 400 watt set up can cost you like 125 bucks... With a better bulb like 185... But serriously how do you plan to flower that many, you would be pulling like 600+ watts with CFLs if you wanted to have serrious bud. I could be wrong, but what is your total wattage now? Do you plan to increase it for flowering?

yeah man soft whites wont work for vegging you need daylight spectrum plain and simple.... and if you intend to flower via cfl use red spectrum...... i would highly highly highly reccomend buying a 400 watt hps from htgsupply.com because its a 150 bucks after tax and shipping and you get a lamp that is far more capable than any amount of cfls could be... not only that but by the time your done with your grow using cfls you will have spent probably double the money you would have with just buying a cheap hps setup..... i swear man save yourself the headache..... go HID!!!

BUDDAWG said:

grow how you grow man,don't buy into the hype on hp cost.use the best reflective walls you can efford,and the biggest cfl's you can efford.cfl growing is about makeing the most out of the lite you have and doing it cheap.check out my thread{BIGGER,BADDER,BAD ASS.}I'm 30 days in veg now and looking damb good.10 plants in a 4'x4' area.i've spent maybe $350 totel and hope to get a good yeild[just like HP growers] check out the cost of HP and even a little 400w set up will cost more then that and from my research and grow i'm getting the same amount of good lite on my baby's.

good luck.

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what hype???? its a fact!! HID lighting grows better buds than cfls.. cfls are good for stealth grows and first time growers... i have seen some sick buds grown with cfls... but the sickest buds are always grown with HID!!!!

GreedAndVanity said:

A 400 watt set up can cost you like 125 bucks... With a better bulb like 185... But serriously how do you plan to flower that many, you would be pulling like 600+ watts with CFLs if you wanted to have serrious bud. I could be wrong, but what is your total wattage now? Do you plan to increase it for flowering?

Click to expand...

8x85w cfl's at5000k and 5500 lums and 4x 23w at 6500k and mirrors for refection my shit is doing good[read up on lite prosimity]i'm getting 1750lums at the plant sarface and growing bushes with little streach and mad groth.

his question wasnt whether hid or hps or mh or t-5's or 1,000,000 w cfl's. yes you can use soft white to veg.In fact i use a combination of both for all parts of growing with cfl's and it works great.

YES YES YES,more color range the better,blues and reds.the britter the beter.

But you are only veggin currently correct? When you flower you need a LOT more light energy. Thats why most people end up switching to HPS possibly with the bluer cfls on the side. You will notice the buds just arn't quite the same. If I had the means and the funds I would personally just spend it on the HPS get like 6x the light as the same wattage for CFLs and probably save like 50 bucks in bulbs if I were to match the output. You can simply grow more with the same resources and I would deem that prefferable. If you are going to be doing something you might as well get the biggest bang for your buck? Also I have heard interesting things about UV-b lights, the kind you have in reptile shops. I hear about 6 hours a day can promote thc production. Just another thought.

BUDDAWG said:

8x85w cfl's at5000k and 5500 lums and 4x 23w at 6500k and mirrors for refection my shit is doing good[read up on lite prosimity]i'm getting 1750lums at the plant sarface and growing bushes with little streach and mad groth.

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Hope u got good ventilation. If not, ur shit is baking.