CFL lighting question

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Dentu50

New Member
Hey all! Was wondering if you are using cfl bulbs, with 5000k, will this be ok growing autoflowering strains without having to change the bulbs? Any help appreciated. Also, can someone tell me the difference with the cfl bulbs, the round twisty kind and the ones that look like long horseshoes...gosh, guess I do need a lot of help! Thanks n advance
 
Hey Dentu50, 5000k will grow marijuana.... but it is not ideal. If you can start with 6500k and transition to 2700k you will have better plants. As far as bulbs, I do not know the difference. The closer the better. CFLs can be inches away from plants. Also, consider lumens, not just watts! The more lumens the better! Hope this helps! :peacetwo:
 
<<<are the LED light rated 6500-2700 or is it different? I'm using the window but getting jipped as the sun gets higher for summer. I want to retrofit my apartment with gow bulbs. Today I am looking at Miracle Grow by GE Absolute Daylight LED, or Sunblast CFL 6700 ???
 
conwayakers said:
<<<are the LED light rated 6500-2700 or is it different? I'm using the window but getting jipped as the sun gets higher for summer. I want to retrofit my apartment with gow bulbs. Today I am looking at Miracle Grow by GE Absolute Daylight LED, or Sunblast CFL 6700 ???
Click to expand...

Hey man hope I can help. Im no pro but I do have some knowledge to share. Most led panels have two switches on 'em. Veg and Flower. An led panel is comprised of many different colors from the ROYGBIV spectrum. They utilize different wavelengths to best suit a plant. So different leds will be used based on which setting you have your panel on. Led's will give a better yield and they use a lot less energy than any other light source but cost more for the initial setup. This being said, don't count out cfl's. Cfl's can give great yield if used properly. Led's can not be as close to a plant as cfls (2 inches) so if height is an issue beware. I have no clue which led brands are best cause I never went down that road. Hope this steers you in the right direction

:peacetwo:
 
<<< yes it does thanks. I am getting the LEDs and I won't burn them because they go in my ceiling fan unless i find a lamp trolling. lol (punk rock rock king of Hollywood here...) I have many other babies only three medicals. I have a lot to learn before setting up lab. I did my homework enough to know that I needed to do 2000 hours on a sales plan and go the long route. I hope to know what I am doing by the time I start... With HEMP Legal I wish I had 200 irrigated acres NOW!
 
Hey Nagini, I noticed you responded to someone that responded to my question. You mentioned cfl's which is what I was thinking about using, I have an 4x2x5 tent, and was going to use 5 clamp lights with 3 y socket adapters to each (20) bulbs. Was wondering if 5000k bulbs would be adequate for veg. Cannot seem to find bulk 6500k bulbs at a descent price, and that is a very important factor, would love to have the money for led's, but fixed income has disadvantages.
 
Dentu50 said:
Hey Nagini, I noticed you responded to someone that responded to my question. You mentioned cfl's which is what I was thinking about using, I have an 4x2x5 tent, and was going to use 5 clamp lights with 3 y socket adapters to each (20) bulbs. Was wondering if 5000k bulbs would be adequate for veg. Cannot seem to find bulk 6500k bulbs at a descent price, and that is a very important factor, would love to have the money for led's, but fixed income has disadvantages.
Click to expand...

Lots of info coming your way but worth the read.

How many bulbs total will you have? What is the true watt rating on them (not the equivalent output), are you going to scrog/lst your plants (this helps maintain a level canopy instead of one cola a foot taller than the next, same height buds means the plant will equally distribute nutrition. you dont want 1 cola to be a massive donkey dick and the rest be popcorn buds.)

You said 5 clamp lights but only 3 y splitters. Do you mean a 3-way splitter so you have 3 lights coming out of one socket? I know I just threw a lot of questions at you but the more info the better cause I'm slightly confused. I'm a very visual person and want to understand the question completely before I answer it.

