Need help with lighting

[Hashashin200]

I started with CFLs in an air conditioned space and I still had problems with heat. I would definitely look into good ventilation. I found that I spent as much on cfls and fixtures as I would have spent on an LED. I have 2 Mars 400 and 1 900 along with 2 3x3 mars-hydro tents. No looking back. Feel free to check out the journals in my sig.

How many crops would you say you get before having to change the lights and how much do the lights cost to replace? Your bud like pretty good and 35g from one grow off a 200 dollar light seems decent. 180 dollars here would get me an ounce, so I'm not sure if it worth it unless you get a lot of grows off that one set of lights.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Well looking around I got this

2014 Indoor - DWC - CFL - Unknown Seed

Why was his yield so big and dank with the most minimal lighting I've seen so far. I thought with cfls the only way to grow was with 42w an those are about 15 a piece. With 42w I figured you would need ten for a good grow, that's why I assumed cfls costed about 150 for a set up, and the hid lights are about the same price. It looks like he got a perfect plant going with just 12 15w bulbs.

Well i looked through that journal it was pretty impressive

Mmm basically some lst work in the beginning & the application of the scrog net.

Lst was done to expose lower node points to promote lateral branching making for more colas etc, the scrog net was put in place to spread the canopy of plant as not over crowd it.

Dense canopy's reduce air flow raising RH in the canopy which may lead to powdery mildew & bud rot problems.

DWC normally produces a higher yield when compared to soil grows etc.

CFL lighting was kept close to the canopy level to provide optimal lighting conditions, cfl suffer badly with the inverse square law of light effect.



Just some key points !

I didn't check out kelvin of the cfl bulbs tho but more likely using 2700k & perhaps the odd 6500k.

 

[santiago19]

Well looking around I got this

2014 Indoor - DWC - CFL - Unknown Seed

Why was his yield so big and dank with the most minimal lighting I've seen so far. I thought with cfls the only way to grow was with 42w an those are about 15 a piece. With 42w I figured you would need ten for a good grow, that's why I assumed cfls costed about 150 for a set up, and the hid lights are about the same price. It looks like he got a perfect plant going with just 12 15w bulbs.

That's the best CFL grow I've ever seen in my life, holy jayzus.

 

[Dave Groomer]

How many crops would you say you get before having to change the lights and how much do the lights cost to replace? Your bud like pretty good and 35g from one grow off a 200 dollar light seems decent. 180 dollars here would get me an ounce, so I'm not sure if it worth it unless you get a lot of grows off that one set of lights.

Mars-Hydro lights come with a 3 year warranty when you get it through their website. The LEDs have life expectancy of 50,000-100,000 hours. By the time my lights wear out there will be a newer better light to invest in, but I figure I have 5 years or so.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Looked like it had been topped at possible the 2nd node point also, making for a more of flux style of grow.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I think there's like, a lot of under-estimating what can be done with relatively low levels of CFL. I don't want to get ahead of myself as I'm not even 3 weeks into flower on my first grow, but I'm only using 300 watts of 6400K CFL and it's going great. There are techniques you can use ( removing undergrowth, FIM'ing, keeping the distance from the light small ) but I've got to say after reading for years about how bad CFLs for plants I didn't even expect these things to grow let alone do well.

My lights are about 6K lumen a piece and I have three of them. I got them for $20... It was a 2 for 20 special and one came defective, so they sent me a replacement and I fixed the defective one myself. 18k lumens for $25 Then I repurposed a bunch of old lamp sockets and things like that.

But anyway that's just me, I'm an extremely low budget grower. "Only $100" on a light would be huge to me, so I just decided to see how far I could get with these cheap lights and it's been a surprise so far.

 

[akaman]

take a look at my cfl grow and you see what u could get using 6 40 watt bulbs. just check out pics to see my end result with 1 plant.

 

[Hashashin200]

Only $20 for your set up? I figured it would cost like 150 for 300 watts of cfls.


I also found this one.

Chib's C.F.L Closet @ 240 watts

Sounds like using perlite and coco coir will help

 

[Hashashin200]

Also @akaman, that grow looks amazing. Do to happen to recall what you paid for those? I was thinking of our getting a t5 light with similar output. Did you switch spectrums when you started flowering?

 

[akaman]

I believe that grow was in 2011 and I paid $80 for 16 bulbs, 8 veg and 8 flower, ( which I still use for seedlings) so I made a 1 time payment for, so far 4 years of cfl usage, with none blown out as of yet. Yes i did switch spectrums from 5000k bulb for veg to the 2700k bulb for flower. T5 lights work well also. My issue was space so cfl's worked perfectly for me.