Decisions decisions!

[I'mOne]

Ok so I painted my grow room and bought seeds. I rigged up some lighting and want your opinions. My seeds are the auto fem Malawi, one Kali China, some Kushage bags seeds, with Lebanese and Panama as well as Bubba Hash on the way from Ace. I also purchased some CopperChem seeds from Greenpoint. All are regular seeds except the lebs and the Malawi. My lights are one fixture made from an old chandelier and a zildjan cymbal with three way adaptor to plug three bulbs in. Those are two regular 60 watt CFLs and a 150 watt CFLs equivalent and another lamp is fixed up similar with grow bulb 60 watt equivalent led. I plan in starting some seeds then possibly moving them out doors in April ? The Malawi's are the only auto flower seeds. I have potting soil with no fertilizer from Walmart. It has 20% perlite. I have fabric bags to transfer them into after they get too big for the peat pots.
Should I run Malawi's and a bagseed? Or one of each? Do I need more lighting for three plants? Suggestions please? Is this a good set up to start with?

 

[TorturedSoul]

First, ditch any thought of "equivalent" and think in terms of the actual wattage of the things. Any comparison to the incandescent bulbs that may be in a desk lamp somewhere is completely irrelevant to growing plants, lol.

Second, yes, you'll want more light. Since there's no way to get all of the light from any light source to fall only on the plants you'll be trying to grow, start thinking in terms of the square footage of your grow space - because that's what you'll be illuminating. Get it lit up nicely and, whether you grow one plant in the corner or fill the space with plants, your garden will have a chance to thrive. From your description of the CFL bulbs, I'm guessing that you have one 40-watt and two 13-watt ones, or thereabouts, or 66 watts total. Arguably enough to handle the growth phase requirements of a garden that is roughly two square feet (1' x 2'), because 30 watts per square foot is a good minimum for that. For flowering, you'll want to shoot for 50 watts per square foot or better, which would equate to about 1.32 square feet. This assumes an enclosed space that matches the wattage, and decently reflective walls (if you have painted them with a bright white low-sheen (flat is best, but you can't really clean it, so some folks go with something like eggshell), that'll work if you can match the space to your lighting).

Third, orientation and distance... Low-wattage CFL bulbs like that have no intensity, and what little they have is lost at any real distance. You'll want to maintain about a 1" spacing from your plants to those bulbs after your plants have gone beyond the seedling stage. Actually, if you wait until then, you'll probably see your seedlings stretch towards the lights... and fall over. So you'll want them pretty close, pretty quick. Also, a CFL bulb produces no light from their socket end (obviously) and not much from the other end - the vast majority comes from the "sides" of the bulb. Therefore, you'll want them oriented horizontally, more or less parallel to the leaves. You should also think about creating some kind of reflectors that mount onto the bulbs (individually), so as to redirect the portion of light that isn't going directly towards the plant. Soda pop and other drink cans actually work reasonably well for this, are easy to cut/trim (a Dremel tool is your friend ), and you can't beat the price, lol. You can slice one top-to-bottom, make a partial cut around the top and around the bottom, and open it up like a wing(?). The bottom can be left on and simply bent outwards a bit to help reflect what little light comes off the top of the bulb, and the top can be cut so as to fit snugly onto the base of the bulb or the material around the socket. If done correctly, you shouldn't need to use any kind of fastener to hold it in place. It might take a few tries, but soda comes in six-packs, twelve-packs, etc. so that shouldn't be a big deal. Get the orientation straightened out - and make reflectors that mount close to the bulbs, and parallel to them - and you'll end up lighting the plants (directly) under them instead of the walls, floor, ceiling, and the entire volume of space contained within.

I didn't mention the LED bulbs because I have no idea what their actual wattage is. "Not very much," would be my guess, but every little bit helps. However... It looks like the LEDs that are actually inside the things are crippled by the plastic half-globe that surrounds them. I don't know why anyone would market a "plant bulb" that's designed like that, unless it is so that they look enough like the "old-fashioned light bulbs" that people think of them as such. Anyway, if it was me, I'd cut one away and see if the diodes in it are all pointed in one direction, directly away from the socket end (hopefully, they are, but I have no idea). If so, then I would do that to all of them and hang them base-up so that those diodes are pointed at the plant(s).

