Your plants are looking great. I use only CFL to grow with, and the best advice I or anyone on this site can give you is to use as many CFL's as you can fit in inside your tent, as long as you can control the temps by using am extraction fan. The more light the better is the golden rule with CFL'S. I packed 600 actual watts of spiral CFL bulbs into a 2x2x5.5" grow tent and grew a 100% Land Race Sativa ( Low Stress Trained, for height control ) I ended up with roughly 10 colas as long as my forearm and they were dense.They became so heavy that I had to use stakes to hold them up. Just be creative as to how you place the lights, making sure all parts of the plant are getting light. I used a lot of clamp lights with splitters, but without the reflectors, I removed the clamp assembly and used just the light sockets due to space issues.I used a lot of small 1" clamps and clamped the cords directly to the metal roof rods, and was able to adjust them up or down by the cord.I was able to keep the lights about 1" from the buds this way. If you are creative and can control the heat, you will get great plants with nothing but CFL'S. Just trying to be helpful. Good luck
Hey guys happy new year. I have germinated my seeds and i just want to use CFLs for the first two weeks untill my MH setup gets ready. In this Sticky it is said that 30w per plant can bring it up till one foot tall but my timing is shorter than that to bring it to one foot tall because i want to switch to MH as soon as possible. How much light do i need to make their initial growth? Thank you
As many watts as possible, all 6500k color for best results. I generally use a minimum of 100 actual watts per plant for the initial phase and have had excellent results. Good luck !!!!
so I got some plans, but need some help. I have 2 cfl panels, they are 8x2' t5-ho's bulbs and they appear to be the soft white( they have no labels or markings) since I'm guessing the 6500k spectrum lights are more pink/red ish and these ones in particular are soft white..... so the plan is to grow 10 plants off of these panels. now if I have it right I'm going to need 6500k spectrum t5's for veg, since the soft whites are better for flowering? but as I'm looking for suitable replacements I am seeing " blue" spectrum with the same 6500kelvin and in 10,000kelvin....since I'm going to be getting new bulbs is there a better setup to go with bulb wise? like get 6 red(6500k) and 2 blue10,000k) or just it at the red? my intended purpose is to grow 10 seedlings once there strong enough to transplant then i'm going to use the setup for just 1 plant till finish
4 week veg with piss poor cfl set up. Picture proof cfl work amazing for veg. High maintainer though. Gotta adjust lights multiple times a day. As for home many? As many as possible. Lots of people mount them vertical but from experience I've learned horizontal mounting works better. T5's seem alright but the Ballasts are expensive here... there's a new LED light coming out I guess is 7500 lumens for 50 watts. I call bullshit but I'm picking it up next week. It's not at all gunna be user friendly, so I'll post the results on how rigging 10 of em together goes. ( 2 foot strips 24x1/4x6 ) gotta buy em with reflectors per strip though Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
K sorry never fully answered. This was under 5600 k ( can't find over that here ) I hear a mix fixes that but my advise would be the 6500 not the 10,000. Not for seedlings, seedlings are pretty light sensitive Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
If you are only going to use them to get the seedlings started, then I would get the 6500k (which is the blue spectrum) also known as daylight CFL'S. It helps them grow really strong roots, and work great for veg, but if you do intend to use the setup from start to finish, then add some 2700k (which is the red spectrum ) into the fixture when they are ready to flower. That way you have a balanced spectrum, and you will get frostier flowers. For 1 plant you should be pretty good with that setup, but keep them close as you can to the plant 1 or 2" or so. ( just my 2 cents ), Good Luck ( Try to stay away from the 10000k spectrum )
ya I took a look before I replied and by what I see 10,000k would be best added on the last week or two of flushing as a finishing light.
Yes, that is a good idea at the end of flowering,they need all the light that you can find. My first grow I had crazy spectrums at the end. As long as you keep it mostly 2700k and have some 6500k it will make them create more resin.
