Tutorial to Growing with Cfl's

How many CFL's will I have to use to maximize a 2 x 1 x 3 veg grow space

Dr.Chronic said:

Tutorial to Growing with CFL’s by Doctor Chronic

What is a CFL?

A Compact Fluorescent Light is a type of fluorescent that was originally designed to replace the standard E26 Edison Incandescent Lamp. The reason being, CFL’s will put out the same amount of visible light using much less power and a significantly longer rated life span. Even though the price of the CFL’s is higher than Incandescent bulb’s, they are generally rated to run anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000 hours. There many advantages of using CFL’s. Maybe you are growing personal smoke, or you can’t afford an HID system, or an HID system just isn’t practical. For some, HID lights aren’t available in their area. However, CFL’s are sold almost anywhere (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc…). CFL’s are in general a much cheaper growing solution, and their just plain simple to use –self-ballastedand it screw’s into a regular light socket. I’m NOT saying CFL’s are better for growing than HID‘s, but in some cases it’s the only thing that will work.


CFL Wattage

Now sometimes there can be a lot of confusion when it comes to power of the light due to poor labeling but we will do our best toclear all of that up. Normally light manufacturers that make CFL’s generally will put two numbers on the box your CFL comes in. One is Actual Wattage and one is the Incandescent Equal. As you can see here on this CFL the Actual Wattage is 23 Watts, and it’s Incandescent Equal is 100 Watt’s. You need to totally ignore the Incandescent Equal and pay attention only to the Actual Wattage of the Bulb.

Color Temperature

You might see a lot of different labels when shopping at the store for CFL’s. Label’s including Soft White, Warm White, Cool White, Bright White, Halogen White, Daylight White, Full Spectrum. And also label’s like 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K, 6400K, and 6500K. These are all the color temperature of the light you are using. This is a measure of how warm or cool the light given off by a lamp appears, with warmer colors having a yellowish tinge and cooler colors being tinged with blue. What confuses some people is that the warmer a color is, the colder its color temperature is. (ex. Warm White = 2700K). Bulbs ranging in the 2700K-3000K spectrum are usually labeled Warm White or Soft White, bulbs ranging in the 3500K – 4000K spectrum are bright white or cool white, 5000K is labeled Full Spectrum, and finally 6400K – 6500K is labeled Daylight. You can grow an entire crop with CFL’s if you chose the right spectrum of bulb’s. For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000K . The reason being, throughout the year the plant’s outside receive more 6500K light because the day’s in summer are long and hot and as Autumn/Winter get’s closer the day get’s shorter, and gradually receives less 6500K light and more 2700K light as the plant flower’s. Do what you can to avoid bulbs within that 3500K – 4000K because they emit very little light that Is useful to your plant. Notice here the difference between the CT of these lamp’s

How to use CFL’s?

In order to efficiently use CFL’s to grow your MJ you will need to position the lights around 2 – 4 inches from the foliage of the plant. If you place the light too close, then your plant will have nothing to vertically stretch to and it will remain short and stocky. (Ex. My First Grow and FarmingToronto’s) Some people combat this by addingCFL’s to the side of foliage instead of on top of it. On the other hand if the light is too far away from the plant, the stem will suffer elongation (stretching), which will result in loose and fluffy bud’s.It is very important to note that when using CFL’s it’s a daily “battle” to have lights in the right spot. Many of us are in our grow areas at least once a day anyway, so to move your bulbs a bit really isn’t that big a deal. Also many people wonder is it better to have many low watt CFL’s or just a few high watt CFL’s. Both way’s are capable of provided you a good harvest but I suggest you chose the configuration that is easiest for you and your grow area.

Where can I get these CFL’s?

