Cfl Proximity To Foliage
- Thread starter Garden Knowm
- Start date
Mr. Growsalot
Member
im a cfl grower also bro..im curious how u do tht (wht fertilizer,soil,pot size,) not trying to knock you at all i would be gratefull if u could help me do the same....?
zo0t
New Member
i use normal potting soil with low nutes(fertilizer) and add my own nutes vintage bat guano and some super thrive (mainly vitamin b) thats all i grow organic.. for the pot size i transplant 3 times cuz i veg in a closet so tight on space but during flowering i transplant into 2 gallon pots cuz flowering tent is on patio
Lucius Vorenus
Well-Known Member
apparentlyso basically you want so many fucking cfls that you realize you just spent enough money on cfls that you could have had a 600hps and had 4x the useful light as you have now.
Bluejeans
Well-Known Member
Check out my new fixture I just made for my plant. I got this little girl when she was just 3 days into flowering. She came with the one little pitiful 42w bulb. Today is day 15 of flowering and today she got to "see the light". I still have to rig some sort of reflector but what do you think?Attachments
probo24
Well-Known Member
Actually, the title of his book Buds For Less states right under the title - grow 8oz of weed for under 100 dollars.
I can't remember if he actually said how many lights he was using near the end of flowering.
I do know he grew one Mango from seed and two clones (Blue dot, I think) in his book.
gingerbuddha
Active Member
Is this too close? it's about 1/2" from the leaf when the lid is closed.
SpaaaceCowboy
Well-Known Member
Put the back of your hand that close and see if it gets too warm...I have 23 and 26 watt bulbs I use....I know my plant gets to within an inch and sometimes closer.....Usually when they get like that close I raise my lights...I use a chain system and I just go up a link....
SpaaaceCowboy
Well-Known Member
Hey bluejeans. yea you might want to try some kind of reflector....If you are on a budget and handy here's a link for you for homemade light reflectors https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/232568-beercan-cfl-reflectors-cheap-easy.html
And do you have any bulbs in the middle of your apparatus ?
geturgrowon
Well-Known Member
how much cfl were u using when harvest 3 plants
Bluejeans
Well-Known Member
This fixture is really designed for my hydro setup, which will have 4 plants around a center hole, so there are no lights in the middle. I know it's not ideal for this poor plant and I'm doing the best I can by her...but it is still better than her one single CFL in a garage reflector...
As for reflectors, I plan on rigging something more permanent (I like the beer can idea) but for now, I have sheets of tin foil acting as reflectors for the 8 lights. Alice seems to be doing okay and her buds are really pretty. She is in week 4 of flowering, but since I have no idea what strain she might be, I have no idea how long she will take to finish. I don't expect to get more than a zone from her (if that).
I also have created a few designs for side lights and additional top lighting, but I will probably save those for my first "real" grow (which will be starting very soon).
I got this plant (from a sketchy source) when it was already in flower and it was pretty pitiful and small. I've done what I can to finish her up, but I really was not at all ready to start when she showed up homeless. I had no lights, no place for her to be fully dark for 12 hours, and no idea what I was doing. From reading this forum, I feel like I've gained mounds and mounds of knowledge, but I still don't have the perfect environment for her. She is rather droopy these days and I'm not sure why. She has good soil, she has been watered (but not overwatered), and her lighting is better than ever in her life. But still she looks sad. The temp stays between 65 and 75 F and the humidity is about 55% (a little higher sometimes, but not bad).
DreamB0x
Member
Hello there! I'm doing my first grow with 6 AFs and CFLs.. I love those lights! I would never use hps, being so nature-conservative.. 
I put the following setup - a 200 w dual cfl with a reflector and later on when the babies grew a bit I fond the most amazing lights for their price - 105W 6500k CFL for.. 4 euro?? and oh, how they work - best part is that my plants can literally touch the bulbs and they are perfectly fine! I'm even thinking of getting one more in there. I got and advice from a guy here to put tin foil on cardboard pieces and lay them on the soil - it's amazing how much more light the stems and smaller leaf sets get that way - check it out - they are 3 weeks old.. So far I'm happy with my first grow
Now that I think of it - the additional bulbs could go even closer...
I put the following setup - a 200 w dual cfl with a reflector and later on when the babies grew a bit I fond the most amazing lights for their price - 105W 6500k CFL for.. 4 euro?? and oh, how they work - best part is that my plants can literally touch the bulbs and they are perfectly fine! I'm even thinking of getting one more in there. I got and advice from a guy here to put tin foil on cardboard pieces and lay them on the soil - it's amazing how much more light the stems and smaller leaf sets get that way - check it out - they are 3 weeks old.. So far I'm happy with my first grow Now that I think of it - the additional bulbs could go even closer...
geturgrowon
Well-Known Member
nice set up man where can u get afs at and there lights right?
