How Many Cfls For 2 Plants?

Well, about an inch away the soil stays very humid. and moist. The lights r a bit hot to the touch. i cant hold my fingers on the for more then like 3-5 seconds. but They dont seem to give off much heat. Which is good.

I am using metal hoods on my CFL's with a fan that keeps everything cool, these are very lame plants that were stunted because I had no idea what I was doing, but they are 2x23 watts 1500 lum daylights, 2x15 watt GROW tube fluorescents, and the big 2600 lumen 40 watt 'indoor/interior' yellow bulb. The tubes are on pots to be up near these poor girls leaves, the others are in metal hoods and the fan is in back. I have no problems with the heat doing this with the metal hoods which I can't stress enough really really focus the light and the plants aren't being hurt by it (they are actually vastly improving); almost all of their lives these plants had only the tubes and not the CFL's so they are very stunted - I am hoping for much, much better next time.

I can really tell the difference by removing the hoods, the rest of the room gets totally lit up and there is so much wasted light rafting up into the darkness of the 11' or so ceiling, and with the hoods on there is this super bright orb of glow right around the plants.

Note: the big 40 watt CFL is turned OFF in this picture... that's how much light there is in that little spot, enough that the other bulb glows when off... the picture from my crappy camera wouldn't take with the light on.

I am going to start some Top 44 soon, and I am praying for good results with 2 females... I am going to slowly ramp the lights up from seed and try germinating with vermiculite to really give them a boost coming up and use the swing setup (which the two tubes can mount and unmount horizontally onto the bottom of) I think I can keep the focused, hooded lights within 1" or closer after they have a tiny bit of meat... the hoods are aluminum and have holes around them for air flow, adding the actual dedicated airflow makes them super cool (you can stick your fingers right into the base of the big CFL between the bulb and the metal hood and it's cool) and seems to protect the plants from the already cool CFL light...

I am running pretty low on light I know, but I plan to do everything I can to help them out,
Sprout in vermiculite
Extra CO2
miracle grow potting soil
15/30/15 miracle grow 'bloom' mix (for after 3rd week)
Very adjustable lights (and plenty of time to spend adjusting them)
extremely fast-moving, low growing and hearty breed

I really think that those using CFL's should do everything else possible to help the plants out, so I am stacking up the tricks and builing my grow room slowly but surely. I like to post here just to organize my thoughts and see if anyone responds or has anything to add that might help me out, and I thought this thread was a good place as I am planning a '2 mother SOG' op similar to what you presented with very minimal lighting... (going to try to divide the nursery off this weekend!)

Becoming like a part time job that I love... lol

Will post results, trust me

How far away are those lights. CFLs get pretty hot 2 the touch. But, they dont give off much heat. You'd be wise to keep them about an inch away, The regular bulbs anyways. im not sure about the tube, probably not just because of the high lumens rating, i have 5 set up, 2 onto of my plants and 3 on 3 sides, there all 23 watt cfl's at 1600 lumens a peice.

Skitzotic said:

How far away are those lights. CFLs get pretty hot 2 the touch. But, they dont give off much heat. You'd be wise to keep them about an inch away, The regular bulbs anyways. im not sure about the tube, probably not just because of the high lumens rating, i have 5 set up, 2 onto of my plants and 3 on 3 sides, there all 23 watt cfl's at 1600 lumens a peice.

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Heh, I did a lot of editing sorry maybe I answered your question, they are about 1-4ish inches away but what I went for more than distance to the end of the bulb from the plant, was instead to adjust them so that the light was as efficiently focused onto the surface area of the plant as possible. Some of the leaves of one plant (a tiny bit) are touching the hood and it's cool to the touch so it doesn't hurt the plant...

I would really like to know if anyone else has had good results with hoods on CFL's and cooling...

Another edit, presumably, if you could keep it cool, couldn't you just grow the plant INTO the light itself? Train it with wire or something? Just have the bulb nearly in contact with the leaf and a method for cooling in place, forcing the plant to grow into the bulb but letting the plants natural aversion to too much guide it otherwise? hrmm....