Many low wattage (23-42) CFL’s can be bought at locate retail giants , such as Wal-mart, Lowes, Home Depot, and just about any hardware store you can find. If you are looking to purchase higher wattage (42 – 200) CFL’s I would recommend ordering them online. http://www.1000bulbs.com/2-to-200-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent-Screw-In-Light-Bulbs/ has very good prices on CFL’s ranging from 2 – 200 Watt’s. http://www.buylighting.com/Non-Dimmable-Compact-Fluorescent-s/75.htm has a good selection ranging from 5 – 200 Watt’s in a wide range of spectrum’s. I have used both of these sites several times and I would recommend them to anyone that plan’s to grow with CFL’s.

In the end there are many different GOOD setup’s so don’t set your mind on the ONE perfect CFL setup. Just apply these basic tip’s when starting a CFL grow and you WILL see success. If you have any questions or comment’s I would greatly appreciate it. I want to thank the one and only, FarmingToronto for editing this Tutorial. Sincerely

Click to expand...

im using a cfl 6500k 13w i have one plant its roughly a month old will this enough for it, or do i need more

Is it necessary to use 2700K during flowering? Cause I cant find big wattage CFL`s with 2700K

mathewsisler said:

im using a cfl 6500k 13w i have one plant its roughly a month old will this enough for it, or do i need more

Click to expand...

You will need more.

I am using five 23 watt cfls for a one month old plant currently.

When you say use a 6500k or 5000k for flowering do you mean those specific figures or is in between acceptable i.e. a 6400k. The basic understanding I have means the latter correct but I just wanted to check.

I would have never thought of using CFL's!

Wow, the tide has gone down. So many lazy students... (like me)

While I am no genius, I do know that it takes some serious watts to grow decent buds. I saw someone post 100 watts per plant and that is probably pretty close to right. The most efficient lighting as far as cost to run is currently LEDs, but their cost to purchase is still very high. I have a couple 600 watt HPS units for flowering and am kind of happy with the results, but wish that they were 1,000 watt systems sometimes. (bud envy) But the power usage would exceed the wiring in the walls, so that isn't going to happen. So I came here, looking for some insight into the better efficiency of CFLs. Thing is, they can't get quite the amount of light/lumens/PAR, whatever you want to call it, light power, to the plants as a HID/HPS system. But still I want to add some grow capacity to my room without overloading the wiring. Just FYI, there have been fires caused by people overloading their electrical systems with grow lights, most are probably caused by idiots who swap out the breakers for higher current types, which causes the wires to heat up and set fire to the material inside the walls. Please don't burn your place down, it gives growers a bad name. So to increase my grow capacity I am going to add a few CFLs, because I can't justify/afford LEDs. Looking to get big dense buds, so will use a couple big CFL bulbs, 1 a 2700k at 125 watts and 1 a 5000k at 180 watts. These are sold as 600 watt equivalent bulbs, so in theory these would be like having something better than a 1000 watt hps system. Call me a skeptic, but I'm not buying that. What matters to me is results, so I'll post what happens to this thread, be patient as I will need to germinate and veg some seeds for this project before they go under the new CFLs. Important to pay attention to the bulb type, these are mogul base so they won't fit a standard socket, they are slightly larger, so I'll need the right sockets and I will use open reflectors, unless I can find a bargain on hoods. Hope that clears up a few things for the next grower.

i want to adequately cover a 4'x4' mother/clone/veg. space with cfl's or fluorescent tubes. how many lumens/watts would you recommend and at what spectrum? thank you

Does it behoove me to use cfl's in conjunction with led's?

Just what I was looking for thanks =)

Hey guys this is my third grow but my first with all cfls, so right now i have 12 26w cfls over 5 seedlinds and 2 sprouts. my set up is temp i jus wann see wat u guys think
this was the first way i had it setup.
then i remembered i had a reflector hood so i can concentrate the light more on the plants

Here a picture of my setup using CFLs

Dr.Chronic said:

Tutorial to Growing with CFL’s by Doctor Chronic

What is a CFL?

