Light Info for the Rookie - CFL

can you grow well with LED

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peracho

peracho

Active Member
Trying for the first time to grow a few plants. Read as much as possibly could for CFL growing . I have found a consensus that says 40-42 W is needed for each plant.
Want to know if the CFL's the I have, that say 13W equals 60w is the 40 -42w per planted needed. Or do I get 3 CFL 13w to equal the 40 that I need?

any and all advice is GREATLY appreciated.
 
Mount

Mount

Well-Known Member
peracho said:
LOL thanks for the link. More knowledge is good! still not totally clear on the W situation as it says 13 w = 60W. what do I go by the 13 or the 60?
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by the 13.... not the 60...the link suggests CFL watts and lumens not the equivalent.
 
Big smo

Big smo

Well-Known Member
peracho said:
LOL thanks for the link. More knowledge is good! still not totally clear on the W situation as it says 13 w = 60W. what do I go by the 13 or the 60?
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A plant will thrive under 600watts of Hps, as far as cfl's go either number means you'll need a shit ton of bulbs. To answer your question Mount is correct, go by the actual not the equivalent. Same goes with most leds unless they are super efficient. Most less expensive led companies use poor diodes and their claims are bs. Again go by wall wattage there too.
 
peracho

peracho

Active Member
Perfect !! just what I wanted to know. Thanks Big smo! much appreciated

UOTE="Big smo, post: 12663307, member: 927153"]A plant will thrive under 600watts of Hps, as far as cfl's go either number means you'll need a shit ton of bulbs. To answer your question Mount is correct, go by the actual not the equivalent. Same goes with most leds unless they are super efficient. Most less expensive led companies use poor diodes and their claims are bs. Again go by wall wattage there too.[/QUOTE
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
CFL's will grow plants just fine,, the problems most run into are this,, excessive cost,, by the time you purchase 20 or 30 bulbs and all the sockets and all the cords,, then the HEAT is a really big issue on top of that
if you grow box is small,, shoot a 250 watt HPS or mH will do great, a 400 watter MH / HPS combo is cheap on ebay and amazon,, like 100 bucks for everything,
if your going with LED i would stay away from the "blurple" lights,, but thats just me
 
Big smo

Big smo

Well-Known Member
Not sure the efficiency of cfl's but most hps is around 20-25% if heat is a concern going with cobs or ceramic metal halide is the best option. Cree 3070 cobs are close to 50% and the ceramic metal halide by sunsystem and hydrofarm are 43% efficient. Those numbers save you on heating costs and also give your plants alot more usable watts. I just picked up my second cmh315 this week and these things are pretty amazing. 350$ too!! I'm also running 16 cobs and Cree monos that surround the cobs. Wattage wise my room just became visible from space lol! I'm running 3 of the Amare se-450's I got on a 4-20 sale and haven't looked back since. Beautiful lights and a great warranty too. As far as cfl cost goes Tim Foxks right but it's also the easiest to expand.


There is a thread here called just got my ge brightsticks. They are running regular e-27 screw in leds with a modified reflector and seem to be doing pretty well. I think the diodes turn out to be 1w each which is pretty decent considering a cheap bulb.

Passed this big bitch on the way to work this morning. Yuck! Good luck with your lights man. Feel free to keep the thread going. Oh and the turtle has nothing to do with lighting choices either.
image.jpeg
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Big smo said:
Not sure the efficiency of cfl's but most hps is around 20-25% if heat is a concern going with cobs or ceramic metal halide is the best option. Cree 3070 cobs are close to 50% and the ceramic metal halide by sunsystem and hydrofarm are 43% efficient. Those numbers save you on heating costs and also give your plants alot more usable watts. I just picked up my second cmh315 this week and these things are pretty amazing. 350$ too!! I'm also running 16 cobs and Cree monos that surround the cobs. Wattage wise my room just became visible from space lol! I'm running 3 of the Amare se-450's I got on a 4-20 sale and haven't looked back since. Beautiful lights and a great warranty too. As far as cfl cost goes Tim Foxks right but it's also the easiest to expand.


There is a thread here called just got my ge brightsticks. They are running regular e-27 screw in leds with a modified reflector and seem to be doing pretty well. I think the diodes turn out to be 1w each which is pretty decent considering a cheap bulb.

Passed this big bitch on the way to work this morning. Yuck! Good luck with your lights man. Feel free to keep the thread going. Oh and the turtle has nothing to do with lighting choices either.
View attachment 3701615
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That's the mak'ins of a mighty fine dinner there boy!

CFL's = ya'alls funny!
 
peracho

peracho

Active Member
WOW just what I was looking for signing up on this site. Good information and pics of turtles lol.

I'm starting small and working from there.