I burned some tips of my plants leaves one day with some cfl's. but just the very tips. not too bad.

oh but the cola hasn't really opened up really because I think its too hot and the lights are too close. But I can't do anything about it because I'm stretched as far as I can vertically. oh well its the last week. its whatever.

Hmm, if u had a cool enough bulb of some sort, i dunno what kind, i only have been usng CFL's . But, mine are just getting first leaves, and i have of them about an inch away from 4 plants at the moment, there all still tiny though. The 2 lights are in a reflective aquarium covering. And they seem to be loving it at an inch away.

Skitzotic said:

Hmm, if u had a cool enough bulb of some sort, i dunno what kind, i only have been usng CFL's . But, mine are just getting first leaves, and i have of them about an inch away from 4 plants at the moment, there all still tiny though. The 2 lights are in a reflective aquarium covering. And they seem to be loving it at an inch away.

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That is a really good housing for those, I used to do aquariums back in the day (which gives me ideas for a mico-dro setup now, to do in addition to soil) and they are made for the job for sure... I wonder what the right balance between diffuse and smooth reflectivity is for maximum photon travel or if there is no way to avoid a specular horizon (lol) but I digress, do you have two seperate rooms? Do you try to share lighting between them at all?

Any tips on more permanently stationed lights for mother plants? Have you found you need to turn the plants around alot using CFL? Some of my leaves have weird ridges near the bases, like they got stretched back and forth when growing (oh well more surface area). It seems that the sodium lights guys dont really need to move their plants around at all.

I have been turning them quite a bit, every few hours or so, Just to make them grow up as straight as possible. And i only have one room, With 2 compartments in my dresser, One on top and other on bottom. im keeping them ontop for the time being , The aquarium top is tied up with string to hang an inch above, or atleast roughly. After they start to get big i am going 2 take the top part right out and start growing from the bottom part. And with the string i left enough extra to make it very adjustable. And i am gonna do the same wth the other 3 lights im putting in. And also, tomarrow i am going 2 line the whole thing with mylar. The bulbs r all 23 watt energy saving CFL's, tho coily shaped kind.

Skitzotic said:

I have been turning them quite a bit, every few hours or so, Just to make them grow up as straight as possible. And i only have one room, With 2 compartments in my dresser, One on top and other on bottom. im keeping them ontop for the time being , The aquarium top is tied up with string to hang an inch above, or atleast roughly. After they start to get big i am going 2 take the top part right out and start growing from the bottom part. And with the string i left enough extra to make it very adjustable. And i am gonna do the same wth the other 3 lights im putting in. And also, tomarrow i am going 2 line the whole thing with mylar. The bulbs r all 23 watt energy saving CFL's, tho coily shaped kind.

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I love the DIY stuff and cabinets but I just so happen to have the perfect massive out of the way sealed up with foam painted flat white closet to grow in and I can't just ignore that Makes me jealous though, I'd really like to see the rigging that you used for the lights... using a T bar was the stupidest thing I've ever made and I know better so I'm going to add another piece of wood so the thing will hang square... it is awesome for clipping those hooded fixtures to though, you can put them wherever you want.

entropic said:

You can't compare it that way.

23w CFL = 1600 lumens = 69.6 lumens/watt
70w HPS = 8000 lumens = 114.3 lumens/watt

Also light intensity decays according to the inverse square law, here's the forumla:
Inverse Square Law: Brightness at distance A = (brightness at distance B) × [(distance B)/(distance A)]2. Position (B) is the reference position.

A lamp that puts out 1000 lumens at 1ft puts out 1000 * (1/2^2) = 1000 * 1/4 = 250 lumens
At 3 feet that same lamp puts out 1000 * (1/3^2) = 1000 * (1/9) = 111.1 lumens

CFL's produce more heat than HPS but disperse it over a wider area.
HPS have better canopy penetration.
HPS are more efficient.
HPS produce more PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) than CFLs.