Those multi-bulb adapters seem handy, but as you can probably surmise from reading the above, they end up being a handicap (IMHO).

This is just a guess, but you will probably have a better time of things and suffer fewer frustrations if you only try to grow a couple of plants on your first run. I'd suggest one, but then you're one dead plant away from a failed grow (unlikely, but it can happen). Perhaps a couple of the Malawi autos? If you go that route, you can set your light timer to run them 18/6 (18 hours on, 6 off) and keep that schedule from sprout to harvest, because autoflowering plants are not dependent on receiving a certain minimum number of hours of uninterrupted darkness every day in order to initiate and continue flowering; they'll grow for a bit, then begin to flower (and continue growing, this first part of the flowering phase is often referred to as "the stretch" - you'll figure out why ), then stop growing and continue producing flowers until you end up with (hopefully) some decent buds at harvest time. People's light schedules for autoflowering plants vary; some go with 18/6, some 20/4, some run their lights continuously, et cetera. I prefer 18/6, because it gives the plants a regular dark period and saves a little on electricity. There was a study done to determine how useful more (hours of) light is with autoflowers, and if I remember correctly, 20/4 was more or less the point of diminishing returns... So you may wish to go with that for a light schedule, it's up to you.

 

[I'mOne]

Thanks TS, this is why i posted before germinating, i can get an idea of what i need to change. I can certainly get more lights before proceeding. Thats what it sounds like i need to do.

 

[TorturedSoul]

If you do decide to cut the end off of one of those LED bulbs, I'd be interested in seeing a picture of what you find. And good luck with your upcoming grow!

 

[Carcass]

Here ya go @TorturedSoul

 

[I'mOne]

I think i will rig up some more lights come payday and maybe start two seeds. Probably the Autoflower fems. (Malawi/NL)

 

[TorturedSoul]

Here ya go @TorturedSoul

Okay, cool, about what I expected to see. No problems with the "surgery," I assume? That should improve the light, for our purposes. Now... How to attach *some kind* of reflector to it? You could just screw it into an aluminum utility light fixture in a pinch, but I'd want something that attached to the bulb, so as to be closer to the business end of the thing. That might not matter a great deal, but... IDK. Right now, if you plug it in, it's probably going to produce a light footprint that's closer to "floodlight" than "spotlight," right? It's not powerful enough to help much with a large footprint, but get that tighter, and...

BtW, what is that bulb's actual wattage?

 

[TorturedSoul]

I think i will rig up some more lights come payday and maybe start two seeds. Probably the Autoflower fems. (Malawi/NL)

Good idea. One thing about those "little lights," you can buy a few or even one at a time, I suppose. On the other hand, it is possible to end up with "n" amount of watts - and realize that, between the lights, themselves, and any sockets/cords/plugs/etc. you need to use them, that you've spent as much (or nearly so) as a comparable wattage HID or LED panel - both of which would probably be more efficient at the same level of gross wattage. You can offset that (efficiency) a bit by being vigilant at keeping the things as close as possible to the plants, and adjusting them every day while the plants are actively growing (then leave them at that closest point when the plants stop getting taller/bushier and proceed to the bulking-up stage). And, of course, you have the ability to have all of them at different heights (or even surrounding the upper portion of your plant(s), almost like a double set of rings, again with the bulbs being as close as possible to the plant and each aimed so as to throw as much of their output onto the plants leaves as you can get.

Looks like you're soon to be an active cannabis grower, lol. Have fun, start a journal (to potentially help both you and others), best of luck to you - and enjoy your eventual harvest. Remember everything you end up learning and apply it to the next grow. In the interim, try to start a "grow fund" and add to it a little bit at a time if possible, so that that next grow is even better than this one will be.

And that's how people discover that, although cannabis use isn't really addictive... growing cannabis is .