Ed Rosenthal Say's CFL's May be Better than HPS for Micro Growing

Big P said:

you guys my first grow i used a 400 watt hps and yeilded close to a pound


the strain was a bulky strain though


with a primo strain top of the line, you should get atleast 1 pound with a 600watt HPS


whats the most that can be yeilded by 600watts of CFL in any configuration?


honestly, no lieing


I got give big ups to Mr. Rosman as I got to this site through the stelath hydro website when i purchased CFLS for my first grow, i saw his review and searched your name on the internet and it led me to here.

that was like 2 years ago

anyway, i soon was convinced my cfls would not be enough and bought the 400watt hps mentioned above


so what is the best yeild u can get with 600watts of cfl?

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cfls prove the best when combined in a mini-sog imo and a perpetual harvest.

so single harvest amounts aren't key really.

its harvest over time where cfls really shine.

DrBud pulls 1.33 lbs under 420w of CFLs

%MiSTuRBoMbDiGgItty% said:

DrBud pulls 1.33 lbs under 420w of CFLs

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whos dr. bud?

sounds like a character

%MiSTuRBoMbDiGgItty% said:

DrBud pulls 1.33 lbs under 420w of CFLs

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And how many plants? Like 15?

drbud is a grower who does amazing things with cfls in a micro sog. a tiny cab packed with plants in small containers. mrbomb does the same style grow, and i will be doing one also. drbud gets gets super yields with his cfls on small wattage. he had a 472w grow and like a 1172w grow both journaled and documented on ICMag.

i was reading through this again and found myself confused. It says in the original post that the yellow light is of little use to plants and then says that the 27k of cfls has more light than the hps rated at 22k. That would make the hps rating more in the red orange spectrum. Does that mean that the lights emit different spectrums even tho the given k rating? my hps seems to be much more of an orange than the soft white cfls so its kinda confusing i dont know too much about light im just experimenting right now. always kinda been an outdoor dude.

Mr. Bitti said:

i was reading through this again and found myself confused. It says in the original post that the yellow light is of little use to plants and then says that the 27k of cfls has more light than the hps rated at 22k. That would make the hps rating more in the red orange spectrum. Does that mean that the lights emit different spectrums even tho the given k rating? my hps seems to be much more of an orange than the soft white cfls so its kinda confusing i dont know too much about light im just experimenting right now. always kinda been an outdoor dude.

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the white light is better for vegging and the redish light is the best for flowering

Big P said:

the white light is better for vegging and the redish light is the best for flowering

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that really wasn't my question

Mr. Bitti said:

i was reading through this again and found myself confused. It says in the original post that the yellow light is of little use to plants and then says that the 27k of cfls has more light than the hps rated at 22k. That would make the hps rating more in the red orange spectrum. Does that mean that the lights emit different spectrums even tho the given k rating? my hps seems to be much more of an orange than the soft white cfls so its kinda confusing i dont know too much about light im just experimenting right now. always kinda been an outdoor dude.

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Phyco- pigments absorb red-orange and yellow-orange light, and assist in photosynthesis. 2700k CFls, as seen in one of my early posts(the 3rd one in this thread) emit peak red spectrum. They don't have more light(photons) than HPS. But they have more photons/watt in the correct wavelengths.

Yes, certainly, lights do emit different peaks and valleys while having identical color temperatures, measured in kelvins(k.. you can also use Celsius or Farenheight, though k is the typical measure used).

How well a light aligns to a black body temperature is refered to as CRI. CFLs have vastly superior CRI. That's Color Rendering Index. It's the perceptive measure of an object's color under the given light source, as compared to the same object being illuminated by the sun. A perfect CRI is 100(%).

Orange light is less ideal than red light for photosynthesis.

It takes a lot of juice(kWh) to beat the sun at its game, but it is possible.

TeaTreeOil said:

Phyco- pigments absorb red-orange and yellow-orange light, and assist in photosynthesis. 2700k CFls, as seen in one of my early posts(the 3rd one in this thread) emit peak red spectrum. They don't have more light(photons) than HPS. But they have more photons/watt in the correct wavelengths.

Yes, certainly, lights do emit different peaks and valleys while having identical color temperatures, measured in kelvins(k.. you can also use Celsius or Farenheight, though k is the typical measure used).

How well a light aligns to a black body temperature is refered to as CRI. CFLs have vastly superior CRI. That's Color Rendering Index. It's the perceptive measure of an object's color under the given light source, as compared to the same object being illuminated by the sun. A perfect CRI is 100(%).

Orange light is less ideal than red light for photosynthesis.

It takes a lot of juice(kWh) to beat the sun at its game, but it is possible.

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Man, that was beautiful!!!

MY next grow is def micro CFL, just for shits and giggles... little experience with CFL, other than for veggin early, but I am gonna give it a go for sure.... Gonna pick up some NL#2 and get it rocking... eventually!