So summing up, 23w CFL ≠ 100w worth of light, it's 23 watts. At 1600 lumens a piece and 115w total that's 8000 lumens. You're fine with the light for the vegetative state, but come flowering time I'd add at least a 70w HPS but a 150w one would be better and they don't cost much more. You'll be more than pleased you bought one when harvest time comes. With 8000 lumens from the CFLs and another 16000 from a 150w HPS you'll see a major difference in flowering and a gigantic difference in harvest.

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This was extremely helpful thank you. Can you recommend a place to buy it/which one to buy? Blue spectrum? (linky? )

cool good stuff on this post man right on thanks

With the HPS ballast you could buy an equal wattage MH bulb for $10 (150w) and run it in the ballast You'll be basking in 15000+ lumens of beautiful blue-tinged light.

ebay it, you can usually find some good stuff on ebay for cheap. Also htg supply (google it) is what everyone I hear references. I need an hps

...live in a place where there is no power bill because it's paid for the tenants... which is why I went CFL to begin with.

I saw somewhere a formula for checking to see how much juice your lights are costing but I can't find it again...

What do you think the best combination of lighting would be for a total useage of 150 watts of power or less? I just don't want it to go noticed... lots of people (well, just the landlord I guess) to slip the power bill past and I want it to be practically invisible. I have considered using multiple light-timers to stagger them in random 15 minute intervals too... my problem is that I just don't know how much I can get away with. I have been going super easy on the rest of the power since I started; maybe that helps some.

Any thoughts? Any of you extremely concerned about power?

Im using -4 -soon to be- 5- 23 watt cfl's there working good, and not running up the bill because they save so much energy, all together thats over 100 watts, So depending on what you have your probably all set, and it might be a good idea to make sure u dont use other light in your appt. when you dont need them. and stuff like that. that would definatley help

i got a 26wt cfl on two 7 1/2 inch plants. when will i have 2 change da light? do i need another cfl or should i go LED?

goodgreen said:

i got a 26wt cfl on two 7 1/2 inch plants. when will i have 2 change da light? do i need another cfl or should i go LED?

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Goodgreen: if that is all that you have on those plants you will definately need more, my experience starting out alone with little info was with 2x15 watt 'grow' tubes as you can see above and that was it - total lumens about the same as one 26 watt CFL and it wasn't nearly enough - you will very shortly need at least 3 more of those bulbs for those 2 plants and there are pics around of guys with 8 or 10 of those small bulbs on 2 - 3 plants. What really messed me up was that my tiny seedling seemed to be doing OK with so little light, but when they became adults it wasn't nearly enough - don't be deceived!

I am strongly considering one of these for my flowering room (scroll down to the 125w CFL)
Discount CFL Compact Fluorescent Grow Lights for Plants from ACF Greenhouses

You can get the light for 50 bucks and the hood/socket for 50 bucks so 100 dollars for what may turn out to be enough flower power for 2' x 2' as they state.... may just be perfect for the power conscious closet grow... it gives just as many lumens per watt as MH and you need something with a tad more bang for flowering but in a smaller space CFL might perform.

I am going to go 'sea of green' from clones (already got my rooting powder) and I think 2 of those would work great... (2 of them are 19,000 lumens of daylight - you can buy them red shift or blue shift)

Oh yeah I spent all day today at the hardware store, screwed together almost the whole frame for my divider and stapled the plastic to it, have to go back tomorrow and get just a few more things and I will have a flowering room! Only concern is the door closes onto both halves, going to have to get a door strip or something for that side of it... maybe just loosely pile the plastic so it fills the gap when closed.

The pic shows the frame with the removable inside section in front and the black plastic covering the bottom portion (top isnt done) and the door itself. The frame is basically designed to sit inside of a closet with it's very top (shelf resting on top of the actual closet top shelf for support with a removable inside section which I plan to put on hinges. When done will sit about 8" higher than shown)

Looking back on my day today I realize that indeed, Mr. Leery was correct, and the only thing that pot 'leads to' is carpentry. I am actually more active and feeling better about myself than I have in a long time because of this and I am saddened that I would be condemned for it.

Regardless of how this all turns out, I have found a taste for Botany that I did not know that I had...