Lighting question

Would a full spectrum 125w cfl (7,000 Lumens – 6400 Kelvin) as well as 4 26w cfl (1800 lumens) be enough for 2-3 plants?

How big of a space? How big do you plan to let the plants get? Some many variables.

229 Watts CFL=14,000 lumens

400W HPS = 50,000 lumens

Not that plants grow off of Lumens, but I generally try to persuade people from thinking they are gonna grow anything worthwhile off of CFL's. CFL is good for vegging, but severely lacking in flower compared to HPS.

Nothing beats HPS when it comes to flowering. Some people might say LED's are good, but you won't see any gains over HPS and you will spend 5-10x as much.

johnholmesyo said:

Would a full spectrum 125w cfl (7,000 Lumens – 6400 Kelvin) as well as 4 26w cfl (1800 lumens) be enough for 2-3 plants?

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Home Depot sells Cree LED (<<link) replacement lightbulbs (A19, but not the plastic "4-Flow" variation they recently introduced). The 60w equiv (9.5w actual) is 84 lumens per watt compared to the CFLs you mention which is 56-69 lumens/w.

If you want to use fewer bulbs, there are Cree A19 100w equiv (18w actual). Also a Cree PAR38 (spot or flood) 90w equiv (18w actual) at 83 lumens/w.

There are better (more efficient) LED options. But, these will grow well and are better than CFL (less heat, 10-year warranty, incremental buy-in, scalable, flexible coverage, etc.). I used 4 to supplement an 85w (actual) UFO and got 1.26 grams per watt.

There are less expensive LED lightbulbs available from AliExpress. If you scroll to the bottom of this page (<<link) you'll find information about them. They have about 102 lumens/w. I think the Cree A19 does too, it's just that the frosted diffusion globe reduces the lumens. A tradeoff between softer, diffuse light (coverage) and stronger, penetrating light.

az2000 said:

Home Depot sells Cree LED (<<link) replacement lightbulbs (A19, but not the plastic "4-Flow" variation they recently introduced). The 60w equiv (9.5w actual) is 84 lumens per watt compared to the CFLs you mention which is 56-69 lumens/w.

If you want to use fewer bulbs, there are Cree A19 100w equiv (18w actual). Also a Cree PAR38 (spot or flood) 90w equiv (18w actual) at 83 lumens/w.

There are better (more efficient) LED options. But, these will grow well and are better than CFL (less heat, 10-year warranty, incremental buy-in, scalable, flexible coverage, etc.). I used 4 to supplement an 85w (actual) UFO and got 1.26 grams per watt.

There are less expensive LED lightbulbs available from AliExpress. If you scroll to the bottom of this page (<<link) you'll find information about them. They have about 102 lumens/w. I think the Cree A19 does too, it's just that the frosted diffusion globe reduces the lumens. A tradeoff between softer, diffuse light (coverage) and stronger, penetrating light.

Click to expand...

Ill go with the LED, my space is a 4x4x6 but I have a platform that cuts in it half for vegging. Also going ScrOG method