A Compact Fluorescent Light is a type of fluorescent that was originally designed to replace the standard E26 Edison Incandescent Lamp. The reason being, CFL’s will put out the same amount of visible light using much less power and a significantly longer rated life span. Even though the price of the CFL’s is higher than Incandescent bulb’s, they are generally rated to run anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000 hours. There many advantages of using CFL’s. Maybe you are growing personal smoke, or you can’t afford an HID system, or an HID system just isn’t practical. For some, HID lights aren’t available in their area. However, CFL’s are sold almost anywhere (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc…). CFL’s are in general a much cheaper growing solution, and their just plain simple to use –self-ballastedand it screw’s into a regular light socket. I’m NOT saying CFL’s are better for growing than HID‘s, but in some cases it’s the only thing that will work.


CFL Wattage

Now sometimes there can be a lot of confusion when it comes to power of the light due to poor labeling but we will do our best toclear all of that up. Normally light manufacturers that make CFL’s generally will put two numbers on the box your CFL comes in. One is Actual Wattage and one is the Incandescent Equal. As you can see here on this CFL the Actual Wattage is 23 Watts, and it’s Incandescent Equal is 100 Watt’s. You need to totally ignore the Incandescent Equal and pay attention only to the Actual Wattage of the Bulb.

Color Temperature

You might see a lot of different labels when shopping at the store for CFL’s. Label’s including Soft White, Warm White, Cool White, Bright White, Halogen White, Daylight White, Full Spectrum. And also label’s like 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K, 6400K, and 6500K. These are all the color temperature of the light you are using. This is a measure of how warm or cool the light given off by a lamp appears, with warmer colors having a yellowish tinge and cooler colors being tinged with blue. What confuses some people is that the warmer a color is, the colder its color temperature is. (ex. Warm White = 2700K). Bulbs ranging in the 2700K-3000K spectrum are usually labeled Warm White or Soft White, bulbs ranging in the 3500K – 4000K spectrum are bright white or cool white, 5000K is labeled Full Spectrum, and finally 6400K – 6500K is labeled Daylight. You can grow an entire crop with CFL’s if you chose the right spectrum of bulb’s. For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000K . The reason being, throughout the year the plant’s outside receive more 6500K light because the day’s in summer are long and hot and as Autumn/Winter get’s closer the day get’s shorter, and gradually receives less 6500K light and more 2700K light as the plant flower’s. Do what you can to avoid bulbs within that 3500K – 4000K because they emit very little light that Is useful to your plant. Notice here the difference between the CT of these lamp’s

How to use CFL’s?

In order to efficiently use CFL’s to grow your MJ you will need to position the lights around 2 – 4 inches from the foliage of the plant. If you place the light too close, then your plant will have nothing to vertically stretch to and it will remain short and stocky. (Ex. My First Grow and FarmingToronto’s) Some people combat this by addingCFL’s to the side of foliage instead of on top of it. On the other hand if the light is too far away from the plant, the stem will suffer elongation (stretching), which will result in loose and fluffy bud’s.It is very important to note that when using CFL’s it’s a daily “battle” to have lights in the right spot. Many of us are in our grow areas at least once a day anyway, so to move your bulbs a bit really isn’t that big a deal. Also many people wonder is it better to have many low watt CFL’s or just a few high watt CFL’s. Both way’s are capable of provided you a good harvest but I suggest you chose the configuration that is easiest for you and your grow area.

Where can I get these CFL’s?

Many low wattage (23-42) CFL’s can be bought at locate retail giants , such as Wal-mart, Lowes, Home Depot, and just about any hardware store you can find. If you are looking to purchase higher wattage (42 – 200) CFL’s I would recommend ordering them online. http://www.1000bulbs.com/2-to-200-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent-Screw-In-Light-Bulbs/ has very good prices on CFL’s ranging from 2 – 200 Watt’s. http://www.buylighting.com/Non-Dimmable-Compact-Fluorescent-s/75.htm has a good selection ranging from 5 – 200 Watt’s in a wide range of spectrum’s. I have used both of these sites several times and I would recommend them to anyone that plan’s to grow with CFL’s.

