1st grow with CFL. Please help!

poseidonR

poseidonR

Member
im growing 4 plants in a 3'x3' ft. space, 3 a.m.s and 1 blue mistic. its lined with mylar and i have 2 'lights of america' 24" flourescent 'grow' lights, 2 'lights of america' flourescent lights, 2 100w equivalent 5,000k cfls, and 2 100w equivalent 2,400k cfls. will this be efficient enough to carry me through? if not, what else should i get?
 
clayman187

clayman187

Active Member
Im a newb but I believe you need to look at the actual wattage of the light not the eq...And I use 6500k for veg and 2700k for flower..hope that helps
 
mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
I'm not an expert either, but it sounds like you could use a few more bulbs for four plants. I would look at some of the other CFL grows posted on the forum and see what the successful grows have used, and then base my decision from there.
 
D.tea

D.tea

Active Member
Pics would be of great use to us, a lot of CFL grow is positioning and proximity. Gotta get your coverage not just on top of the plant, but all around.
Also, training is very helpful in a CFL grow.
Take a few pics of the set-up and you'll get lots of helpful advice here at RIU.
 
OldGrowth420

OldGrowth420

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you have everything you need bro. If you have eight lights that is a lot of lumens for your tiny space. Can you post some pics so we can see what you got?
 
Bakatare666

Bakatare666

Well-Known Member
How long and how many plants were you going to veg?
I vegged one plant under 98w for a month, and it was plenty for a 2x2 space, so it sounds like you got plenty, but you'll want a bunch of 2700k for flowering.
The 5000k will work fine for veg.
 
lilrob1887

lilrob1887

Active Member
As D.tea said CFL grows isnt jus about light above but all around ur plants...with that said u cant have enough CFL....THE MORE THE BETTER...get u a couple Y splitters from home depot or lowes only a couple bucks that way u can have 2 bulbs per one socket....also mixing the spectrum is better IMO than jus having one certain rating so using 2700k with 5000k is great u can even get 6500k which is even better...make sure ur lights are as close as u can get em without burn...like 2 inches or closer...plus u need good circulation...do u have a fan blowing moving air?....and yea if u can get pics it will def get u more advice....some ppl jus dont bother if there isnt any pics
 
poseidonR

poseidonR

Member
i really appreciate all the advice. i tried to post pics but it looks like i cant do it from my iphone and i dont have access to a computer. but i have the cfls on the sides, two 24" flourescents above and two 24" flourescents mounted on the wall in the back. right now theyre surrounding a stand i have that the germinating mediums(4"x4" planting cups) are on. ill remove the stand when i transplant straight into 4 or 5 gal. pots/buckets. i planned on getting those y adapters but didnt know where to get them, thank you so much for that great tip lilrob1887. i was thinking of getting a total of 8 more bulbs to have 12 all together, so i would get 4 65k and 4 more 27k, and y adapters. Veg with the 4 55k, 4 27k, and 4 65k for 6 weeks and then flower with 8 27k and 4 55k for 9 weeks? sound good? im planning on topping 2 out of my 4 plants, cloning the two cuttings so ill have a total of 6 plants if thats successful. and then i am lst'ing them all. again, my strains are a.m.s and blue mistic.
 
poseidonR

poseidonR

Member
oh and yes i have a fan that will provide circulation, i have a co2 system set up also. also have a hotshot pest strip for those pesky spidermites. ewww.
 
Bakatare666

Bakatare666

Well-Known Member
poseidonR said:
i really appreciate all the advice. i tried to post pics but it looks like i cant do it from my iphone and i dont have access to a computer. but i have the cfls on the sides, two 24" flourescents above and two 24" flourescents mounted on the wall in the back. right now theyre surrounding a stand i have that the germinating mediums(4"x4" planting cups) are on. ill remove the stand when i transplant straight into 4 or 5 gal. pots/buckets. i planned on getting those y adapters but didnt know where to get them, thank you so much for that great tip lilrob1887. i was thinking of getting a total of 8 more bulbs to have 12 all together, so i would get 4 65k and 4 more 27k, and y adapters. Veg with the 4 55k, 4 27k, and 4 65k for 6 weeks and then flower with 8 27k and 4 55k for 9 weeks? sound good? im planning on topping 2 out of my 4 plants, cloning the two cuttings so ill have a total of 6 plants if thats successful. and then i am lst'ing them all. again, my strains are a.m.s and blue mistic.
Click to expand...
Can you load your pics to photobucket or another host then to here?
The splitters you can get almost any hardware store, or Lowe's/ Home Depot, but you will prob have to ask for them, I always have a hard time finding them first time at a new store.
You can mix/ match the spectrums for veg and flower, just try to keep the majority of veg 5000k or above, and flower, more 2700k than 5000k.
Here's a shot of how I have my CFL's set up for one plant.jan7pic1_zps82fc7cd5.jpg
 
poseidonR

poseidonR

Member
image.jpg
yess figured it out.
this is the front view, theres two flourescent lights on the back wall, 2 55k and 2 27k on the sides and the two grow lights up top.
 
D.tea

D.tea

Active Member
Your side CFLS might do better if you could mount them vertically, but otherwise nice set-up.
 
W

whymedeisgns

Active Member
I had more light than that one 1 plant. But i spoiled the fuck out of her.

I'm a little concerned about your interest in growing 4 plants in a 3' x 3' space. I would say you want about 200 actual wattage(not equivalent) per plant to really experience CFL right.

Also, flourescent tube lights come in a range of sizes, the smallest commonly available is t5, then there is t8, and t12. t5's are the best for growing, t12's are the worst. t8's aren't bad, but really only work with SCROG or SOG training styles.

you want to keep your plants short, and bushy so figure out how you're going to do that before you plan on putting 4 in a small space like that.
 
poseidonR

poseidonR

Member
whymedeisgns said:
I had more light than that one 1 plant. But i spoiled the fuck out of her.

I'm a little concerned about your interest in growing 4 plants in a 3' x 3' space. I would say you want about 200 actual wattage(not equivalent) per plant to really experience CFL right.

Also, flourescent tube lights come in a range of sizes, the smallest commonly available is t5, then there is t8, and t12. t5's are the best for growing, t12's are the worst. t8's aren't bad, but really only work with SCROG or SOG training styles.

you want to keep your plants short, and bushy so figure out how you're going to do that before you plan on putting 4 in a small space like that.
Click to expand...


theres gonna be more light than that. im gonna have a total of 12 bulbs total. 6 65k/4 55k/2 27k for 6 weeks of vegging on 18/6. then ill switch to 8 27k/4 55k for 9 weeks of flowering on 12/12. both cycles will include those 4 flourescents, of which ive done a shitload of research on and havent found any info saying if theyre t5, t8, or t12. the most info i found for the two 'grow' flourescents is that they have perfect light spectrum for sufficient growth of plants, and thats the company website description. On top of that, no one can really say if theyd be efficient or not. everyone comes to the conclusion that theyre not sure, so until someone can tell me what they really do im going to assume they work. Ive always planned on topping, lst, and scrogging. im topping 1 a.m.s and 1 blue mistic, cloning the cuttings, and ill lst all plants.
 
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