CFL Grow

[zgrower]

Hey guy so I have been doing a little project and throughout my research I see many people that say CFL light are useless so I wanted to see for myself I have a very cheap build that I basically put together from scratch
I took 2 old cardboard boxes and used scissors and glue along with toothpicks to hold them in place I placed both my plants inside with a limited amount of light I have 1 cool white 30W CFL and 2 warm white 20W CFL bulbs I am growing in a pre fertilized grow mix and the 2 strains I am growing are one AK47 and one Big Bud I will be adding more light along the way exclusively CFL bulbs of course after harvest I will calculate my dry weight and see if it is comparable to high intensity discharge bulbs which by the way cost a fortune here are pictures of my current plants

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[DeanB]

One of my plants i grew under 23w cfls. She was a reveg. I have 10 up top and another 6 around the perimeter with one fan blowing the heat out the door of the cabinet. You are going to need more light. I'll follow along. subbed.

 

[lootznbootz]

One of my plants i grew under 23w cfls. She was a reveg. I have 10 up top and another 6 around the perimeter with one fan blowing the heat out the door of the cabinet. You are going to need more light. I'll follow along. subbed.

What was the total yeild of that beauty!
Pics like these make me wanna ditch my hid then i open my tent lol.

 

[DeanB]

She gave me 4 ounces dry. The key to cfls is they need to be in a small space to work great.

 

[DeanB]

found a picture after jarred.

 

[zgrower]

Awesome I am currently doing it in a small scale in a selfmade cardboard box but by Sunday I'll have a 95% reflective secret jardin grow tent


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[Regnad Kcin]

Hey Z!

Most people see the world not as it is but as they are. Those that would suggest that CFL bulbs are useless in growing our herb are usually making a grand overstatement based on lack of experience and understanding.

Perhaps a more accurate characterization of CFLs is that they are labor intensive to use, and require a set of growing skills that are designed with the unique nature of CFL bulbs in mind. For one with a lot of time on their hands and who doesn’t mind using it on a CFL grow, the results can be rewarding, not just by getting a plant from seed/clone to harvest, but also in learning how to be really up close and personal with their plants.

The single largest difference between CFLs and the more popular LEDs and HIDs is light penetrating ability. While a CFL bulb can output a good deal of light, it cannot “throw” that light very far. A CFL bulb that is a foot from the top of the canopy is not being used wisely. Placing CFLs as close as possible to your plants without touching them is important. This is in distinct contrast to working with LEDs and HIDs that are placed two or more feet above the canopy. This close proximity of the CFLs to the plants obviously introduces more work when watering your crop since the bulbs need to be movable in order to access your plants to water them as they grow, (assuming a soil grow where watering is applied from the top).

As you are probably aware, our ladies like to grow in a vertical fashion. Left unchecked, most strains will grow at least several feet tall in a Christmas tree type formation. This creates a great distance between the top colas and the bottom ones. Generally speaking, this isn’t nearly as much of an challenge for LEDs and HIDS, but CFLs cannot function their best with a plant in this configuration. This means one has to learn various plant training techniques in order to configure a plant during its lifetime to become a more bushy and horizontal creature with an even canopy of buds that are mostly on the same level. This allows one to keep the bulbs close to the plants without the light falloff I mentioned above.

As DeanB mentioned above, you are definitely going to need more bulbs, but also you are going to need to learn some low stress training (LST) techniques to keep your plants in the “Goldilocks zone” of CFL light.

Keep at it! You can do this.

 

[DirtManDan]

I have done a handful of PC case grows with 25w CFLs. Your going to grow a plant. No doubt about that. But why people say the lights are useless. Is you need a ton of them to get anywhere. They work close range. And don't really burn. For the same wattage of CFL you could run an LED or small HPS and get a better result.

Dirt Man Dan

 

[Regnad Kcin]

Awesome I am currently doing it in a small scale in a selfmade cardboard box but by Sunday I'll have a 95% reflective secret jardin grow tent

Would you please tell us the size of the grow tent you'll be using?

 

[zgrower]

I'll be using a 120x40x40 (all of Those Are in Centimeters)


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[Regnad Kcin]

I'd suggest you plan on having at least 9 23w CFL bulbs arranged in a grid pattern to handle that square footage. Get them low and close to your plant tops...no more than 2 inches away. Closer if possible. Your young plants don't look like they have been trained at all. Perhaps this would be a good time to look into that.

 

[DeanB]

Another point about growing with cfls is your grow space needs to be reflective , even the top to bounce the light back. Mine could be better because I'm a lazy grower, lol. A note about the plant I posted the picture of. She started from seed in a solo cup , then to a 1 gallon. I did do some training on her branches, not much. Took her to harvest at 10 weeks, then put her in reveg by switching the lighting to 18/6 and putting her in a more taller than wide container with fresh mix to bring her to the top. I vegged for 8 weeks, then to flower. So that's her journey in a nut shell. I did get to use natural sunlight at times but she spent most hours under cfls.

 

[zgrower]

Thank you for your participation in my journal all well this shouldn't be a problem because the tent I am ordering has a 95% reflective mylar fully coated within and I forgot to mention my my big bud clone has slightly been low stress trained as you can see here

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[DirtManDan]

One of my old PC case grows

 

[zgrower]

Nice what lighting Are You using Are Those like 3 or 4 cfl bulbs


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[zgrower]

JOURNAL UPDATE!!!
Thanks for sticking around the news are that the plants have finally recovered a little from the heat stress(i feel so bad for burning them) so now they returned to growing again they are doing really well and should be flipped in about 2 or 3 wells


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[DirtManDan]

Nice what lighting Are You using Are Those like 3 or 4 cfl bulbs


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This was 4 25w CFL bulbs. On a power strip mounted to the side wall. It literally just fit.
That was like 2 years ago
Dirt Man Dan

 

[zgrower]

JOURNAL UPDATE!!!
The sun decided to shine here so I kept the first plants indoors and let the sun shine one them they look as healthy as they could be at the moment the roots are also good really white and even coming out the Botom

of the pot


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[zgrower]

JOURNAL UPDATE!!!
everything is growing along perfectly (no pun intended) both plants are growing bushy instead of tall and in a dark green color of course I made a few orders on Amazon for my grow sry it is in German

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[zgrower]

Hey Can someone Tell ne what that is it is the only yellow leaf on the plant

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