Taking suggestions. Wanna master with Cfl's

Ive read buds for less, i know about lumens and about how to grow with cfls, i just want some suggestions. Right now im about 6 days into veg in a 2.5 by 2.5 and 4ft tall grow box, my plants are looking good i have 8 x 26 watt 65k cfls, my plants are at a rapid growth. lights are on 24/7 but in 8 days im switching my plants to 18/6. i plan on replacing my 8 65k's with 9x 26 watt 27k and 2 65watt 27k for a total of 4500 lumens a square foot for flowering. Im going to keep my lights about 3 inches away threw out the rest of my whole veg and flower. My box has an intake fan and a outtake vent and my box stays about 75 to 80 degrees. Im only going to use nutes for my flowering stage cuz im only gonna let my plants veg for 5 weeks, the flowering nutes im going to use is all fox farms beasties blooms, open sesame and cha ching, the soil im using is happy frog and right now my plants are in pong cups but will be switing to 1 gallon buckets before flowering. Im just wondering what u think my potential yield could be and if theres any suggestions to make things better im open ears because im trying to get great results.

I have no idea with the possible yield. But I'm thinking you might be overly ambitious with keeping them in veg for over a month if you only have 4' minus the height of the buckets and the 1/2' that the lights will take up. Even if you LST them constantly. How many plants do you have?

TaoWolf said:

I have no idea with the possible yield. But I'm thinking you might be overly ambitious with keeping them in veg for over a month if you only have 4' minus the height of the buckets and the 1/2' that the lights will take up. Even if you LST them constantly. How many plants do you have?

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have to agree.

how many plants????

i would personally clone a donor plant and lollypop all the clones keeping a nice even canopy with no bottom growth and spread your lights over the canopy SOG style.

maybe with 6 x 4inch clones switch to 12/12 and maybe get an ounce or more???

its really hard to judge yield with CFL's i only use CFL's for propagation and veg/mothers.


you would have to try a few different techniques to see what works best for you.


J

i actually have 12 until i see how many are females im projecting about 4 to 6 and my lights are monted to the side walls and i have one light that comes down right ontop of some, all my plants are like literlly 2 inches beneath every light bulb

i would have taken the guess work out of it and got fem'd seeds.

my honest answer is thats far too many for your lights.

5weeks veg under CFL's is a very ambitious target.

Seeing as you didnt have fem'd seeds i would hit it on 12/12 now using your current lighting.

they will continue to veg for around 3 weeks until they begin to show sex then remove any males and change your spectrum to your flowering setup.

this way you keep the plants short.


J

How much did you spend on those CFLs? They are good for veg, but honestly you may as well just spend more $$ on HiD, get a cheap 150W HPS, it would be easier and better than those CFLs. Its hard to get nice dense nugs with CFLs

Also, 1 Gallon buckets for a plant you want to be 3ft. + is ridiculous. You really want atleast 3 gallon pots for that. Rootbounding your plant with low lumens (4500/ft) barely passes as adequate, your bud will not even be close to its potential. In all honestly I would stop looking for a cheap way to grow because you will run into more problems and have less of a finished product.

im only going to let them get to be about 1ft tall then put into flower

jondamon said:

i would have taken the guess work out of it and got fem'd seeds.

my honest answer is thats far too many for your lights.

5weeks veg under CFL's is a very ambitious target.

Seeing as you didnt have fem'd seeds i would hit it on 12/12 now using your current lighting.

they will continue to veg for around 3 weeks until they begin to show sex then remove any males and change your spectrum to your flowering setup.

this way you keep the plants short.


J

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i agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!
also when you get a female clone it itll save you so much time down the road

welk unfortunatly i dont have access to clones and im waiting for my boy to hook me up with some in the mean time i gotta start from seed untill later

Pretty close to the setup I have going in terms of wattage and lights.

These guys were planted from seed 9/19. 26 Days since I started flowering.



I disagree with everybody saying you can't get quality from CFL's.. this is the first time I've ever had a go at it, and mine are feeling quite dense to me. Probably get better light penetratration with a HID but if you play things smart CFL's can work.

your lighting is not sufficient for 6plants.

CFL's canopy penetration is not good. you will need 9 of those CFL's to successfully get a good yield from 1 x 2ft tall plant! if you veg to 1ft your plant could finish at 3ft which is too tall for your light setup.


i once again urge you to do one of the following

1.get a load more CFL's
2.get a 150w/250w hps
3.switch to 12/12 now

either of the above 3 will work. what you are planning is a bad idea! you will not be able to veg 12plants to 1ft tall under 9 CFL's just not do-able your plants will stretch for more light and bottom growth will suffer.


you may be aiming for 4500lumens per square foot but CFL's lumens diminishes quickly with distance they generally stop being effective after 4-6 inches.


J

also LST learn it live by it lol Just do it train them around the pot..........i have the same set up i have 8 26 watter and 1 43 wat i started with 4 plant now i have two flowering..............best deal is 1-2 cfls per plant.........so you need 16 to 32 cfls in there i would suggest buying a HPS itll prolly make about the same heat itll be one plug instaed of mad wires n shit running every were or just fuck it keep 5 in the box and put the rest in your yard see what happens

well ill probly just let em veg for 2 weeks cuz there only 6 days old then throw them into flowering, nice set up by the way sm 315 and by the way whats the 315 stand for wonder if its the same as mine

I hope you plan on LSTing the fuck out of those plants. Also you should move your fan to the intake