CFL Confustion - Pissed

OK - I have screwed up and wasted so much money the last few days...hopefully, I can take some of my lights back, but for most, it is too late. I bought a butt load of Daylight CFLs that I had thought were 100 watts as the way the box is (you can see the box in some of my pics) marketed it looks like "100 watt cfls"...HOWEVER, I'm so pissed...They are actually 26 watt cfls. Man.........I thought I had a good thing going and noticed the plants were growing much slower than they had been with GE Sylvania Spot-Gro Lights. UG. Updating pics now btw....so pissed.

CFL's aren't that expensive so you can simply add those to what you had before. Just get more sockets and do at least 3 26w CFL's per plant and you will be fine.

yea... yopu musta been mad stoned to miss the big 26 right below it. haha. i've noticed at my local homedepot lowes walmart etc they usually only carry 45 watters max. there are a couple of 100 watt grow lights there ut they use a special base not mogul or standard. so i said eff it an just grabbed an HPS

Yea, I have a 150 watt hps...I'm really new to growing ANYTHING and I'm trying to figure out how I am going to pull this off. As of now I have 10 plants and for all I know they are hermie or males...I almost hope some are (not really) because I am on a budget and I really can't afford to get more HPS lights. I have wasted so much money buying things that I didn't need, like cfls etc. I am still trying to figure out how to hang lights. I'm doing fairly well for someone as "green" as I am, I think...Anyways, any advice on how to light 10 plants using a 150 watt hps would be great...I am thinking I need to somehow flower 2-3 while letting the others veg. I realize 150 watt hps sucks...but, I'm making do..or trying.

The home depot was closing in like 10 minutes and all the employees were all up in my biz while I was looking..I saw "100 watts" and grabbed them...sucks.

Lemme ask you this man...I had GE Spot-Gro Incandescents (150 watts) and GE Plant Grow 60 watts and 30 watts that are incandescents...they put out so much heat which is why I thought I would replace them with the "100 watt cfls"...do you think I hsould switch back to them?

Buy the right kind of CFL's. Daylight 6500K for vegging and 2700k for flowering. Incandescents are NFG.How many plants do you want to grow and how big is your space?

ur plants look kinda stretched as well you might wanna lower ur lights a bit

those cfl's will work just fine. get some cheap sockets and use them ALL... keep em 2-3 inches away from the canopy and space the lights as even as possible. a reason why you may ne noticing 'slowed' growth is that the plants recieve a better does of light from a cfl than the spot-gros and now there no longer stretching for thelight they desperatly need...
this was grown using nothing but cfl's:

IAm5toned said:

pics of the bush last night of flower, i had to kill the cfls to get good pics, normally theres alotof light in there... note the purty orange spiral buds... i just wish i knew what strain it was. the buds LOOK fluffy but the bastards are incredibly dense, sticky and heavy, i had to use 2 10awg steel rods to tie it up the last 3 weeks of flowering

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storkypig said:

Lemme ask you this man...I had GE Spot-Gro Incandescents (150 watts) and GE Plant Grow 60 watts and 30 watts that are incandescents...they put out so much heat which is why I thought I would replace them with the "100 watt cfls"...do you think I hsould switch back to them?

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no man those cfls are prefect, u said u bought a "butt" load of them then ur fine put all of them hoes up there and ull be all good

good luck happy grows
-whiterhyno

IAm5toned said:

those cfl's will work just fine. get some cheap sockets and use them ALL... keep em 2-3 inches away from the canopy and space the lights as even as possible. a reason why you may ne noticing 'slowed' growth is that the plants recieve a better does of light from a cfl than the spot-gros and now there no longer stretching for thelight they desperatly need...
this was grown using nothing but cfl's:

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good shit cfls are the shit.

hey if you are looking for CHEAP lights go trolling on craigslist using the search terms: sodium, hps, floodlight, flood light, security light, grow light, industrial lighting, hydro, hydroponic, hydroponics, halide. those should find most of what your are looking for. I scored a 70watt HPS security light for $5 not enough for mega buds but enough for some mad scientist shit. and the 150 should be plenty for a space that is 18x abut 36 or a standard bookshelf put your cfl's around the sides and the hps in the middle.

CdnBud said:

Buy the right kind of CFL's. Daylight 6500K for vegging and 2700k for flowering. Incandescents are NFG.How many plants do you want to grow and how big is your space?

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Well, I currently have 10 in veg stage. I am sure after all the stress I have caused them that I will get lots of males or hermies? I would like to have an even amount I think...to be honest I don't even know. I sorta jumped in and am learning as I go. I didnt think they would all germ...they did. Yea, I lowered the lights. I had 120 watt sylvania spot gro lights and they were HOT as hell so I had to put them up higher...I realized that the cfls could be really low. I am using a guest bathroom for this and am sitting here trying to figure out how to do lighting, vent, etc. Thanks for the reply and any advice is welcomed.

whiterhyno420 said:

good shit cfls are the shit.

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Yea, but I had thought I was doing something good by purchasing 100 watt daylight cfls...I switched from incandescents...come to find out, these are 26 watt daylight cfls...im using a reflector as low as I can take them...trying to decide if i should switch back to the spot-gro, and ge plant lights (30 and 60 watts)...I am guessing they would do better than 26 watt day light cfls as they have so much more wattage, but they generate so much heat and the cost more to run...any advice?

captain insaneo said:

hey if you are looking for CHEAP lights go trolling on craigslist using the search terms: sodium, hps, floodlight, flood light, security light, grow light, industrial lighting, hydro, hydroponic, hydroponics, halide. those should find most of what your are looking for. I scored a 70watt HPS security light for $5 not enough for mega buds but enough for some mad scientist shit. and the 150 should be plenty for a space that is 18x abut 36 or a standard bookshelf put your cfl's around the sides and the hps in the middle.

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Bro, thank you so much for telling me that. I am on it now. Much appreciation.

I also have a 150 watt hps that i had used for a few days for vegging before I realized I was wasting electricity...I plan on using it for flowering, just trying to figure out which are male and female, which is sorta sucking.

storkypig said:

Bro, thank you so much for telling me that. I am on it now. Much appreciation.

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Damn, i didnt think of that. You think I should use the hps for veg and put the lights around it? great idea...damn i feel dumb now

storkypig said:

Bro, thank you so much for telling me that. I am on it now. Much appreciation.

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CdnBud said:

Buy the right kind of CFL's. Daylight 6500K for vegging and 2700k for flowering. Incandescents are NFG.How many plants do you want to grow and how big is your space?

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The incandescents are supposdly for growing...GE Plant light 65 and 60 watts...that is what i used to get them like they are....thinking i might switch back to them now that i know cfls are only 26 watts =/

whiterhyno420 said:

no man those cfls are prefect, u said u bought a "butt" load of them then ur fine put all of them hoes up there and ull be all good

good luck happy grows
-whiterhyno

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Well, what i should have said was I bought one for each...I had thought they were 100 watts each. So, I guess I'll go buy 10 more and add them...but, that means I gotta buy more light fixtures...money is tight at this point..ive dropped several hundred dollars already...ug

storkypig said:

The incandescents are supposdly for growing...GE Plant light 65 and 60 watts...that is what i used to get them like they are....thinking i might switch back to them now that i know cfls are only 26 watts =/

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stay away from those incandecents. 23w cfls are not bad you should stop stressin. go get some more and add em all. get some 2700k ones too. ive read that 23w cfls are the moste effecent cfls in tems of lumens per watt anyway. 10 plants is going to be alot to take care of when they get bigger too especially for a new grower like yourself. expect like half male but your not going to be able to tell at this point. stress isnt what always makes plants male either.