Expert is only someone who's made all the mistakes. Just trying to bypass any if I can though
 
Big smo

Big smo

Well-Known Member
Doing my best to give everyone a laugh. U can go balls deep and regret it or be patient and do things the easy way. I'm a balls deep kinda guy. My wife likes that mentality but my wallet doesn't.

You can nute burn the shit out of plants or over water under the best lights on the market. I think a bigger yield would come from a perfect grow with less intense lighting than a rookie grow and super lights. Catch my drift? I had super lights and ruined my plants that's why I say this.

Anyways I would consider some t5's as well and maybe some of the wave point bulbs from Amazon. Different spectrums, red, yellow, blue and purple bulbs available. These can always be used for veg in the future too.
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Big smo said:
More of a man than I am. Those fuckers scare me
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Grab the tail and they can't reach you.
Grab the back of the shell like a paint, and risk loosing fingers!

Trap them, put in a small kiddie pool to "flush" their systems out (hey, I do 'flush" something besides turds). Remove heads and age them for a day or 2 and then clean'em.....Yummm
 
W

wilson68

Member
Big smo said:
Doing my best to give everyone a laugh. U can go balls deep and regret it or be patient and do things the easy way. I'm a balls deep kinda guy. My wife likes that mentality but my wallet doesn't.

You can nute burn the shit out of plants or over water under the best lights on the market. I think a bigger yield would come from a perfect grow with less intense lighting than a rookie grow and super lights. Catch my drift? I had super lights and ruined my plants that's why I say this.

Anyways I would consider some t5's as well and maybe some of the wave point bulbs from Amazon. Different spectrums, red, yellow, blue and purple bulbs available. These can always be used for veg in the future too.
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Good info in that link.

I was reading a journal right here a couple days ago that was just like what you said. Ambition outpaced knowledge and preparedness and the guy ruined 3 good plants.

I'm running a 2ft, 2-bulb T5 and one plant is growing just fine. I know I'm not gonna get epic harvests from my little 110watts but it's a good way to start. Just started my journal here...
 
Big smo

Big smo

Well-Known Member
wilson68 said:
Good info in that link.

I was reading a journal right here a couple days ago that was just like what you said. Ambition outpaced knowledge and preparedness and the guy ruined 3 good plants.

I'm running a 2ft, 2-bulb T5 and one plant is growing just fine. I know I'm not gonna get epic harvests from my little 110watts but it's a good way to start. Just started my journal here...
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Awesome man, best of luck to you in the Grow. I know that a lot of this information flooded in the forums but this is my take on the best and easiest way to grow autos. Some people go through a 12 step process just to germinate their seeds. There is just so much that you can do differently and I don't think it's all necessary. I nearly ruined my first grow because I didn't fully understand organic nutrients. I also added flower nutrients way too soon which forced my plants inti premature flowering and i lost half my fan leaves.

If you want to upgrade lighting eventually i would either go with a ceramic metal halide and purchase both the flowering and veg bulbs or go with cobs which typically run a higher efficiency. Amare tech is coming out with some new lights and they are priced very well. If you go led just be careful because so many companies lie and if they don't list what's in their light it's probably cheap and will perform poorly.
 
W

wilson68

Member
Big smo said:
Awesome man, best of luck to you in the Grow. I know that a lot of this information flooded in the forums but this is my take on the best and easiest way to grow autos. Some people go through a 12 step process just to germinate their seeds. There is just so much that you can do differently and I don't think it's all necessary. I nearly ruined my first grow because I didn't fully understand organic nutrients. I also added flower nutrients way too soon which forced my plants inti premature flowering and i lost half my fan leaves.

If you want to upgrade lighting eventually i would either go with a ceramic metal halide and purchase both the flowering and veg bulbs or go with cobs which typically run a higher efficiency. Amare tech is coming out with some new lights and they are priced very well. If you go led just be careful because so many companies lie and if they don't list what's in their light it's probably cheap and will perform poorly.
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Thanks! I agree about being complicated. So many ways to do almost everything involved. I like to keep it simple, at least at the start, and expand from there. When I look at journals and all the different ways to do this I am reminded of the saying that is commonly applied to assault rifle culture. That is "barbie for men." Growing is "barbie for tokers." LOL.

I'm always thinking of potentially upgrading my lights. I know I didn't buy much light but I'm kind of in a tough spot right now because my tent is only 5 feet tall. I fear that I won't be able to get a high-heat lamp far enough away from the plants. I was really drawn to the T5s because of the low draw and low heat. It gets hot here; easily over 105F in summer and high draw lights coupled with the hot weather and it turns into a nightmare of energy costs. Or at least that's the impression I have.

I'm flipping to flower next week so I guess that will tell the tale. I did have a question about these forums. Maybe I'm just being blind but I can't find where I setup a signature. Is there some post number requirement or something to have a sig?

Thanks for reading. Have a good one!
 
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