how many cfl do i need? please help

[tigerbuds]

i have a grow area indoors witch is 170cm height,130cm length,70cm width only thing is i dont know how many cfl i need for veg is 2 gobles 42watts a pice that put out 220watts normal light enough if that a total of 440watts of light the cfl are them energy saver ones..

 

[RJD2M86]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

How many plants do you intend to be growing?

 

[vintner]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

That sounds ok, but more smaller lights would be better. Fluoroecent lights are not very intence, and their engery deminishes quickly the further you get away from the bulb. Consider keeping your plants small in veg via LST or topping so you can keep a larger area of the plant as close to the lights as possible. Then, if you've got the set up and equipment, switch them to HPS to flower. Good luck.

 

[tigerbuds]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

Am growing 6 plants they r 2 weeks old with this cfl till they are about 30cm or 40cm in height then i will flower them to sex them with a 400watt hps do you think thats enough light for what am doing thru veg? or should i get another couple of cfl or the tube ones ?

 

[vintner]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

The more lights the better. Since you've already got bulbs, I'd stick w/them, and just get more if you can afford it. What ever you think will work best for your set up.

 

[stikeegrnlf]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

mmm...you're going to need more lights bro, way more. on my first grow I used 6 200 watt spiral fluoros on TWO plants, and got decent results. By decent i mean I was happy to have buds. Both plants together amounted to about half of a mason jar-full, dried. The high was good, and they were covered with trichs, but they were not very sticky. I suggest you either get much more lighting, or scrap a few of the plants. Use my results as a low approximation of what you can expect. Peace

Stikee

 

[tigerbuds]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

hey vin and stikee if i put a 400watt HPS in my grow room will that strech my plants or should i just get a MH light its either 1 or the other for this time round coz am short on funds thanks

 

[vintner]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

MH is used during the veg state of the grow. HPS is used for the flower stage. They both put out a lot of heat, so make sure you have adequate ventilation before you stick one or the other in there. I've read that MH puts out more heat. If I had to choose between the 2, I'd get more fluoros since you've already got some, veg w/them, then switch to HPS to flower.

 

[tigerbuds]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

thanks Vin i decided to stay the the cfl lights so now i have 2. 42watt,1. 24watt,and a 25watt and one frosted blue light that is for growing or for troical fish its a 100watt they seem to like it when to the hydro shop today had a look around learnt alot about different lights

 

[tigerbuds]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

thanks vin think i got it under control now went out and got more cfl

 

[gren]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

get 3 42-watt cool whites and 3 warm whites and 2 200 watt monsters u should do good

 

[tigerbuds]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

its all good puting the hps lamp in there too for 4 weeks then i flower

 

[mush182002]

Question for gren or anone who knows

quick question, I have 3 daylight and soft white cfl bulbs. ( they range from 30-42 watts). What are these the200 watt bulbs you are referring to? For example , my 42 watt cfl bulb says it emits 200 watts but only using 42 watts of energy. Is this the same as the 200 watt "monsters" bulb you are referring too?

 

[vintner]

Re: how many cfl do i need?? please help

Alright, plants read available light differently than we do. cfl's are pretty new, and I haven't seen any definative research on a cfl only grow. When it comes to artificial lights, I have read that plants like light intencity better than watts. It's pretty well known that you will get more bud by useing one 250 HPS as opposed to three 75 watt HPS because one 250 is more intence that three 75 watters.
I've only used tube fluoros, but if it were me, I'd take a 42 watt bulb that says it "emits" 200 watts of light and Omit the 200 watt part, or at least only double the original 42 watts.
Intencity is the key. The nice thing about CLF's is you can get those 42 watts (or what ever the bulb says) right up next to your plant. Where w/tube flouros you can only get a max of 10 watts for every foot of bulb. Tubes are great for a scrog grow; you can keep all the bud sites really close to all the tubes, but IMHO you can do a much better conventional type grow w/clf's (if that's what your budget depicts) and w/just a few more total watts, and a little ingenuity, you can keep all the bulbs close to all the bud sites. Just like a scrog grow. IMHO if you're going to use compact flouros, use many small wattage bulbs and hang them like X-mas tree lights throughout your plants. As close as you can get them to as many bud sites as you can. Using string and pulleys, or fishing wire and tape, or what ever it takes.
Light intencity, Think about it
Vin