Flowering with CFL's????

i am wondering if it would be ok to pretty much use cfls throughout the whole process? and if so will the harvest be massively lessened, than it would be if i used some other kind of light? also what is really the difference between tube flourescants, and compact flourescants, cfls. is one better?

anyone??? anything???

so far from what ive heard on here CFL's are better, i am using flouro tubes right now but was reccommended to get cfl's and i am today.

ok lets look at tubes for a minute the avarage 4' tube puts out 1250-1600 lumens that is distributed through out the 4' lenth of the bulb and consume 40 w an hour Now lets look at CFL's they put out (13 watters) 650 lumens while using only 13 watts an hour. The light is directed from a small source 1 1/2 inches or so. Now look at the energy that if you combine two 13w cfls for a 26 watt draw with the same amount of lumens (close anyway) The energy saving would is worth the cost of theese bulbs.

How many 4' tubes could you fit into your space. You can use alot more cfl's in the four feet of space that the tube would of taken and have a shit load more light.

They do work for flowering however they are a very weak lighting source compaired to HID.

Floro's will and do produce buds however the buds will be small and looser than those grown with a Sodium Vapor or Metal Halide. If you insist on using floros you can grow some real nice green with compact floro's (CFL) or T5's. T12 floro's just dont cut it for great buds. You can use T5 tubes and get great results, but if you are thinking about costs for growing lighting can be an issue and the most for your money you can get is out of a metal halide system. It would take 42 40 watt t12 floro's to produce the same amount of light 1 400 Metal Halide bulb produces. T5's you would need ten 54 Watt bulbs. 5 compact floro's 125 watts would produce the same as one metal halide as well. So if you really want good buds and save money doing it invest in good lighting.

Here is a good web page to compare lighting: ACF Indoor Plant Grow Light Information Guide

CFLs can be used for an entire grow... with great results...

Until I followed the link to littlegreenhouse.com I thought the CFL's were the spiral flourescent light bulbs that fit into a standard light socket and can be picked up in the grocery store, Walmart, ect. As long as I have enough lumens for the grow space, do these lights have the right light spectrum to grow and flower plants?

onedge said:

Until I followed the link to littlegreenhouse.com I thought the CFL's were the spiral flourescent light bulbs that fit into a standard light socket

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those are CFLs

Ok, cool. I was worried because the CFL's on the website were different.

http://www.nurturelite.com/, see this link if it works

CFLs can be used for the whole growing process. I have done several grows with CFLs with good results. The top buds always grow nice and tight. But because CFLs dont penetrate as well as HID the bottom buds can be a bit loose.

I've broken all the rules and still come up with a harvest. BUT dont be fooled HID still rules for growing indoors. But of space and heat are an issue CFLs are a valid alternative.

i think they could have alot of use as a sea of green light, becuase like you said its only the top buds that develop.

bottom line yes cfl's work. There are better things out there to use (HPS), and there are worse.(LED). All of these are opinions though, i don't need the CFL crew kicking and screaming.

underphire is right, and i am a cfl grower (for now). the fact is that most cfl grows, if given the choice, would choose a free hps system over a cfl system any day but cfls will work. 6500k for vegging, 2700k for flowering and you can't have enough lights at the right temp.

and i wouldn't use cfl for a SOG. the light doesn't penetrate well with cfl like it does hps, i would suggest LST isntead. LST keeps the height of the plant controlled which makes space to be covered by light, and it also shows more bud pointing towards the light. just my ideas.

go to waslmart they got the two foot floro grow lights in hardware section they are t8 full spectrum great light for ten bux

if i were to use CFL's for the whole process, would the buds become nippers or would it actually be decent (obviously not insano probably). i dont really care about the yield although i would like it to be big obviously, im more interested in the bud quality. can anyone help?

although i havent grown with CFL's before, my understanding is that as long as you have a lot of CFL's you can get pretty nice buds, its just the grow will take longer and most probebly wont yield as much as you would with a better set of lights (HPS) but if you dont want to splash out CFL's will do the job as long as you got loads of them.

i dont really know how your gonna say the 4' tubes only put out 1500 mine put out 3500 i use t12

Garden Knowm said:

CFLs can be used for an entire grow... with great results...

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i pulled 2.2 O off 2 24" tall plants using 3 6500k cfls for 3 weeks, them flowered with 6 26w 2700k like 2 inches away.amazing smoke and didnt cost me hardly anything

exactly what wattage cfl will i need for just one plant in a 8' long by 2' wide growing space(like harry potters room under the stairs. any advice will not fall on deaf ears. THANX!!