1st grow, Cfl Q's

monkofbob

monkofbob

Member
I've got 3 that will be ready to transplant within the next week but I don't have my grow space set up yet.

I want to use CFL's because it seems the cheapest and easiest option. My space will be aprox. 3'x2'x4' and I am thinking of getting 4 42w 2700K one in each corner, and one 125w
6500K for overhead.

So my Q's were:
Is this a good setup?
Where is a good place to get the listed CFL's offline (I need to transplant soon and can't wait on shipping)
Should I cover all/ any walls with reflective material? What kind?

I'm sorry if some of these are covered elsewhere, but I've been looking around for a week and didn't find any definite answers.
THANKS!
 
RanTyr

RanTyr

Active Member
monkofbob said:
I've got 3 that will be ready to transplant within the next week but I don't have my grow space set up yet.

I want to use CFL's because it seems the cheapest and easiest option. My space will be aprox. 3'x2'x4' and I am thinking of getting 4 42w 2700K one in each corner, and one 125w
6500K for overhead.

So my Q's were:
Is this a good setup?
Where is a good place to get the listed CFL's offline (I need to transplant soon and can't wait on shipping)
Should I cover all/ any walls with reflective material? What kind?

I'm sorry if some of these are covered elsewhere, but I've been looking around for a week and didn't find any definite answers.
THANKS!
Click to expand...

Do not place light in fixed positions. You will regret that later. Mobility ot key for lighting in any grow.

Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, etc are all good places to find lightning. I prefer Home Depot because no one cares enough to ask questions there. Lowe's sucks for this.

For wall covering use Mylar. If mylar can't be foudn locally use the silver emergency blankets.
 
ol hippy

ol hippy

Well-Known Member
get your cfls at home depot or leows there cheap and always in stock! If you can't find mylar look in the sporting goods section of any store and pick up 1 or 2 of those emergency blankets there about a buck or two they unfold to a good size just double side tape it up... Setup should work I've seen some amazing grow rooms here and they all produce check in with Rosemans faq here he answers everything quite clearly good luck and have fun!
 
monkofbob

monkofbob

Member
Thanks much. I had failed to mention that I intend to put tracks in the corners for vertical ajustability. Also the central overhead will hang from a cord and will also be ajustable.
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
If you are really using 3x2 or 6 sq ft of grow space, even if you get all the lumens on it, which you can't, you are looking at only 3000 lumens per sq ft which is really not enough. maybe for veg it would be but not later on.
 
RanTyr

RanTyr

Active Member
Illegal Smile said:
If you are really using 3x2 or 6 sq ft of grow space, even if you get all the lumens on it, which you can't, you are looking at only 3000 lumens per sq ft which is really not enough. maybe for veg it would be but not later on.
Click to expand...

I think you may have your lumens ratings off a bit. My 23 watt cfls throw out 1600 lumens apiece. He should easily have enough lighting for flowering with the power he's packing now. Obviously adding more lights will be beneficial, not disuputing that, but I would assume he's getting almost 3k lumens per 42w bulb.

Edit: I did my original half awake math using four square feet. I will agree with your original assessment. ADD MOAR LIGHTS.
 
monkofbob

monkofbob

Member
So update, it turns out I'm not going to have enough space to work that out so I'm going to do two separate partitions of 2x1. I was thinking of making one 2' high for veg and the other 4' high for blooming. I probably won't start veging in the second one right away (I digress) purpose being I can start a second crop sooner and still be able to get to the 4' high cabinet for watering and inspection. Also I'm going to make sure the short box is easily removed so I can get to the tall one, and I'm not using the track lighting, opting for lights on strings (Thanks RanTyr)
 
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