Lighting problems!!!! Please advise asap!!!!

Currently have 4 plants strain - CRYSTAL- nirvana brand. plants are apx 24 inches in height. They were started outdoors and have been recently moved indoors under CFL lighting. Here is the problem. I am using 4 23watt 6500 K cfls. It appears that the plants are not responding well to the lighting. Any opinions of CFL lighting????? is this enough wattage? is the kelvin wrong?

I am considering using the old school long florescent tubes. Is this a winner as far as lighting for a small grow??? HP sodium IS NOT AN OPTION!!!! any advice PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Phillip J Fry

Active Member
High output fluorescent bulbs work good to veg with but idk about flowering with them. The plants had infinity times the amount of light outside as they will inside and are gonna take time to adjust.
 
Ok thank you but that doesnt really help. Will 4 23watt CFLS @ 6500k be enough to grow big dense buds for 4 plants??????????????? or do i need to change my lighting system????
 

somedude247

Well-Known Member
See if you can find some cfl's around 2700k. Thats better for flowering.The old t12 are good for veg, but the very first plant I ever grew indoors was under several of those fixtures and it looked good, but the bud didnt have any density. A bud as big as your thumb would barely make a bowl!! And no, NOT even close enough light for 4 plants. If you cant do hps, a good LED would be best, but you will need to be able to spend at least $500. Dont bother with ufo's though. You would need one per plant. I think anything around 180w-300w would do you good. But research your ass off if you are even considering it. I have my preference, but most on here think others are better.
 

Eviljay

Member
No, you're not gonna get any qty or quality of bud growing 4 2'+ plants under 100Ws of cfl. Just not gonna happen. Period
 

DST

Well-Known Member
Unfortunately I have to agree with Evil up there, you need more light.

If you are in veg you need a few: 4000/4100k and a few 6500k, for flower the 2700k range is better. I would aim for around 20000 lumens to get a yield.

Peace,

DST
 
ok well in that case I will buy a HPS kit for the plants. Will 1 HPS 400 watt or 600 watt system be enough for 4 plants???? and if yes is the HPS good for both vegg and Flowering????? because I know it takes 6500k for vegg & 2700K for flowers. is HPS good for both? advice on setup???
 

somedude247

Well-Known Member
I have both and prefer my 600w Quantum. Lumatek is just as good. I also have a Galaxy and saw a noticable difference in brightness just switching to the Quantum. 400w will work, but for only 200 watts, you get twice as many lumens. I also just recently started to use a verticle setup as apossed to having a hood and so far it works better for coverage. How big is your room? If its 4x4 or bigger it will work, but a smaller room will benefit better wit a hod, but it traps more heat. Gonna need lots of air moving.
 

lostNug

Well-Known Member
No that is not enought light for 4 plants. Definetly wont be getting dense nugs with those. Either remove 3 plants or get a bunch more cfls.

Edit: if ur willing to upgrade to hid lighting id recommend you go with a 330w phillips retro ceramic metal halide bulb with an hps ballast. It provided all spectrums for veg and flower and runs much cooler then all other bulbs. I just put in a cmh for the first time in my mini grow and the temps dropped by 5 degrees compared to the reg 400w mh bulb. (Cmh is metal halide and hps in one bulb). If u wanna see pics click on the link in my sig

Check out www.advancedtechlighting.com. if u got questions email their tech guy thomas and hell giive u lots of useful information (if link doesn't work just google advanced tech lightin cmh)

Cmh is the way to go cuz u get both metal halide, hps, use veg n flower, lower temps, and save u money on the electric bill. doesn't get any better then that. And the bulbs aren't any more expensive then reg ones
 

espoker19

Active Member
I had a 600 watt HPS i used all the way through, it had a special blue gas in it or some shit that added to the blue spectrum. It was a beautiful light, but for stealth reasons I switched to an LED... doin a grow right now with two 3 foot tall bagseed females in flower, so far so good. But I paid an arm and a leg for the light, if you can go with HPS I would say a 600 watter with 4 plants should be good if they are crowded close together and trained, but full size plants with any space in between em ur prolly lookin a 2-3 plants for your biggest bud.
 
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