Bro, I'm pretty sure that uhmm with using CFL lights, you can let the plant actually touch the light because these type of bulbs do not produce enough heat to really burn the plants.

I should know this, as my last few grows I have been using the CFL method for lighting. Only CFL. Nothing else except my fan moving air. In soil. I usually use my HPS/MH lights. But I wanted to try using only CFL.

My cfl setup was; 6 100watt cfl (daytime light at 6500k) for veg.

For flowering, I used the same lights.. only thing different was the lighting spectrum. For flowering I of course used the 2300k (duller spectrum) for flowering.

Oh... and I had a reflector custom made from a anquaintance that works at a metal fabrication shop.

SOOO.. and yea there ya have it. and.. yea CFL bulbs.. bulbs wont hurt your plants.

oh and also... with cfl bulbs? It's better with any kinda lighting system actually. What am I talking about? your wondering.

Well, You want to make sure the lights are close enough to your babies so to avoid 'plant stretching'. When the plants have to really REACH to get close enough to the light, they end up bare and lanky.

I use 'LST' method also to control her height. Keeps her from going straight up.. promotes a bush effect.

Just make sure when using CFL bulbs... you want them as close as possible. Dont worry about burns.

sorry for rambling... lol.

peace.

Hey bro, just want to let ya know that 'Lowe's' & 'Home Depot' have them in stock.

CFL 6500K (Daylight) - for veg cycle
------------------------------
CFL 2500K ('Fall' spectrum)- for flowering time.

So, I hope that helped ya. But yea i know for a fact 'Lowe's' has both bulbs.

CFL bulbs can and will hurt your plants. Any light will..... except maybe LED or T12's. Get a nice thermometer that reads temperatures from a distance and you will see that CFL bulbs reach damn near 200 F. That fan moving that hot air away from your plant is why they don't burn. Just to clarify for everyone, so people don't think that these things don't produce any heat. CFL's will actually get much hotter than their tube- shaped floro equivalents. You are packing more surface area into less space, which yields more heat. If you don't believe me, get a CFL and a tube fixture, make sure they are same diamter. CFL=T5 tubes...and do a side by side comparison after they have both been on for 30 mins.. you will see what I mean

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ganjaluvr, please stop telling people CFL's will not harm their plants. This is not the case. True CFL puts off less heat than HID, but that is because less power is being used. Pack 1000watt worth of CFL in the same room as 1000watt HID, and your going to have the same heat problem. The thing CFLs are good for is micro grow, seedlings, and clones. Unless you want to really train your canopy flat with the scrog method and use the floro tubes, CFL does not have magical powers that HID does not...atleast not when you match power consumption to output

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Not that I want to post a million times, these thoughts keep occurring after the fact, but I have seen HID way closer than most people say is safe with the use of air or water cooling their hoods. Check out "Somguys" journal if you really think CFL is the way 2 go. Side by side comparison of HID and floro. If you choose CFL for just a heat issue you should do some more reading my friend

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Over 1400 watts of CFL bulbs, and NO HEAT. I use one oscilating fan, NO Venting.







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Not bad, but you don't exactly have that grow enclosed, if your doors are open when the lights are on. If you put a 1000 HPS and 400HPS in there you would have same thing, but a lot less chance of fire hazard, because you wouldn't have all those different electrical connections. I'm not bashing CFL bro, I just think the technology is better used in the tube form, using the scrog technique. That setup you have there has the lights kinda close, and semi good coverage, but think if you had a flat screen and one of those T5 panels that has 8 bulbs in it. Pretty sure dimensions are 4'X4'...Anyway you could really use the benefit of floro technology that way. The tubes and scrogging will utilize each components strongest feature. You have some beautiful plants, so dot get me wrong, I am in no way telling you what you have done there is wrong, just inefficient.

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You have all those bulbs and your fan on a 15amp circuit?

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actually my friend, a 42 watt CFL Will burn the fuck out of your plants. I love how you TRY to sound like you know what you are talking about.

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11- God said," let the earth bring forth grass, herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.