Newbie lighting problemo

Hey peeps! I've decided to grow my own percy as I'm sick of the ridiculous prices in my area (£10 a gram!) Been using this site to help plan my grow. It's been very useful so far but i've got a bit stuck

I'm planning a cupboard grow, dimensions are roughly 5.5ft tall, 2.5ft deep and about 3.5ft wide and I'm gonna keep it simple with seeds in soil. Planning on growing about 3-4 plants once sexed. (heard northern lights or other dominantly indica strains are good high yeilders for beginners) I was gonna use enviros to save on the bills and go for either 2x200w enviro blue and red or 2x150w blue and red. I thought about hanging them both for veg and flower but then thought about the uneven distrubution of the colour spectrums. Would it be better to get about 150W with cheap cfl bulbs than go for the 2 enviros? And will they be ready to go with hangers that go straight into the mains electricity?(think they're called E70s or E something!) The bulbs i've been looking at have 2700K light spectrum thingy but would I get beter results with more Watts of enviro? Also if I do go with enviro should I hang them verticaly or horizontaly with a reflector because some people have said the reflectors are a waste of time and you should do it verticaly? I was planning on covering the walls with foil for reflection also. One last thing Would I need ventilation apart from opening the door a few times a day to check on them because there seems to be alot of mixed views on this? If so could switch to the one enviro at a time?

Thanks for the help peeps, any advice will be greatly apreciated. hope to hear from ya soon!

Hi - I think you'd get more answers by posting a picture of the bulb you are referring to as 'enviro'
I'm sure it's common in England, but I don't know what it is - so it's hard to comment on your question.
Good luck!

Good point thought they were pretty big in America. They're called envirolites.They're just CFLs but are meant to be cheaper to run than hps ect and aparantly have 100% PAR which I think just means light that the plant can use. heres a pic of the 200w. the vegys and flowering ones look the same. Thanks!

Hello im XxslashxX,

One of my grow spaces is the same size as yours (give or take a few inches) lol

Lights if you want to save on bills and get big buds two 200w cfls could do it but a 400w hps is the same power and gets deeper into the plants wich is better for them and you get bigger faster buds. The problem is heat they do give off a bit lol, The way i got round this was by useing two 6" inlet and out let fans keeps my grow room and normal room at 27c so some free heating there aswell.

If you cant deal with the heat from a hps then cfl is good idea but two 200w cfl will still need ventaltion.

Defo do the walls white or foil kinda thing.

And have you thought about growing auto flowering plants.
In my grow room i have had 10 little autos and got about 1.3oz dryed off each, that took 2months aswell. copple of problems with autos tho lol is that you cant clone them but you can jsut make seeds with them i had about 300 off on once that im still useing them seeds today.

I personaly only use 8 10liter pots my grow room now for a little more space.

Im asumming you are from the uk (i am to) pm me if you want some help on where to get lights nutes and seeds, when i first stared out i must have brought two of all the wrong things lol.

hope this hellps im not perfect but i know most of the problems of growing in a size room like yours lol and the confusion when starting.


-XxslashxX Good Luck

Also heres some pics of the cheaper cfl bulbs. the spiraly one is more expensive and 20w but says on the site Equiv. to: 101W. 1300 Lm the other one is very cheap and the site says Equiv. to: 125W. 1350 Lm. Do u reckon the equivelent things are true? If so would 2 or 3 or even 4 of the cheap ones be enuf for 3 or 4 plants? And will these go into standard hangers without dodgey wiring issues? thanks

Hey slash thanks for the advice. I'd kinda already dismised hps as it will cost about £30 a month in bills atleast and I cant be doing with sophisticated ventilation but do you think it would cost the same with CFLs? Think if i do use enviros will just have 200w at a time but will that be enuf for 3-4 plants o r do you think goin with about 4 of those cheap cfl bulbs will do. It says it's equivelent to 125w 1350 lm so thats like 500w but I think i will only be paying for 25w a bulb. The equiv stuff is realy confusing!

heres a link to the bulbs I'm thinking of using if anyone has experience with cfls it would be cool for some advice on the equiv stuff lol thanks!

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/34214/Lighting-Lamps/Energy-Saving-Lamps/Bayonet-Cap-Lamps/3U-Stick-Energy-Saving-BC-25w-CFL?cm_mmc=Shopping.com-_-Lighting and Lamps-_-Energy Saving Lamps-_-3U Stick Energy Saving BC 25w CFL&source=aw

forgot the link

I'm using 65 watt CFL's (3) with good temps and results.

spundae said:

I'm using 65 watt CFL's (3) with good temps and results.

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good to know you can get good results with cfls. this might be a stupid question but can you use standard CFl bulbs and plug into a wire that will go straight into your mains electricity wall socket? If so what are these wire/holder thingys called! thanks!

yeah could use 25w would need a 4-5 for 4plants probs could be more, look on ebay for 125w or 200w cfl there good and you can get some with cables and sokets witch so you dont need to worrie about wireing and wounld only need one

also i think theres some on there that come with refectors but you could just make your own.
and getting a blue i.e 6400k for veg and a red i.e 2700k for flowering, would probs be the best idea keep them close to the plants aswell but dont let the girls burn lol

-XxslashxX

Yeah it would be alot easier with just the one or two lights. Do you think I should just use the veg light for vegin and the flowerin for flowerin lol or should i mix it up a bit? Also was thinkin of maybe scrogin. good idea for a first grow?

The answer to that should be from an experienced electrician (which I am not). Most ppl get caught because of fires caused by improper wiring.

JPrang said:

good to know you can get good results with cfls. this might be a stupid question but can you use standard CFl bulbs and plug into a wire that will go straight into your mains electricity wall socket? If so what are these wire/holder thingys called! thanks!

Click to expand...

You can use automotive style clip on lamps. I took off the refectors. Clamped one over each of the plants(4) there all plugged into a surge strip.
Took them trough the veg state no problem.

You can get them very close with no heat burn.

Moved up to a 400 hps for flowering.

Good luck