Bluejeans
Well-Known Member
Awww, I just LOVE baby pictures
DreamB0x
Member
Well I do hope that I will get quite a bit more than the minimum for afs - 15g.. I'm staying positive but since it's a first grow I do consider small harvest a possibility.
Now there is one thing I ponder about - my box is supposed to have a max of 200-250 watts. Now that just sound silly, right? If the temp is fine and the leafs don't get burnt, then I don't see a problem to have as many watts as you like. So far I've got 410 watts and a minimum of 14 000 lumens.. Any ideas why they would give such a warning? Is there such a thing as too many watts when the other factors are in the norms? Or is it only for hps etc.?
Now there is one thing I ponder about - my box is supposed to have a max of 200-250 watts. Now that just sound silly, right? If the temp is fine and the leafs don't get burnt, then I don't see a problem to have as many watts as you like. So far I've got 410 watts and a minimum of 14 000 lumens.. Any ideas why they would give such a warning? Is there such a thing as too many watts when the other factors are in the norms? Or is it only for hps etc.?
rockinriggin
Member
I have seen it said many times on these forums that it's much cheaper and just as effective to use flat white paint instead of mylar. I don't know how to link to other threads, but you can type mylar vs. flat white paint in the search box and you will find it. Good luck with your grow.
Bluejeans
Well-Known Member
And where did you find these bulbs? (online I hope!) LOL. I'd love to get my hands on a few of those!
Undercover Cop
Active Member
ahhh, here I go, Ive been following the boards for a few weeks now and finally decided to register so I could contribute. Ive harvested several crops during my growing years about a decade ago, and recently started up again, currently have about 10 babies all under 4 weeks old. Im still gathering provisions and making my fixtures/boxes/ventillation etc but having fun remembering techniques I knew well years ago, and re-discovering the fine nuances of growing. Im currently in rockwool cubes in a homemade bubbler tray for seedling/initial veg stage, waiting until they're big enough to go into 3" rockwool cubes for main veg then into 3 gal homemade bubble buckets for flowering. For lighting, I started with a few 5000k 23w cfl's from homedepot because they were only abt $1.50 each, in a DIY 5 bulb reflector. After a few weeks (and another paycheck) I upgraded to the proper 6500k 26w cfl's and immediately noticed a more rapid growth rate. I have my babies under the homemade 5 bulb cfl hood until they outgrow that, then they go under a 4x48" t5 fixture (100$ on ebay). currently waiting with all 6500k bulbs but may swap in a 3000k to add a bit more spectral diversity. Then under a 400w HPS (or two, depending on how many females I end up with) with cfl's for spot lighting and a bit of 6500k during flowering to help with stretch. Currently using GH Floro series 3 part nutes with superthrive, B1 and Sweet Raw.
sorry for rambling but its my first post
just wanted to show that Im not a noob though lol. To answer your ? Dreambox... dont be too concerned with watts, ideally you should be using the least amt of watts necessary so you can to save money and decrease heat output. The goal should be to get as much usefull light as you can without wasting money and space on a ridiculous number of lights. I understand that space/financial/ventilation restraints can keep someone from chosing a HID light, but for 400 watts HPS you could get +55k lumens (4x the amount you have using cfl's), just putting that out there. But if your only option is CFL, then your logic is correct, except dont think of it as lots of watts on your plants, think of it as lots of light energy hitting the photo receptors on your leaves, that is then converted to growing energy for your babies. CFL's are good because you can hit your plants from all angles, leaving no dark shadowy areas to sit idle while the tops soak up the light. Using HID lights it is possible to go overkill and saturate a plant to the point of overload, causing bleaching and excessive transpiration (they'll draw up and release too much water through evaporation through the leaves causing nutrient imbalances) Clf's however are not going to be intense enough to cause over-saturation. The only disadvantage to having a shit ton of small cfl's is that you're still causing 400 watts of heat that needs ventilation but only 1/4 the usable energy on the plants. You wont grow huge pringles can sized top cola's like HID's can, but you will have alot more undergrowth because you can get more light on the lower bud sights if used as side/spot lighting rather than HID's single point top lighting. You wont get near the total yield as you would with HPS, and it will be a bit less dense when all finished, but it wont affect potency. Potency or stony-ness is determined by the strain, you'll get just as high from a packed bowl of HID flowered buds as you will from CFL grown, but you'll end up with more total harvested using HID'ssry Im rambling again, post then smoke lol, post, then smoke