In the end there are many different GOOD setup’s so don’t set your mind on the ONE perfect CFL setup. Just apply these basic tip’s when starting a CFL grow and you WILL see success. If you have any questions or comment’s I would greatly appreciate it. I want to thank the one and only, FarmingToronto for editing this Tutorial. Sincerely

Click to expand...

I have
6 - 5000k.
4 - 2700k
Im growing 3 plants.
Can i use that for veg and flower or would it be better to go to
6-2700k
4-5000k
For flower?
And if possible would it work full life on 12/12 hours light?
Would the yeild of each plant still be around 2 zips or more?
Would the 12/12 hour lighting force stretching? Or is that just from them being to far?
Ummm the seeds are auto flowers 😳

framdani86 said:

Hey I was hoping you guys could help me out with some info on using CFLs. I happen to find a shitload of CFLs for cheap at costco the other day so I got em. I know HIDs have much better results, but is it possible to grow some good bud with just CFLs? Do they make blue or red spectrum CFLs or do I just work with the regular ones? Also, I know i'm gonna need to have quite a few of em if I do use them, so what are my options as far as fixtures go? Are there practical multiple socket options or am I gonna end up with a crapload of lamps all around my grow room? Sorry for all the questions at once, but I don't wanna mess it up. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you guys soon.

Click to expand...

There's tons of information on growing with cfls, and acouple threads with pretty good results.

It's definatly possible to grow good bud with cfls, they just wont be as big or dense as an HID. As far as fixtures go, there's a million different ways to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_QRorECvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZyxchPzQ4Y

^ Those are both good ones.

they come in different spectrums, they should say it on the box.. 5500k - 6500k for veg & the 2000 - 2700k for flowering.


get a clip on fan or two so you can get them close, a timer, and some good soil and you got yourself a small cfl grow.

Wow i'm so stupid lol can some of you guys help me with my cfl grow? i dont think it's growing correctly lol https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/654230-first-growwww-check-outtttt-autos.html

Dr.Chronic said:

Tutorial to Growing with CFL’s by Doctor Chronic

What is a CFL?

A Compact Fluorescent Light is a type of fluorescent that was originally designed to replace the standard E26 Edison Incandescent Lamp. The reason being, CFL’s will put out the same amount of visible light using much less power and a significantly longer rated life span. Even though the price of the CFL’s is higher than Incandescent bulb’s, they are generally rated to run anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000 hours. There many advantages of using CFL’s. Maybe you are growing personal smoke, or you can’t afford an HID system, or an HID system just isn’t practical. For some, HID lights aren’t available in their area. However, CFL’s are sold almost anywhere (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc…). CFL’s are in general a much cheaper growing solution, and their just plain simple to use –self-ballastedand it screw’s into a regular light socket. I’m NOT saying CFL’s are better for growing than HID‘s, but in some cases it’s the only thing that will work.


CFL Wattage

Now sometimes there can be a lot of confusion when it comes to power of the light due to poor labeling but we will do our best toclear all of that up. Normally light manufacturers that make CFL’s generally will put two numbers on the box your CFL comes in. One is Actual Wattage and one is the Incandescent Equal. As you can see here on this CFL the Actual Wattage is 23 Watts, and it’s Incandescent Equal is 100 Watt’s. You need to totally ignore the Incandescent Equal and pay attention only to the Actual Wattage of the Bulb.