TeaTreeOil said:

Phyco- pigments absorb red-orange and yellow-orange light, and assist in photosynthesis. 2700k CFls, as seen in one of my early posts(the 3rd one in this thread) emit peak red spectrum. They don't have more light(photons) than HPS. But they have more photons/watt in the correct wavelengths.

Yes, certainly, lights do emit different peaks and valleys while having identical color temperatures, measured in kelvins(k.. you can also use Celsius or Farenheight, though k is the typical measure used).

How well a light aligns to a black body temperature is refered to as CRI. CFLs have vastly superior CRI. That's Color Rendering Index. It's the perceptive measure of an object's color under the given light source, as compared to the same object being illuminated by the sun. A perfect CRI is 100(%).

Orange light is less ideal than red light for photosynthesis.

It takes a lot of juice(kWh) to beat the sun at its game, but it is possible.

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thx bro this was more like the answer i was looking for +rep

A 26w CFL has around a 2.5' long tube that's around 3/8" in diameter. Light is most useful when within the steradian(this is a 90* degree 3D cone).

Since the other spirals would be blocking quite a bit of light within this cone... the sides would be ideal emitters. They also overlap times the number of spirals. If your bulb was spherically spiraled then it would matter less. The U tubes & standard spiral bulbs are most certainly designed to be used on their sides.

With a good reflector it can nearly double the usable light.

For example, a crude diagram of a 4 spiral CFL is attached.

And also a potential light fixture. Basically a knock-off of a standard tube floro fixture. This kind of fixture(flat-backed, with 45 degree flanges). Take the light source and create 3 primary steradians widening the light emitted. Over 1 foot instead of the width of the bulb. For reference it's around 12"(wide at flange, 6" at base) by 4' long. Top is a side view. Bottom is looking 'up' at it, as if it were hanging.

*Edit.

TeaTreeOil said:

A 26w CFL has around a 2.5' long tube that's around 3/8" in diameter. Light is most useful when within the steradian(this is a 45 degree 3D cone).

Since the other spirals would be blocking quite a bit of light within this cone... the sides would be ideal emitters. They also overlap times the number of spirals. If your bulb was spherically spiraled then it would matter less. The U tubes & standard spiral bulbs are most certainly designed to be used on their sides.

With a good reflector it can nearly double the usable light.

For example, a crude diagram of a 4 spiral CFL is attached.

And also a potential light fixture. Basically a knock-off of a standard tube floro fixture. This kind of fixture(flat-backed, with 45 degree flanges). Take the light source and create 3 primary steradians widening the light emitted. Over 1 foot instead of the width of the bulb. For reference it's around 12"(wide at flange, 6" at base) by 4' long. Top is a side view. Bottom is looking 'up' at it, as if it were hanging.

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I'm not use to an intelligent well thought out factual answer! Seems everyone else wants to answer with "I heard that.............." or
"my buddy told me that................."

+ REP for you,

HELP!!!! Guys it's me MisturBombDiggity! This was the account I made first then decided I wanted a different name so I used my other email. Well that email was part of a record label I was with and they deleted my account for not being active(guess I spend too much time helping the med community CFL growers) and I can't get into my account to retrieve my password! My pc also had been attacked I'm having shitty times over here but I don't want to put in all my time on this name when MisturBombDiggity is well known around here... What do I do!!

I guess what I said isn't exactly all-encompassing.

If you put them vertically along the sides of plant that'd also be best. Of course that's still the sides of the bulb facing the plant.

I have a thread where basically you put four plants around a single high-watt CFL. This divides the four 90 degree total(from angle to angle). It's a 45 degree divergence from the direct line. So actually it's 90 degree cones.

My mistake. The image is correctly using 90 degree cones, though. I have corrected the original post. The radius is 45 degrees.

Mister Your fucked... Sorry... Ive been off of RIU since my cfl Harvest... yeah it went that well... but now im back for more.......................Alot of great information on Cfl... Just remember with a few things that ive been reading... using your single high watt cfl in the middle of four plants makes you have to rotate those plants atleast once a day to get the most out of the setup... With a reflector like roseman uses you can consentrate that light with more intensity and losing less potential red spectrum the plant needs for VEG!.


Smoke that shit like you grew it yourself and Peace in the middle east!

No, not at all. The idea is you place four plants in the corners of a square. You then place the light vertically in the middle of the square. Making all plants equidistant from the light source. Eliminating need for reflectors, and concentrating direct light upon those four plants in 90 degree cones.

Reflectors aren't 100% effective, so having direct light would be superior.

See example here: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/161775-220w-cfl-4x4-floor-plan.html

Superior is based on YIELD per $ INVESTED.

So not one MOD will help me out here? Kinda lame when I am willing to donate money to the site.....