how many 46 watt cfls will i need for 4 plants??

It depends on the size of your pots and how tall you want the plants to be. remember that a cfl is only good at a very close proximity, so a 5 foot plant would need cfls all up and down.

__________________

My current CFL / 400 w HPS grow
HARVEST TIME *BUD SHOTS*
Advice is welcome

I'd say go with 85 or 105 watt CFLs if you're growing 4 plants. I like to use 6 per plant but in your case you would probably be good with around 8 85 watt daylight whites and 8 85 watt soft whites. That equals 1,360 watts and about 134,000 lumens which would be great for 4 plants to really thrive. The more lights the better the yield but when you're talking about a lot of CFLs, eventually it gets to a number where it's probably smarter to just invest in a nice 600 watt or 1000 watt HPS or MH light instead.

__________________

http://www.rollitup.org/members/mhg26-albums.html

I use 7 100 for two plants

__________________

lol, 16 85w lights is gonna cost more than a 1000w hps to both run and initially purchase and will put out the same or more heat as the hps would.so if he could he'd be better to get the hps. i used 18 42w for my 1 scrog plant but i would of used hps but i couldnt mess with any wiring or anything like that. you want to average at least 10,000 lumens a sq ft

Yeah I know ha that's why I said it would probably be a better decision to just invest in the hps. But I still do hear people telling me that they grow with all CFLs and use like 25 or more. I don't know how they do it lol

__________________

http://www.rollitup.org/members/mhg26-albums.html

I love my CFL's for vegging, and did my first three flowers under CFL's but towards the end I had over 400w of CFL's in my cab. I switched to a 270w HPS and doubled my yield.

__________________
Current Grow: White Rhino from seed (in veg)
Previous Grow: Hashberry/Lockdown Cross
Smoke Report: 2 years in storage