On the note of 5000k lighting, it's not the best choice. It's like getting a "C-" on a college term paper. Yeah, you passed, but you could of had an "A+". Last week I searched for 6500k lights at walmart, home depot, lowes, and could not find any multi packs worth buying. I settled for 5000k and had a gut feeling it was wrong. Spent some time on google and forums and the info I found was telling me to take the extra step to get 6500k bulbs. I ordered an 8 pack of 23watt bulbs for $37 after shipping and 4 individual 23watt bulbs for $29. I will spend the extra buck to get bigger, stronger, frostier plants. I know what you mean about having a fixed income. I'm not working right now and it kills me to shell out this money for supplies.

When picking what size cfl, you have 3 factors. Price, lumens, watts. Bigger is not always better. Yes you can by a 150 watt cfl that puts off 7500 lumens, or you can by five 23 watt cfls @1600 lumens each for a total of 8000 lumens. With the 5 lights you have MORE LUMENS, LESS WATTS, AND YOU CAN SPREAD THEM OUT. You'll pay less money going the 23watt route than the 150w bulb.

If there is any of this you do not fully understand or would like me to delve into, feel free to ask. If you can answe my questions above I might be able to clarify things a tad bit.

:thumb:
 
Sorry not to be precise, I have a habit of not rereading my posts. Yes, each round reflector clamp light will have 3 y splitters, giving each reflector 4 bulbs. I was planning on 4 plants in 3 gal smart pots. Since this is my first grow, and doing it just for me, I haven't thought about a screen of green...or do you think the sog would be better...haven't the foggiest idea how to make it either. And I was thinking about doing autoflowering strain, so that's why I thought the 5000k would be enough. I figured less I could screw up using that strain. I would use feminized otherwise. Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Dentu50 said:
Sorry not to be precise, I have a habit of not rereading my posts. Yes, each round reflector clamp light will have 3 y splitters, giving each reflector 4 bulbs. I was planning on 4 plants in 3 gal smart pots. Since this is my first grow, and doing it just for me, I haven't thought about a screen of green...or do you think the sog would be better...haven't the foggiest idea how to make it either. And I was thinking about doing autoflowering strain, so that's why I thought the 5000k would be enough. I figured less I could screw up using that strain. I would use feminized otherwise. Thanks for any suggestions.
Click to expand...

Okay I see what your lighting intentions are. Clear as crystal now! I think that'll work good for you! If you cant find 6500k in store i'd highly recommend ordering them if you have the budget for it. Mixing light spectrums will be good as go4snypr said but i wouldn't bother with 5000k. So during veg, say 15 bulbs are 6500k and 5 are 2700k. And for bloom, it'd be the opposite. 3 gal pots are an excellent size, good job there!

Alright screen of green (scrog) vs sea of green (sog)... sog is when you have a fuckload of plants (like 20 in solo cups) and you put them into 12/12 really early. You obtain a lot of bud by having a lot of plants but the quality of the plants aren't that good really. Scrog is when you set up a screen (2.5"x2.5" squares or bigger) above your plant (ideally a foot or less) and you guide the growth horizontally. When the tip is 3 inches above the screen you pull it back down to the next square. By growing the main branch horizontal, this makes all the side branches grow vertical. These become new colas and increase the amount of bud sights. Not sure if this is against forum rules but I'll post a link to another website that is a great tutorial. Great pictures and step by step. Very informative and I've read it over and over and over again.

With scrog you have less plants to maintain. You could scrog 4 plants easily and by manipulating it the grow how you want, you can expect bountiful yields and buds that are relatively equal in size. Search the grow journals here for scrog grows. I have one started if you'd like to sub and follow along. It's my first grow by myself but i've helped with grows before and i've gathered information for the past 3 years. I love knowledge on cannabis.

Last note... As for autoflower or photoperiod seeds, I'd choose photoperiod. The come as regular or feminized (pick fem). Photoperiod means you control the veg/bloom cycles dependant on the lighting schedule. YOU control when the plants start to flower. This means you can scrog them and get as many bud sights as you like, and then give the plant the command to make flowers. Not knocking autoflowers because they do grow rather quick, but you can not successfully scrog/low stress train them. They do not like being topped, fimmed, manipulated.

Read the link i posted and follow my grow journal if you'd like. Still waiting on seeds but I plan to include loads of pictures and details to assist and entertain.


