Tutorial to Growing with Cfl's

ok so can you jus screw cfl into lamps nd shit?? cus i gotta bunch lamps nd shit nd i rather not spend money on fixtures if unessacy
 
Say I use the Vegitation Bulbs for Flowering and the Flowering Bulbs for Vegitation, Will that bite my harvest in the ass? Or deform my plant?
 
Even though this thread is a great source of info on the CFL it really isnt a tutorial on how to grow with them.

With CFL's you need to adjust the light almost daily. The reason being is that if you have the plant too close to the light, it will stay small and stocky. If you have it too far, it will suffer from elongation (which one of my plants April has, check my first CFL grow). Now if you are looking for a small stocky plant, then keep the light close; about 2 inches away. I can't see any practical reason to have a plant become elongated. Reason being is that if a plant gets too elongated it will eventually get too long and slinky and weakly topple over from the weight.

About 2-4 inches is about right.

Now it depends how many plants your growing, but for vegetative growth I would reccomend atleast 144W for a few plants. Now at the begining if your budget is low you can get away with low wattage. Example for the first week I used only 30watts. But now on the 18th day of veg I have 74watts. Lumens is also impodant. You want ATLEAST 5300 for veging, the more the better. When you begin to flower you want below that or atleast a 25% decrease.

Idk, thats about all I can think up off the top of my head that I think is impordant. The rest is really up too you I can't really tell you how to grow your garden as where everyone has there own method. But these are deffinedly key factors to keep in mind.
 
2-68watt 2700k , 6-27watt 2700k and 1-105watt 6500k I Have them on 4 auto widow and short indicas . Can I leave the 105 watt in the mix for the flowering it seems to be ok so far .
 
Leave all possible light in the mix for both stages. With 6500k vs 2700k, each will have better results in different stages, but whatever light you got let the girls enjoy!
 
Ok, Good stuff man.. Now I'm a little confused on the wattage? You said For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000k. I understand that part, but how many watts do you recommend? Does the wattage even make that big of difference.. Sorry for this newbie question, but this is my first grow and I want to get the lights right the first time! thanks
 
first timer 2626 said:
Ok, Good stuff man.. Now I'm a little confused on the wattage? You said For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000k. I understand that part, but how many watts do you recommend? Does the wattage even make that big of difference.. Sorry for this newbie question, but this is my first grow and I want to get the lights right the first time! thanks
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Wish I found this thread yesterday. I was told yesterday to ADD light, because I already have hps 600, to try to get 42 watters, they said 23 and 26's work but becuase my plants were so TALL to try 42's. I got some soft white 42 watters. I am a newbie, and looked allllllll over the place on how to save money on lights for extra lights, and that is what I got, based on what I was told. The quantity of lights depends on how many plants you have. And like someone else said, you dont want to have the lights too far away from the lights, because then they will stretch. Hope that helps even a lil bit!
 
Thanks DirtyDiana, I only have 2- 26 watt, 6500k cfls and 2 t8's on top of 5 bag seed plants, this is my first grow and I was very confused on all the lighting options out there, but after finding this thread along with all the other ones it seems to me the best way to go with a limited budget is CFL's. I just didn't know if the wattage played a real big part or not..lol
 
hello all i am opening a seedbank i am trying to get the website open for feb sometime some info on what you would like to see would be great pls pm me with some ideas and thoughts im already gonna run promo's every month there will be freebees with every order, discrete and stealth packaging, delivery aimed within 2 to 3 days, with a wide collection of breeders etc.... any new thoughts as i said would be helpful,

thanks

Exodus mission
 
SOO ... i got through 20pages before it was getting repetative, so basically heres the cliff notes, right dr. ???

23-26w bulbs are the ideal choice but a 40w is ideal??

keep it above 5000k (bluer) for vegging, and under 4200k (redder) for flowering?

its safer to run more lower wattage than a few higher wattage to keep the temps in check?
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so in short i want low wattage bulbs that produce high kelvins?
 
so .....there wouldnt be no prob. with t-8's on top along with cfl's on the sides if positioned correctly ? with a slight moving the cfl's every now and again ?
 
cool thats exactly what im working with i have two 26 watt 6500k bulbs one 2.0 repti glo 26 watt cfl and two vertical fluorescent lights i dont really know what wattage they are but i know my buddy used them for growing .am i on the right track ..oh i only have two going(mj)
thats how much i plan to grow every time..if i could send you pics so you can let me know what im doing wrong or if im doing good that would be great thank you drew
 
thank you for this little tutorial. im on my first grow whch is a cfl grow in my closet and its going awesome! i will probly never switch away!
 
This is the method I am going to use for my first grow. Seems cheaper on the electric bill and a little bit more for a first time grow. Thanks for the guide!
 
So quick question pertaining to wattage, if I use lower wattage it won't have a negative affect I'm going to be aiming for color temperature when using CFL's?
 
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