big cfl question

Just one, barely, maybe.
At least 100W (real, not eqiuv) for 1 plant, and at least another 50W for each additional plant.
You'll also want a mix with some 6500K in there, for a fuller spectrum.

I use a 3:1 ratio.
Veg - 3, 6500K to 1 2700K
Flower - 3, 2700K to 1 6500K

I been using it and a 6500k 14 Watt on them 3 plants that's how veg has Ben for a month gonna switch to flower soon was gonna just use big one so u say keep what I'm doing just change from 24/0 to 12/12

Originally Posted by c3llblock

so u say keep what I'm doing just change from 24/0 to 12/12

Pretty much, yes. If the plants are small, 80W should get you something. But I really recommend that you think about getting a lot more light. For 3 plants, a 400W HPS, even better is a 600W HPS.

There bagseed so still dunno sex might only be 1 girl keep fingers crossed hoping hugest and fluffys leave one is a female n other 2 are males but the little's one smells like chronic its 6 inch tall and 23 days old al are 23 days old 1 is 11 unchanged 1 is small 1 gonna switch to 12/12 ion the 1st 9 other is

Pretty much goes by lumens/sq ft (or better yet PAR). Depending of the efficiency of your 68 watt cfl
(which I'm guessing typically is 60-85 lumens/watt) you are getting about 4,080-5,440 lumens.

That's just about enough for 1 sq ft coverage per light. 3,000 lumens/sq ft is minimum, 5,000/sq ft is a
good number to strive for. High output would be considered 7,500-10,000 lumens/sq ft. If you can reach
the magical 1 gram/watt mark with your lights it'd be about 68 grams or 2.4 zips total yield. More plants
will give less zips/plant basically or vice versa.

I'd ignore the "equivalent" factor as that's compared to an incandescent bulb - iow marketing hype.


What I'm looking for are bare bulb T5 fixtures (somewhat more efficient at 92.5 lumens/watt) that I can
hang vertically. If I can't find one maybe the bare bulb cfls can compete w/the T5s. Happy growing!

1st time growing hoping to get 2 zips u just made my Fay hope that works and wanna say thanks for the info and advice

its enough for .85 plant

Originally Posted by c3llblock

1st time growing hoping to get 2 zips u just made my Fay hope that works and wanna say thanks for the info and advice

Thanks too c3llblock.

I just found my "bare bulb" cfl and they are more efficient too. Called PL-L, basically are T5 fluorescent lights
(high efficiency) folded. Efficiency is 87 lumens/watt. Found this link for DIY (so I can custom hang vertical
bare bulb I believe): 6 x 55 watt Bright Kit There's also 1-5 x 55 watts as well as 1-2 x 36 watts. You can
also find similar parts around the web.

Straight tube T5's would be basically impossible or impractical to do in a bare bulb config because both ends
have 2-pin connectors to attach (PL-L only has one end, the other free to hang).

This for me anyway, would be just for seedlings/early veg before I put them under HIDs. Going for seedling
straight to rdwc 5 gal buckets (well in Rapid Rooters anyway), so I need a good alt lighting option, don't want
to blast them w/HIDs yet.

Well don't want to get OT, but that's a great option if you want to stick w/cfls and go with higher efficiency.