Whats a cheap cfl lamp that will allow me to finish one plant from seed to bud?

I want to start a plant from start to bud but dont know what the minimum watts should be. Recomandations on a lamp would be nice. Thanks. KC

How much can you spend for lighting? You can't answer as cheap as possible either. Give a figure and if you give your location, I can figure out what hydroponic stores you have along with some preferred light.

you should get a nice metal halide lamp or high pressure sodium....400 watts would be fine for carring a plantt through its cycles from clone to harvest

I'm using the like squiggly bulbs or whatever, they're natural daylight and my babies love them.

i just grew with cfls. the buds dont turn out as dense. save ur money for a real light it will be worth it imo. get a 400 w hps like someone said. i will not grow again with cfls. cfls take longer too. and u have stretchy plants. get good lights and a real strain. dats my next grow.

If you have a very small space for a single plant I'd say either a couple of CFLs or a 150w HPS, both can give good results in small grows and are fairly inexpensive.

150 HPS ftw.

I also have a 125w CFL that I use for vegging, but I don't think I'd want to flower with it.

KcBrewz said:

I want to start a plant from start to bud but dont know what the minimum watts should be. Recomandations on a lamp would be nice. Thanks. KC

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No offense intended, but dude ... you can only do things so inexpensively and still end up with final results that are worth it. Save up some bucks and do it right the first time. If not you will spend money on a setup that will be crap and that you won't be satisfied and then you will purchase another one, and based on how you want to start out your second choice still might be half crappy, but then you have spent the money for two lighting setups, and if your second choice is half crappy there will be a third setup in your future. By the time you add up the two or three different setups you pay for before ending up with something decent, you will have paid way more than if you just do it right the first time.

I would suggest no less than a 400-watt digital ballast with a quality reflective hood ... but I did already give three options that would all beat the pants off of messing with CFLs.

dude just buy a industrial lowbay light
they're relitively cheap, about £90 FOR MINE AND ITS 450W!!

By the time you do all that, he is better off upgrading straight to a 250w HPS, because in the long run, he'll have quicker flowering cycles and higher yields. Hell, he can almost do a 150W for what you have going on here. Wasn't your cfl grow a scrog? Imagine your 5.4 oz yield had you been able to use 250w hps...

Gastanker said:

$4 for a 4 bulb fixture. http://www.lightingdirect.com/maxim-990015pb-four-light-bathroom-fixture-from-the-maxim-collection/p860557

Get 4 Y splitters and 8 42w CFLs and you are set.

Or get two and 8 Y splitters and 16 23w CFLs - 16 packs are $21 at Home Depot and come with a 9 year warranty. That's $30 to run 368w of CFL.

Here I got 5.4oz off 6 plants in just over 2 months with 388 final watts of CFL. Amazing bud. https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/165396-first-cfl-grow-help-appreciated.html

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Brick Top said:

No offense intended, but dude ... you can only do things so inexpensively and still end up with final results that are worth it. Save up some bucks and do it right the first time. If not you will spend money on a setup that will be crap and that you won't be satisfied and then you will purchase another one, and based on how you want to start out your second choice still might be half crappy, but then you have spent the money for two lighting setups, and if your second choice is half crappy there will be a third setup in your future. By the time you add up the two or three different setups you pay for before ending up with something decent, you will have paid way more than if you just do it right the first time.

I would suggest no less than a 400-watt digital ballast with a quality reflective hood ... but I did already give three options that would all beat the pants off of messing with CFLs.

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Haha very true, unless you already had CFLs or a small HPS for starting veggies indoors in the winter. Btw brick top, have you looked into the kessil LED lights at all? They seem to work much better than a majority of the other LED systems out there, but very very expensive.

Serapis said:

By the time you do all that, he is better off upgrading straight to a 250w HPS, because in the long run, he'll have quicker flowering cycles and higher yields. Hell, he can almost do a 150W for what you have going on here. Wasn't your cfl grow a scrog? Imagine your 5.4 oz yield had you been able to use 250w hps...

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If he's never going to need more than about 15 inches of light penetration a 250-watt would work for him. If he'd ever need more, he would need to step up to a 400-watt.

KawiZZR said:

Haha very true, unless you already had CFLs or a small HPS for starting veggies indoors in the winter.

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That doesn't seem to be the situation in this case though, does it

Btw brick top, have you looked into the kessil LED lights at all? They seem to work much better than a majority of the other LED systems out there, but very very expensive.

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I can't say that I have ever checked them out. When it comes to LEDs about the only thing I know to be true is if you want success you need to purchase very high grade LEDs, purchase enough of them and know how to use them in a way that will get the most out of them.

Brick Top said:

That doesn't seem to be the situation in this case though, does it

I can't say that I have ever checked them out. When it comes to LEDs about the only thing I know to be true is if you want success you need to purchase very high grade LEDs, purchase enough of them and know how to use them in a way that will get the most out of them.

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Nah, I was just saying is all. I'd started indoor veggies before but with cannabis had no idea what it needed so was happy to learn early that a small plant can do well in the type of setup I'm familiar with. Plus a lot of people I know have been switching their home lights to CFLs in recent years so they may already have bulbs from a value pack that they could use. The info I've looked at on the kessils points to them being efficient and effective, just with a small growing radius so multiple lights are needed. At over 200 a pop they don't seem worth it to me yet, but hopefully in 5 years or so they'll have come down in price enough to be competitive with other systems.

KawiZZR said:

Nah, I was just saying is all. I'd started indoor veggies before but with cannabis had no idea what it needed so was happy to learn early that a small plant can do well in the type of setup I'm familiar with. Plus a lot of people I know have been switching their home lights to CFLs in recent years so they may already have bulbs from a value pack that they could use.

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Since when it comes to grams produced to watts used HID lighting way outdoes home lighting CFLs used to grow with I don't even see CFLs as being a viable option.

That's why I suggested he go HID, and a minimal wattage of 400-watts would not be an injudicious choice to make.

I was running a 92w CFL veg bumped to twice that for the beginning of flower and 388 at the very end. 23kWh veg 67kWh for 1/2 flower and 130 for the second half. 220kWh Total.

250w HPS would be 250w veg, 250 flower throughout. 63kWh veg 168kWh flower - 231kWh Total and that isn't including the fan you might need.

CFL is a ton of work but g/kWh you can yield very near as much as any HID - I am curious as to what you guys that run 1kW MHs for veg yield g/kWh versus g/w - I hit .69g/kWh with CFL on my first run growing pot for the first time in my life. Most all 1g/1w HID grows I've seen come to around .6g/kWh.

I would totally agree that HIDs are much easier and if you plan on ever expanding get something nice to begin with. If you are interested in a 250 I would recommend a 400w dimmable and if you wanted a 400 I would recommend a 600w dimmable - lumatek or something nice all the way. But under 400 is a joke to run a HPS.

It might not be $30 for the CFLs but instead $50 but it is still considerably cheaper and more versatile for the beginner that isn't interested in expanding. Decide you want out? Oh well you have a bunch of light bulbs that you can still use and are down a couple Y splitters and 2 $4 light fixtures, not specialized low wattage HID lights, a shitty hood, and an over powered industrial inline fan.

Btw, I grow with HIDs - I'm not some stubborn CFL groupie that is trying to convert the world, I've simply used them and enjoyed the results and will totally recommend them to low budget novices starting for the first time - not to mention the title of the thread.