My 6th Grow - A few questoins about my set up

Good afternoon all. I currently have 4 x Blue Mystic ladies at about 2 weeks flower. I have a single 200w 2700k Bulb, and another 30w 2700k for a little help. Total of about 18,000 lumens in a 60x60 or 2'x2' tent. Previously I have used a single 125w CFL in home made cupboard, with a couple of smaller bulbs, and were pleased with the results considering I am still learning.

As you can see from the pics I have a fan blowing directly onto the bulb allowing me to keep it about and inch or less away from the leaves. I can just squeezemy hand between the bulb and leaves, and the air there is not hot at all. As I grow fairly small plants anyway, I was considering changing my next set up slightly and put 9 small plants in, in square pots and have the bulb a bit higher.

Does anyone have any experience of having more plants per bulb creating a greater yield then a less plants with closer bulbs?

Any advice would be gratefully recieved

Anyone? Please?

I dont have any experience with that many plants but I know that's it's best to keep CFLs really close because the lumens dissipate over a very short distance. So I'm thinking if you had a lot of plants, you would have to really get a lot of CFL coverage.

Thanks for the input. That was my understanding, and on one of my grows using 30w cfl's, and managed to get the bulbs literally 1/2 inch away from plants. This produced the most crystaly strong weed i've managed to produce.

I've decided to see what my current set up yields, probably keep it the same for a few harvests till the temps cool again

Hettyman said:

Thanks for the input. That was my understanding, and on one of my grows using 30w cfl's, and managed to get the bulbs literally 1/2 inch away from plants. This produced the most crystaly strong weed i've managed to produce.

I've decided to see what my current set up yields, probably keep it the same for a few harvests till the temps cool again

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My advice: More bulbs ALWAYS beats one big bulb when it comes to CFL. You need a cfl 2-3 inches from the plant for the best results. And yes that means if you had 200 cfls covering that plant head to toe it would be the most effective. Buttt obviously that would bring costs and heat concerns up. You can get 10 20Ws for like 10 bucks at walmart. like 35 for 10 6500ks. Your outcome will be much much better, if you continued to grow this way you would have one really big bud nearest to that 200W and then alot of airy un-dense buds besides that which, no grower wants.

like seriously i see TONS of room on your walls for more bulbs. your already to flowering so now its the easy part throw as many 2700ks in there as you can get!

From what i've seen adding more plants doesn't increase the yeild, after a certain point. I would say there is typically a magic number for a given space that works best. My little 2x4 foot space produces the same amount with 3 4, or 5 plants. 7 was too many, a couple were totally choked out, and i haven't tried 2....

I use 2 DWC rubbermaids. The most dramatic increase in yield i've gotten is by putting up a net and growing scrog, and from trimming fan leaves and low branches.

Cheers,
SilverSerf

lagarrettBLUNT said:

My advice: More bulbs ALWAYS beats one big bulb when it comes to CFL. You need a cfl 2-3 inches from the plant for the best results. And yes that means if you had 200 cfls covering that plant head to toe it would be the most effective. Buttt obviously that would bring costs and heat concerns up. You can get 10 20Ws for like 10 bucks at walmart. like 35 for 10 6500ks. Your outcome will be much much better, if you continued to grow this way you would have one really big bud nearest to that 200W and then alot of airy un-dense buds besides that which, no grower wants.

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Thanks, I'm in England, and we have no Wallmart and i'm forever seeing qoute on RIU on how cheap all DIY grow stuff is from there, it's pretty gutting. 90% of house light shops don't even stock any high watt CFL's. Instead we have to pay around £8 or $12 for a single 30w CFL from Hydro supplies. And don't want to even start on comparative petrol prices!

Seriously I would move out there like yesterday.. if it wasn't for all the goddam Americans!! I'm just fucking about, for laughs, don't get stressy

I have a selection of 30w Bulbs that I want to get in there for extra light, but the plants only be 12" tall, makes side lighting difficult without getting a lot of the light on the underside of the leaves, wasted (also being a tent instead of cupboard means it's more difficult to attach multi-bulbs. I plan on spending some free time this week getting some of them in there this week. On the plus side 90% of the fan leaves are 5" or less away from that one bulb.

Thanks for your words!

silverserf said:

From what i've seen adding more plants doesn't increase the yeild, after a certain point. I would say there is typically a magic number for a given space that works best. My little 2x4 foot space produces the same amount with 3 4, or 5 plants. 7 was too many, a couple were totally choked out, and i haven't tried 2....

I use 2 DWC rubbermaids. The most dramatic increase in yield i've gotten is by putting up a net and growing scrog, and from trimming fan leaves and low branches.

Cheers,
SilverSerf

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Thanks, I kind of got this impression from my earlier grows under a single 125w 2700k. 6 plants and 4 plants seemed to produce the exact same total, and 1 bigger plant created just a little less.

I'm down with trimming off lower stems 2 weeks into flower, especially as I always seem to get a forest of tiny ones around the base. Have heard a few ppl mentioning trimming fan leaves for better result. Do you mean trim some of the ends of, making them a bit smaller and letting light further down? Cos one guy insisted the best he found was from removing all fan leaves and letting the stem leaves get all the light... which i'm a bit suspicious of. I see the theory, but don't want to practice it!

i would just have the 4 big pots top them and tie the branches down. If you could get a hps (250) maybe 400 it would kick ass. I use a similar set up for clones and veg then move them under a 600 hps with xxl hood it works great. good luck!!!

Thanks, i'm currently really considering a 250 hps for flower. I've a 600w and ballast and bulb in a box for months. I haven't got the space to use it currently, but saw it cheap second hand and snapped it up for future.

My big concern is running a 600w for flower and 250w for veg, is that my electricity bill will jump up and be painfully obvious... and in my mind its kind of "slow and steady wins the race"

Hey hey,

Ya i don't cut all the fan leaves but a lot of them. time you give the plants a good trimming it seems like a couple of days later they are all filled in and bushy again.

I could have showed you a great before and after but the before pic has been lost.....

Cheers,
SilverSerf

i have a very similar setup as u BUT i use much moar lights i have 4 1245w flower shaped cfl ontop of each tomato plant + one 135w in the middle of the 4 plants lieka colosium grow + 2 other 135w cfl on the sides between da tomato plants u haz very little light
and dont get hps in a tent temps will be too high