Question bout flourescents..

I have 2 20 W Flourescent tubes on my plants...
(Check the link in my sig for a visual)
Someone told me keep it about 2 inches from the plants & sum1 else told me keep them higher & that will get them to grow taller to get more light.

Can someone help me out? lol

it is true that the plants will grow to the lights. but, you shouldn't raise them too much, or you will cause them to over stretch, so be careful

I can't believe I found someone on here that admits to growing with fluros that being said I too have a lot of experience with them. First you don't want your plants too tall so keep them as close as you can with out them touching the light. I do 40 watt. and if you can, get a gro lux bulb from Wal mart. That way they get bushy and green. You really don't want them to get to tall to fast. You will have to keep moving the light up or them down because they will grow up anyway, just not as thin and lanky. You want a nice fat leaf. Good luck to you!

thanks
nd yea i am using them lol its cuz its jus alil closet space for 2 plants so im not gunna spend alotta $ on lights till i expand

can yu give me alil more info on the Gro Lux?

It's just a gro bulb gives off a purple kind of hue the plants love it. Just bought some tonight and it's about 7 bucks. Fit's right in your fixture, no problem. I started a lot of my grows back in the day with shop lights, you can achieve a great crop without spending a lot of money. Try it they'll like it! Happy growing

it'll fit in a 2ft flourescent fixture?

grow lux come in all different lengths, from 12 inch upto 3 / 4 foot and longer

the longer the tube the more Watts so a 24" tube around 18-30w maybe more

Tamzi

yeah, its not a good idea to keep them to far away as your plants will stretch with hardly any leaves, all stem. I grow with floros about a foot or so above my ladies, but I have cfls hanging about 2 inches above them. i use those work lights for my cfls. I take them apart and just use the cord and socket letting them hang over the top of my 4 ' floro. I use duct tape to tape the cords for the specific height of my cfls. it seems to be working pretty good. im not even using 300 watts and my girls are coming along just fine. floros or cfls or both are the way to go if on a budget. you might not have the biggest yeild but they get the job done. it would be cool to see some pics also... good luck..

oops, I just noticed you have pics.. going to check them out now...

I use two fixture of two 24" fluoros. One of mine touches the bulbs but doesn't get burnt.

thanks to all of you
i love this forum everyone has been a big help
imma check out those lights tonight
check my grow journal in my signature from time to time to see how they are comin
thanks again averyone!

the closer you have the light to your plant it will grow out words , if you move your light up some it will grow taller to reach the light so if you have your light realy close it will stop growing taller and grow new branches

If thats true, and thats what I'm hoping. Thats the idea.

so like 3 inches away? 4?

No like as close as possible, they aren't hot,just maybe the end might be hot but I have never had one burn from them. I keep the plant CLOSE like 1"to 2". In my opinion it's way easier to place the light high then put the plant up there, then just keep moving the plant down as it grows, it's easier than moving the light away from the plant. Trust me in this, you will get big fat leaves and more growth this way. It's true

If you have a thermometer, try to determine the leaf temperature when the lights are active after 30 minutes or so. If the leaf temp is too high (i.e. over 85), then you may want to back off your lights or consider getting a fan (an oscillating fan is nice, and is also good for the ladies posture and stem strength.).

Another thing you may want to consider is using mylar to essentially expand your reflector to provide a larger coverage and reflectance to enhance the luminal intensity the plants get. You can create sort of a dome that would ideally act as a parabolic dish reflector. I did a shitty job myself yesterday but the results are pretty good still. I can't even look into the light, it's that blinding. You can check it out here :





There is another good pic here: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/105822-ak47-cfl-grow.html

here is a rule of thumb and a tip.

take your nice clean hand, place under bulb and move hand towards it. as you get closer too the light you will feel the warmth.

now you want the back of your hand too feel warm but not uncomfy. this tends too be around 1 inch -2 inch away maybe more depending on the wattage of bulb. you dont want plants growing sky high you will notice this as a long stem, then leaves. the seedling will look top heavy.

ideal looking seedling will be a short stubby plant with alotta green growth. if you notice seedlings stretching they are warning you light needs too be closer. so long as the plant does NOT touch bulbs they will be fine.

so if hand burns under lights they too close. if plant looks like a long leggy lady you need too drop the lights a little. and yes as your plants grow the more light they will require.


Tamzi

sakeser, what the hell is that on your cfls?

sakeser said:

Click to expand...

remove that Mylar and drop those lights down a little, use mylar on internal of your cab. if you want a sunshade pop over too the D.I.Y section there is a great tutorial on making a reflector for CFL bulbs.

Tamzi

Chumlie said:

sakeser, what the hell is that on your cfls?

Click to expand...

They're mylar sheets wrapped in a sort of cone shape to act as reflectors. It's more effective than having only mylar lining the cabinet, in my opinion.

All I know is, after I added the mylar cone, I could not even look into at the bulb it was so blindingly bright.

I'm thinking about doing a better job of it though and using plastic cups lined with mylar. We'll see how lazy I am today.