:peacetwo::peacetwo::peacetwo:
 
The thread didn't let me attach the web address for the scrog guide. It's

www (dot) ------------ (dot) com/scrog-tutorial


the website doesn't have forums and doesn't sell products so i dont see why i cant post the link. The love for cannabis is shared by everyone no matter what website. Admins, if I did something wrong please let me know.

Dentu50, lmk if the guide explains it and gives you a better understanding. As i stated before I'm a visual learner so the pics helped me a lot.
 
Too funny, the site did the same to me, guess if they don't get paid...well, I'm sure you understand. I will follow your journal....I saw a couple of responses about subbing the journal...did I read that wrong (eyesight is getting worse since I passed the legal highway speed limit, but I won't give my wife the satisfaction, will never hear the end to that !!! LOL), or is it a way to link up somehow to know when you post. If you couldn't tell, I'm not the most tech savvy guy....I refuse to get a smart phone because I don't use half the features on my semi-smart phone now!
I hope I'm posting these things correctly also. Again, have to blame it on being the last person to try anything...guess my wild side is beginning to fade.
And thank you for dumbing things down for me. A lot I read, I really don't understand...and as far as you being a visual person, I need words and pictures combined.
I loved the pictures of your ingredients... I am going to use the same soil, but didn't think about the other thing...the perlite..again, I feel so dumb when it comes to anything about gardening...I use to spend most of my free time fishing, but now since my knees are shot, and implants are out of the question I'm gonna have to something new besides my Met's! Oh, did I mention I'm also a glutton for punishment! LOL.
I was wondering if you know if using a small desk fan would be good for circulating the air since I have a grow tent. Also, I noticed you had the makings of a carbon filter. I was planning on getting a small 4 or 6 inch fan(tent has spots for both) and making that filter. My main question is do the fans for both circulation and exhaust need to run constantly?
Well, I guess I've taken up enough of your time and thank you so much for your help and input. I always say that 420ers are the nicest people...only if the whole world would try it...it would be so much nicer of a world to live in..
 
Too funny, the site did the same to me, guess if they don't get paid...well, I'm sure you understand. I will follow your journal....I saw a couple of responses about subbing the journal...did I read that wrong (eyesight is getting worse since I passed the legal highway speed limit, but I won't give my wife the satisfaction, will never hear the end to that !!! LOL), or is it a way to link up somehow to know when you post. If you couldn't tell, I'm not the most tech savvy guy....I refuse to get a smart phone because I don't use half the features on my semi-smart phone now!
I hope I'm posting these things correctly also. Again, have to blame it on being the last person to try anything...guess my wild side is beginning to fade.
And thank you for dumbing things down for me. A lot I read, I really don't understand...and as far as you being a visual person, I need words and pictures combined.
I loved the pictures of your ingredients... I am going to use the same soil, but didn't think about the other thing...the perlite..again, I feel so dumb when it comes to anything about gardening...I use to spend most of my free time fishing, but now since my knees are shot, and implants are out of the question I'm gonna have to something new besides my Met's! Oh, did I mention I'm also a glutton for punishment! LOL.
I was wondering if you know if using a small desk fan would be good for circulating the air since I have a grow tent. Also, I noticed you had the makings of a carbon filter. I was planning on getting a small 4 or 6 inch fan(tent has spots for both) and making that filter. My main question is do the fans for both circulation and exhaust need to run constantly?
Well, I guess I've taken up enough of your time and thank you so much for your help and input. I always say that 420ers are the nicest people...only if the whole world would try it...it would be so much nicer of a world to live in..
 
Sorry all, didn't mean to post twice...told you I'm not tech savvy, and old enough to have an 8 track player(and it still works!)
 