Ya and that is what I want to aim for, most the bud in my area doesn't have much resin.... About 4 months to go
Hey everybody! First timer here. Growing a single Short Rider Auto from Nirvana Seeds. I was on a budget when I put this together, so using 1 and 1/2 bags of Miracle Grow (meh, I know) Nature's Care organic potting soil and Dr. Earth Home Grown 4-6-2 liquid fertilizer, 2 ounces per feeding, 1.3L total combined volume when diluted and mixed with 30mL (2tbsp) nonsulfured molasses. I also used 3x size 3 diapers worth of crystals to aid in moisture retention (neat trick). Went into soil on Dec 4, after 2 days of germinating in a plate sandwich in a cabinet. Used 11x 45 watt 6500k CFLs + a 30 watt 5500k. Right around January 4th, went into flower. Switched over to the only 2700k bulbs I had, 9x 9.5 watt LED, 2X 7.5 watt LED, and 1x 9 watt CFL. Today, I researched and found that wattage > color. So I switched out all the lights back to the 6500/5500k, added 3 additional fixtures, and a large 2700k CFL. Until today, plant has has light 24/7, and today I began a 20/4 cycle that I will continue through harvest, unless 24/7 is still advised. I had thought that maybe the night cycle perhaps caused some sort of stress to the plant that would induce resin production. I could be just, just a hypothesis. Current totals: - 11x 45 watt CFL 6500k - 3x 30 watt CFL 5500k - 1x 65 watt CFL 2700k (biggy in the middle) - 1x 9.5 watt LED 2700K In addition, about a week ago, I read about LST training, and accidentally "supercropped" the main cola. It's still perfectly in tact, and there are no signs of stress, but the other colas do seem to have gotten larger relative to the main one. The individual who's post I read also spoke about "defoliation" and that it consistently increases his yield. So I took his advice and slowly cut away fan leaves over the days to expose as many buds as possible to light. Though, with my new light setup, I think I can probably reduce the frequency and quantity of trimming. Since this is my first grow, I'd love to get everyone's thoughts, maximize my yield, and if anyone that has grown this strain has an idea when it might be ready, based on this info and the pictures. For the images:
Cfl's are more for personal use grows, keeping money out of the hands of dealers and perpetual grows. You can yeild upto 2 ounces a plant which is great for one person considering if you cycle thats every month .
Howdy all! Today is good day just to check in, say hi, and that I'm glad this guide is still helping people! I still think from time to time about how I could write it better now that I'm 10 years "wiser", and maybe one day I'llonce again lobby the mods for an edit, though I'm not sure if I still have any friends up there. One thing that I wonder though, is how relevant is CFL growing nowadays? I don't even use them in my house anymore, it's all LED's. From what I've been able to discern so far, the actual spectrum of a commercial LED bulb may indeed be the same as that of an equivalent spectrum CFL, meaning CFL's may be becoming obsolete! If that were the case, this guide would be as well. No longer would the sections on heat management apply, and arrays could involve many more bulbs than before. It would at the very least need a thorough overhaul. Again, I'm super proud that I was able to help build a foundation for beginning growers by sharing what I had learned 10 years ago. I don't grow anymore, and for all intents and purposes don't even smoke anymore, though I'll get back to it all someday. The hobby is still a huge interest of mine, as it should be given the time and effort I put into it, so I still hope to remain a part of the community even if the game has passed me by. Love you all! KRL
I have a couple tents with leds...still use cfls for the corners of the tent Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
You are correct in saying that CFL's are becoming obsolete. I went to the hardware store the other day to pick up a few spare 55 watt spiral CFL'S and found out that everything is changing over to the LED lights, not the UFO grow tent type, but the screw into a lamp socket type. So this means that everyone will have to start using some sort of high intensity lighting at some point in the near future. One good thing though, the Hydroponic stores still do stock the spiral CFL's, but for how long ? Anyhow, I started growing with CFL'S, and still use them, they are a nice alternative to high intensity lights, as long as you use enough of them and know how to place them and use the correct spectrum at the right times, then you can grow 1 or 2 plants at a time. from start to finish with them.
They do work great for side lighting those hard to light areas, and the bottom areas, wherever I notice a shaded area, I hang 2 more of them on a Y splitter to light that spot.
Hi, i'm from Brasil and im in my first indoor, with cfl's , 2 plants The seeds became from a peruvian weed (very nice) and they are very beautifull, or its lucky or good energy or both heh I have reading a lot about all, i can't say what strain is, but if i could i'll say its white widow , for many factors ... Since the appearence of the seed until the very much visual trichomes in all parts(stems and leaves) Please, forgive me about my english !!! I've been reading a lot here and want to thank for all I'll put some pics I topped them have 10 days They are in week 8 3 days in 12/12 I put in the flowering cycle since they showed pre flowers Thanks thanks thanks And sorry for some mistake Please let me know what do you think about them
I'm trying to get more opinions on CFL light distance from plants. I have read frequently to get them 'as close as possible without burning the plants', but then most people seem to be talking about the small spiral type you can get in hardware stores. What about when using one of these large types that are designed for growing? Maxibright CFL Lamps | Greens Hydroponics I have one similar to those at 200W. It puts off moderate heat but nothing a fan can't control, so I can get it really close to the plants. With a bulb of this size and wattage though, how close can I safely get it? According to the place I bought mine, it puts out 12,000 lumens. Interested in some reasonable distance guidelines for seedling, vegetative and flowering stages if anyone has experience with these bulbs.
3&1/2 foot girl. The stick is damn near all bud. 296 total actual wattage and 16,815 total lumens. Organic soil with worm castings, and Tiger Bloom. Still got over a month to go maybe longer considering it's a Sativa.