Color Temperature

You might see a lot of different labels when shopping at the store for CFL’s. Label’s including Soft White, Warm White, Cool White, Bright White, Halogen White, Daylight White, Full Spectrum. And also label’s like 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K, 6400K, and 6500K. These are all the color temperature of the light you are using. This is a measure of how warm or cool the light given off by a lamp appears, with warmer colors having a yellowish tinge and cooler colors being tinged with blue. What confuses some people is that the warmer a color is, the colder its color temperature is. (ex. Warm White = 2700K). Bulbs ranging in the 2700K-3000K spectrum are usually labeled Warm White or Soft White, bulbs ranging in the 3500K – 4000K spectrum are bright white or cool white, 5000K is labeled Full Spectrum, and finally 6400K – 6500K is labeled Daylight. You can grow an entire crop with CFL’s if you chose the right spectrum of bulb’s. For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000K . The reason being, throughout the year the plant’s outside receive more 6500K light because the day’s in summer are long and hot and as Autumn/Winter get’s closer the day get’s shorter, and gradually receives less 6500K light and more 2700K light as the plant flower’s. Do what you can to avoid bulbs within that 3500K – 4000K because they emit very little light that Is useful to your plant. Notice here the difference between the CT of these lamp’s

How to use CFL’s?

In order to efficiently use CFL’s to grow your MJ you will need to position the lights around 2 – 4 inches from the foliage of the plant. If you place the light too close, then your plant will have nothing to vertically stretch to and it will remain short and stocky. (Ex. My First Grow and FarmingToronto’s) Some people combat this by addingCFL’s to the side of foliage instead of on top of it. On the other hand if the light is too far away from the plant, the stem will suffer elongation (stretching), which will result in loose and fluffy bud’s.It is very important to note that when using CFL’s it’s a daily “battle” to have lights in the right spot. Many of us are in our grow areas at least once a day anyway, so to move your bulbs a bit really isn’t that big a deal. Also many people wonder is it better to have many low watt CFL’s or just a few high watt CFL’s. Both way’s are capable of provided you a good harvest but I suggest you chose the configuration that is easiest for you and your grow area.

Where can I get these CFL’s?

Many low wattage (23-42) CFL’s can be bought at locate retail giants , such as Wal-mart, Lowes, Home Depot, and just about any hardware store you can find. If you are looking to purchase higher wattage (42 – 200) CFL’s I would recommend ordering them online. http://www.1000bulbs.com/2-to-200-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent-Screw-In-Light-Bulbs/ has very good prices on CFL’s ranging from 2 – 200 Watt’s. http://www.buylighting.com/Non-Dimmable-Compact-Fluorescent-s/75.htm has a good selection ranging from 5 – 200 Watt’s in a wide range of spectrum’s. I have used both of these sites several times and I would recommend them to anyone that plan’s to grow with CFL’s.

In the end there are many different GOOD setup’s so don’t set your mind on the ONE perfect CFL setup. Just apply these basic tip’s when starting a CFL grow and you WILL see success. If you have any questions or comment’s I would greatly appreciate it. I want to thank the one and only, FarmingToronto for editing this Tutorial. Sincerely

Click to expand...

awesome work Dr.Chronic, that's a great tutorial!

i do have a few followup questions though;

1. which affects the temperature (fahrenheit[FONT=arial, sans-serif]), lumens, kelvins, watts?
2. what is the best lumens-kelvins-watts ratio for flower? (i know 2700-3000K is recommended)
[/FONT]

JonAK47 said:

awesome work Dr.Chronic, that's a great tutorial!

i do have a few followup questions though;

1. which affects the temperature (fahrenheit), lumens, kelvins, watts?
2. what is the best lumens-kelvins-watts ratio for flower? (i know 2700-3000K is recommended)

Click to expand...

1. I would say watts, but it not the real answer. But basically the more watts the hotter, the color (kelvins) does not effect temp.
2. you dont speak about watt or lumen ratios when it comes to flowering/vegging its about color ratio. More or less you want more red in flowering and more blue when vegging. So more 2700k then 6500k when flowering as it has more red spectrum. For lumens and watts the more the better, but you will have to worry about temp control if you add a ton.

thx sadface