I read the tutorial about scrog...and I love that idea. I'm a little confused about topping and fiming...I remember a friend of mine that would use bag seeds and screw around trying to grow some years ago. I remember him using his fingers to pull off the tops to get more leaves...never really paid attention to exactly what he was doing. Gosh, to tell you the truth, the whole thing makes me nervous since I've never grown anything....not a green thumb...I even killed a cactus! But, hopefully with your's and everyone else's help I can do this. To some people, the almost 400 invested isn't much, but to me it is...really sucks getting old! But, I have a sort of mantra I live by...as long as you wake up and no one's throwing dirt on you, it's a good day. Thanks all
 
Good to hear back from you! I wouldn't say I'm dumbing it down, just making it easier to comprehend. I'm a trainer at work and am told that i'm a great teacher and simplify things easily. Read that tutorial a couple times. Explore the site and check out the "topping/fimming guide." I'll do a quick run down of it. Marijuana grows like a christmas tree. One main branch with a bunch of side branches.

TOPPING- When you remove fresh growth from the main branch, two new branches will emerge in a "Y" shape. You now have 2 main colas. You can let these new "tops" grow 3-4 sets of nodes and then "top" them again. So the "Y" has a "Y" coming off each side of the "Y". Why? it makes more main colas. That's why! Why'd I'd say why so many times? I like humor lol. So you went from one main cola, to two main colas, to four main colas. It doubles each time.

FIMMING- FIM stands for Fuck I Missed. It's when you attempt to top but you cut too high and didn't get all the growth. Fimming will result in 2,3, maybe even 4 new main colas from where you snipped the growth. If you don't cut low enough, the fim wont produce any new growth.

As to which one is better? Idk. Topping seems more parallel and organized. Fimming seems like a gamble. I'll be topping my plants twice. Refer to the guide on the website for scrogging. He tops once but pins down all four branches to make them grow upward. He managed to get 4 main colas off of one top. There are pictures with this part so you should see what I mean.

It is my pleasure to help, asking questions directly is better than scrolling through 100 threads and picking out one piece of info from each one. As for the desk fan, it should be enough. It should have a cfm rating (cubic feet per minute) and you want that to be 2-3 times what your grow room size is. That's for an exhaust fan I mean. The desk fan will be fine on the plants but you want a fan pulling air to your exhaust. You dont need a fan at he intake. Intake hole should be low, exhaust hole high up. Heat rises.

Tomorrow I will construct my carbon filter and post pics and steps to my journal to guide you. As for subscribing to a thread, at the top of my journal page but underneath where it lists the number of pages in my journal, you will have a few drop down taps. Click on thread tools and select subscribe to thread. And whenever there is new activity you will be notified through the User cp tab. Hope this helps.

REREAD THE SCROG TUTORIAL. All the info is there but it's a lot to absorb. I read it 5 times before i understood topping and fimming. The info was there but it wasn't clicking. Happy Easter!

:peacetwo:
 
Whoops looks like I missed a few things.
1. Perlite helps with drainage. make 20-30% of your mix perlite.
2. Fans... Def run them with lights on. If smell is an issue i'd run the exhaust 24/7. The fan on the plants will strengthen the stems. It wont hurt to have em on during dark time. wont hurt to have them off either. But I personally would keep the exhaust 24/7.
3. Nutrients. Invest in nutrients! Fox Farm is cheap if you get the pint sized trio like I did. It's not the best but all 3 come together, they're easy to use, and better than no nutrients. Great for a first time f=grow. The feeding schedule is on fox farm's website.

I beleave that is all that you asked, peace! :high-five:
 
Gosh Nagini, I almost forgot it was Easter...my kids are both out of the house(that's why this is my first grow). Happy Easter to you too. You must be a wonderful teacher..you've explained many things in a way that makes sense to me, so you can teach an old dog new tricks!
I plan on doing a sort of trial run with some commercial grade seeds before I invest in top shelf ones. This way I can practice topping and fimming a bit. If I get anything out of it fine, but it will be a good practice. If I have any other questions, I hope you don't mind me asking. I will have to post a while longer before I can send a personal message...50 posts I think...reason, no idea. I will follow your journal and see what you do.
1 last thing I wanted to ask...how was dealing with Herbies? Hope I can mention them and not get a "bad boy" message. Was the stealth shipping expensive(oops, I'm assuming this because of your state, mine is behind the times too) and how was the process? Thanks again for all your help...I really appreciate.
 

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