MH vs. CFL & Nutes vs No Nutes

So on 9-14 I've started an experiment with CFL's to MH for seedling/veg cycle to see what would work best for me. I took 4 plants out of 11 and put them under MH at 16 days old. All plants are virtually at the same humidity and temperature.

Here's the specs for the different lighting.
A-E - 18 CFL's 6500k/1600lum/26w = 28800 lumens over about 8cuft. so
3600 lum sqft. CFL's
F-I - 1 1000w Sunmaster Cool MH rated 80000 lumens over about 16 ft so..
5000 lum sqft. MH lighting

Here are the plants before the switch (16 days old)


After 8 days in their respective CFL or MH placement (24 days old)

The one in front is from the CFL's
View attachment 1800747View attachment 1800748

Take what you want from this, totally different growth pattern. I think I'm going to be using CFL's for all of my Vegging, and stick to the HID lights for Flower

Just as an experiment I fed no nutes to a few of the girls (I have too many plants) just to see the difference, Here she is in front.


Just thought it may help someone else in deciding their veg lighting choices

Very cool man.

I like seeing experiments like this. It gives you a better idea of what works better.

Very nice. As i sit here tokin on this midgrade BS contemplating the lighting choice for my WW and AFgKush seedlings you have convinced me to stick to what I know. I used (2) 2' T5s for veg on my first grow for 6 plants in DWC and had pretty good results. The cab Im working on now will have (2) 2' T5s for side lighting(due to cab width&length issues) and 6 6500k cfls for 6 plants in veg in DWC. The only question I have is what is the best amont of cfl for 3 mothers ,intended for a perpetual grow, in an area of 14.5"wide,20"deep, and 37.5"high? Any and all advice would be very much appreciated as I have been and still working my way through all of this beautiful information within this site.