Advantage V. disadvantage CFL's

ManyClouds

ManyClouds

Well-Known Member
Check my grow, it is my first ever and she is a soldier... Its a ghetto set-up being that I was broke when I started... You should check out StealthHydro and their bubbleponic set-up they have a dual spectrum 85w CFL pimp as shit!!! I am debating going with HID tho?
nattyhead357 said:
Do you have any grows on here? i am about a week into my first indoor grow with CFL's (first indoor grow period actually)

Id love some feedback as well
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robbzilla

robbzilla

Well-Known Member
nicoroc said:
cfls are the future! i clone, veg and flower with cfls and have fantastic results. i get 4 to 6 plants over 2ft and ready for harvest in a stand alone closet in 2 1/2 months with just 1 125w red spec cfl. and my clones are at 99% rooting, while i run 24 hour veg also with NO problems, no need for extra ventalation nothing. if you growing under 15 medium sized plants stick with cfls!
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You grow 6 plants with one 125w?
 
K

kckennels

Member
check out my ghetto grow box it's 3 ft tall and 32 inches wide with 4 plants there is 4 27w (100w equivalent) over top with a 13w mini tube light in the middle and my are growing fine for now going to get 4 more bulbs in a couple days will post but check this out!!!
Plant 4.jpgplant 1.3.jpgPlant 2.1.jpgPlant 3.4.jpgPlant 2.2.jpgIMG_0417.jpgPlant 4.4.jpg
 

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anomolies

anomolies

Well-Known Member
lastfrontier said:
you see it seem to me that people feel that if you give it the most intense light you can find and the best hydro setup that it equils dank fat buds and that is simpley not true.


CFL's do not have the danger or heat problems that HPS and MH have also it cost more all around to dissapate the heat and the smell with it also CFL's are self ballest in most cases and there are so many that if one goes out you dont have to shell up 150.00 or 250.00 or what if the ballast goes out what if either of them fail while you are out of town and you loose the crop if one or two fail then i loose a few lumens and keep on rockin again consider the fire danger while you are gone a fan can fail of trip the braker also they use less wattage and you are able to spread the light as you see fit in most cases instead of coming from a central location high above i will say in defence of the production grower large intense lights are a good and usefull thing because it cuts down on the doliers per OZ of production that in my opinion is the onley time you would need the extra lumens i my self will never grow more then 14 plants at a time i get around 3-5 OZ per plant with that light at 14 plants only geting 3 OZ per is still 42 OZ every 4 months what the hell will i do with all that and i am only using about 420-680 watts when you have MH and HPS you are stuck with on or two kelvin ratings and that is it with CFL's i can swap the kelvin rating as i see fit mabey i want to flower at 2100 kelvin mabey i like 6500 kelvin for veg or mabey i want to try 4500 kelvin for veg and see if i get a better sun leaf with CFL's there is room for discovery and creativity we know that all strands are not the same and come from diffrent parts of the world mabey you would like to plant all dark purple indiga and the next crop you want to plant a virgin sativa they have diffrent requirments for light and with CFL's you can provide that with half the cost just remember people that the higher you go in watts when buyin a single CFL bulb the lower you go in lumens per watt stay at 26-55 watts and that is the best spot to stay...................... here are the periods that belong up there disperse them as you please
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wall of text was the most difficult thing to read ever. Why exactly is this stickied???
 
kingofqueen

kingofqueen

Well-Known Member
hell add up how many cfls he has there . Isnt that probaly equal to a 250 hid? And who says cfls dont get hot? they do ! the base of the lamp generates alot of heat the more bulbs the more heat . I started with cfls and once i figured out the heat problem and how many watts I was pulling of them suckers it become more efficient for me just to switch to a 250 watt hid . I<M not gonna sacrifice bud size for cfl bragging rights . I<M gonna get my weight per watt.
 
kingskate

kingskate

Member
I'd suggest moving the cfl's closer to the plant. about 2-3 inches from the plant. and adding ATLEAST 1 more for a smaller plant.
 
ManyClouds

ManyClouds

Well-Known Member
The more the better, those 23 watts won't swell your bud up, trust me I just harvested my Sativa, she was under 3 23watt CFL's and a 9watt Ftube... I hung them around her since CFL's are too weak to penetrate... Trust me dude... get as many as you can. Try a 30watt or higher.
dnvr303 said:
i got two 23 watt eco smart daylight bulbs 5 inches above 1 plant should i get more?
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ManyClouds

ManyClouds

Well-Known Member
The plant will double to triple in size when you flower. I vegged until it was a foot and a half and it ended up close to four feet...
tiedyediva said:
Thanks for the tip man. I have a medical room and so I can only flower 6 plants at a time. I plan on switching to flower when they are about a foot tall, is that right? Do you have any tips on the best strains for indoor high yield?
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kingskate

kingskate

Member
If your going to grow cfl i suggest 150 watts of actual cfl per plant, and it can be compared to a 150 watt hps. Little less Grams per watt. Mixing up K temp from 27k to 65k is a great way to get the bang for your buck and to thicken those buds a tad. but hey i paid 20 dollars for my baby to grow and its nearly as effective as an hps grow. just slower.

