hi! just a quick lighting question.

ive been trying to make a grow room in my closet and its all finished except for the lighting -_-. i was just wondering how many cfl 23w~ i should use to keep 1 mother... possibly 2 and 4 clones alive at the same time?

i was thinking 5 bulbs for 1 mother (2 on left and right. 1 top) or 8 for 2 mothers (2 on left. 2 in middle. 2 on right and 1 per top) and an extra 2 bulbs for clones so all together around 10 bulbs. would that be enough? is it possible to attach those lights to one wire? so confused on what i should do
pre thanks you guys!

ps. do those 4ft long flour tube lights require a special ballast? or can you just hook it up to an outlet ^.^?

just a little help please.

ms. ana..

the 4 foot bulbs due require a ballast.. but the ballast is built into the fixtures.. so your ready to go!

I would suggest growing plants with 43 watt CFLs... use about 3 bulbs per plant... don't keep any mothers... just clone from the plants while they are in their veg stage or the during the first two weeks of flowering...

dont grow th plants big..4-7 nodes is plenty big for a cfl grow.. and you can get the clones from the lower branches about 10-14 days into flowering... the lower branches don;t produce much GANJA anyway

Some people say this hurts the genetics of the strain... each cycle supposedly looses "SOMETHING" and that may be true.. but I have seen it done many many times for over 8 CYCLEs and the plants look great...

especially if you don't have a big OPERATION going..

andit is easier than maintaining a mother(s)

cheers

thanks for the input. but i want to keep the mothers :/ what would i need to do it? (cant get mh)

The eight bulb plan you had is probably sufficient. If you are just keeping a mother, you won't need a really incredible amount of light. If you look around, you can find multi socket CFL hoods. A bathroom "vanity mirror" light setup will hold like 4 of them. Go shop around your nearest home improvement store. What is your plan for flowering?

S-Town

sleepytown said:

The eight bulb plan you had is probably sufficient. If you are just keeping a mother, you won't need a really incredible amount of light. If you look around, you can find multi socket CFL hoods. A bathroom "vanity mirror" light setup will hold like 4 of them. Go shop around your nearest home improvement store. What is your plan for flowering?

S-Town

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im so fickle haha i was at lowes looking for cfls when all of a sudden i found 3 70 watt mh light bulbs haha. im probably gonna play with those. i hope i dont kill myself wiring these things . i think 2 of those bulbs would be good enough to hold 2 mothers/4 clones or 1 mother/4 clones but i got 3 just in case.

as for flowering i built a tent out of pvc and white.black tarp. 400 watt hps reflector on a dwc. 2 18g rubbermaid tubs with 2 holes per each. the flower room is ready to go ive just been working on my veggy room which is almost done!! just need wiring/lighting arrangement annddd a tray for the eb and flow. (i think im gonna ask my dad to make one for me)

PhatAnna said:

im so fickle haha i was at lowes looking for cfls when all of a sudden i found 3 70 watt mh light bulbs haha. im probably gonna play with those. i hope i dont kill myself wiring these things . i think 2 of those bulbs would be good enough to hold 2 mothers/4 clones or 1 mother/4 clones but i got 3 just in case.

as for flowering i built a tent out of pvc and white.black tarp. 400 watt hps reflector on a dwc. 2 18g rubbermaid tubs with 2 holes per each. the flower room is ready to go ive just been working on my veggy room which is almost done!! just need wiring/lighting arrangement annddd a tray for the eb and flow. (i think im gonna ask my dad to make one for me)

Click to expand...

Do you have ballasts for the bulbs? Metal Halide bulbs need a ballast to function. If not, and you feel that you want to go with a metal halide lamp, you should just get one larger lamp. It will be much cheaper, and will give you better penetration for the same wattage. I think you can get 150s. Otherwise, if you aren't willing to spend the money, CFLs will be fine for a 1-2 plant veg space. Fluorescent tubes would do well too.

S-Town

sleepytown said:

Do you have ballasts for the bulbs? Metal Halide bulbs need a ballast to function. If not, and you feel that you want to go with a metal halide lamp, you should just get one larger lamp. It will be much cheaper, and will give you better penetration for the same wattage. I think you can get 150s. Otherwise, if you aren't willing to spend the money, CFLs will be fine for a 1-2 plant veg space. Fluorescent tubes would do well too.

S-Town

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haha found that out the hard way but its ok. i returned all the bulbs.

i woke up at 8 today and started working on sockets for the cfls im going to get. i got 4 sockets setup and im planning to add 4 y connectors so 8 bulbs in total. should be good. still need to find a tray

-annerz

ps. warm or cool light. which is better for veg?

Go for some cools.

S-Town

ok i got 4 40 something watt cfls and 2 60 watter cfls. i think this is perfect. the 60 watts have like 4k~~ lumens each. and 40 i think have like 3k or 2k~~~ ^.^ i just need my tray and im ready to germinate