HPS light are FANTASTIC to have but i havent the money for the ballast Nor the bulb

And if your growing for yourself and have limited rescources CFL's are definitely a great option. Here is my baby at 2 mo's old, u might not see it but she has 6 colas. I just now put her in 12/12 I was wondering if anyone can tell the strain. Mabey Sativa dominant?
DSC00545 (2).jpg
 
ManyClouds

ManyClouds

Well-Known Member
Have you considered a compact HID or even a 250w? The are completely enclosed ballast and all, just plug in and go, I ordered a 150 HPS/MH HID for 86.00 out the door online. It aint no 400 or 1000w but I grow for personal so I think 150 is plenty for a space of 3x3x3.
kingskate said:
If your going to grow cfl i suggest 150 watts of actual cfl per plant, and it can be compared to a 150 watt hps. Little less Grams per watt. Mixing up K temp from 27k to 65k is a great way to get the bang for your buck and to thicken those buds a tad. but hey i paid 20 dollars for my baby to grow and its nearly as effective as an hps grow. just slower.

HPS light are FANTASTIC to have but i havent the money for the ballast Nor the bulb

And if your growing for yourself and have limited rescources CFL's are definitely a great option. Here is my baby at 2 mo's old, u might not see it but she has 6 colas. I just now put her in 12/12 I was wondering if anyone can tell the strain. Mabey Sativa dominant?
View attachment 1033047
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kingskate

kingskate

Member
you see here's the thing, Im so broke 86 dollars for me is 1000 bucks for you ;)

So over a week i managed to gather sockets and cfls (3)23-26watters, nailed a box together grabbed a window fan and plugged it in. not to mention a timer i stumbled on in my shed. after working for my uncle bought another (2) 42 watter and Shabam. 20 dollar set up. >.<
 
HappyHomeGrower

HappyHomeGrower

Well-Known Member
Hello everybody. It has been a while sence I visited this forum, not because it isn't a great forum, it's just hard to get a definative answer sometimes. Sometimes you get conflicting answers to the same question. I have a lot of videos that I learned a lot from, but even then there are different tecniques depending on the grower.

Anyway.

I figured I'd test this thread myself to see what I could do with CFLs. I have been using fluorescent tubes for veg stage of growth the entire time I have been growing (only 3 years) with no complaints. So, I figured I'd give fluorescents a try for flowering. I have previously been using a 400 watt Hydro Farm HPS with two 70 watt HPS street lights, one to the left and one to the right of the 400 watter (540 watts total). My current grow (to test the ability of CFL) consists of 8 x 68 watt 2700k CFLs plus the two 70 watt HPS (684 watts total). So, it isn't entirely a CFL grow, but it gives me some idea of how well CFLs work compared to HPS alone. My findings so far are that it is defanetly easier to grow with HPS alone, only because I have to move the CFLs around pretty much every day. The CFLs do not make any difference as far as grow room temps are concerned. The heat source is dispersed over a larger area, vs having just one main source of heat, but overall temps in the room are about the same (between 75 - 85 degrees). I'm only 5 weeks into flowering out of a 9 week flowering period, and so far it looks like the HPS has the CFLs beat as far as yield is concerned. To my suprise it isn't by much, the buds aren't as hard, but I won't know for sure until harvest time.

My Hydro Farm HPS was $250 for the reflector and ballast plus $30 for the bulb about $280 total. The 8 CFL bulbs totaled $132 from Home Depot, and 8 reflectors about $9 each comes out to about $205 total. So, starting cost for CFL is a little cheaper, plus I won't have to replace the CFLs every 9 months like I do with the HPS bulb. The 70 watt HPS street lights were $35 each, and bulbs run about $12 each.

I'll keep y'all updated as the grow progresses.
 
TommyHobby

TommyHobby

Active Member
just stumbled onto this thread and I got to admit: that first post has got to be the longest sentence I've ever read.
 
Senk

Senk

Member
I will admit that I didn't read ALL of this thread just because there is SO much but I never saw anything about light/lumen dissipation between the 2 kinds(CFL, and HID), I don't know much about the HIDs, but I know the lumen rating will drop significantly the further away it gets, please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
I

imsofly

Member

Here are the pics of what Im currently doing. Its not working well. I had 5 germinated seeds 3 of which are now seedlings. They are not growing as fast as they should i don't think. ARe the lights too close do I need mylar lining? I think a major issue is the lack of fresh air circulation. I would like to use the entire closet for this but i cant think of or don't have a way to pump fresh air in and old air out. The closet is about 6ft wide x 6ft tall x 18 inches deep. Any suggestions? I'm eager to learn and improve.​
 
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