What's the best way to set up CFL's for 2 plants?

C

canirelax

New Member
i know i made a post before but atleast i know what i want, i just dont know what the best way to do it. since i i dont live in the us, we lack walmart,home depo etc.. its kind of hard to build a grow room when eveything u have to buy is online and shipping is costs more than the product itself.
my grow space is like this
W-70cm L-45cm H-2.10m
i want to use cfl's for sure as i researched abit and decided its the only way i can grow for myself as of now.
so there are 23/42/65/85/105/125/200w cfl's out there, there are adapters and spliters and hanger and clamp reflectors and what not.
what would be the best way to set up my grow room?
i will need to buy everything and i will probably end up spending over 150 probably more but i dont mind as long as i KNOW that i will have what i need to grow a decent yield.
it takes me a while to settle in to what i want to buy since i research all the time but because there are many different opinions out there its quite hard to decide on one.
 
hi there and welcome to our site =)
i only grow with cfls and i highly reccomend using as many low powered bulbs as possible.
10x10w bulbs will do a better overall job than 1x100w bulb because of the inverse square law ( distance from plant divides light energy recived).
with lots of low powered bulbs you can put them very close to the plant with minimal burning.

6500k bulbs produce a healthy amount of blue light for vegging but can be hard to find and expensive
2700k bulbs on the other hand are extremely common everywhere on the planet and as we have recently concluded they do contain more than enough blue light for veg growth and are exactly whats needed for flowering too.

decent reflectors are very useful too, but can add a lot of cost to a cheap grow.

ideally you need at least 50w per cubic foot of plant for best benefits and check the lumins on the labels. 100,000 lumins is pretty much the sun =)

feel free to check out my grow journal in progress.
im by no means monied up or a pro yet, but im damn good at getting plants to grow and a microscopic budget =)

here is a sneak peek ;)

GEDC00083.JPG
GEDC01791.JPG
 
looks ok. plants look great. but they are both red bulbs by the look of it.

the grow room looks a lot more pro than mine, but then everybodies does, lol
i havnt completed my grow room yet and im just winging it.

to be honest it really doesnt matter what configuration you use as long as the plants get enough light. like 50w per cubic ft.
his lights will not penetrate very far down. the tops will be getting fantastic light but the lower sections of the plant will be light popcorn probably. you could by bulbs as big as a man, but inverse square law still applies and the futher away you get from the light the weaker it is quite dramatically. a couple of large bulbs is simple and clean and very expensive, especially if you break one or its life comes to an end.

lots of small lights will share the energy much more evenly than big ones and if you break a couple its no big deal.
 
to be honest its better for me if i can get a good few cfl's lights setup instead of 2 but i dont know how to configure it, its not only the bulbs, there is reflective shit needed to be placed around AND on top of the lights so light does escape as much.
my main concern is how to setup my room, when i get the right idea (which i haven't got yet, which is why i post all the time) i will without a question go on a vigorous hunt for the materials needed, currently i have a spot that can contain 2 pots and enough space for them to grow till they are mature ( i think) i need some kind of cube or box to put them in so that i can surround them with mylar and also get some reflective material for the top, problem is i have to order everything online and be shipped to israel. everything here is expensive and shipping to here costs alot. i can buy a bulb online but the shipping is same as the price of the bulb itself (sometimes more)
so you see where i stand now :)
 
reflectives are over rated.

the cheapest and simplest way to make light mounts (this is the way i will be going when my money allows, but my grow budget is microscopic due to family overheads coming first)

paint one of these matt white (not shiney, but diffuse)


Mount a bunch of these to it
=Batten Holder

use these on the back side of the plank to make multiple wires into 1 for a plug

=5A 4 Terminal Junction Box (i have seen these as strong as 30 amps (uk power 30*220=6600watts capable))

its that simple, and very very cheap.

that junction box either on its own or in a chain to allow more sockets can take about a thousand watts, so you got no worries mounting loads of bulbs in this way. =)

you can put legs on those planks or chains or whatever you want to place them where you want =)

diffuse white paint is one of the best and cheapest reflectives you can get and it garauntees not to create hotspots.
 
wow looks good thanks for the info ill try it out, im not a diy kind of guys so ill get my cousin to do it for me, what are the pieces i need for the light, like the sockets and all that, what are they called if you can name the specifically so that i can translate them into hebrew
am i right that a junction box is there so that all the lights are connected in one way?
 
canirelax said:
wow looks good thanks for the info ill try it out, im not a diy kind of guys so ill get my cousin to do it for me, what are the pieces i need for the light, like the sockets and all that, what are they called if you can name the specifically so that i can translate them into hebrew
am i right that a junction box is there so that all the lights are connected in one way?
Click to expand...

edited my post...names included now =)
 
wow thanks for your help Gig i think thanks to you ill be having a grow room in no time.
im at work now and i got this done so far, what do you think - its just the wood part but i got a nice wide piece so that i can fit up to maybe 6-8 bulbs and thats just for the top - circles are where the holes are for the strings to hold it up.- ill have to find some way for it to be able to move up and down easily check it out.

ofcourse i will buy paint and paint it in white matt when i get home, as for the bulbs what would be the best combo, i mean i can hold maybe 6-8 so i can put a mixture, what do you think?

what do you think about side lights and all that, from what ive seen and read bulbs should be places on the sides aswell so that the lower and side plant gets some light
 
aw mate that pic wont work, please use our internal photo space.

they strip any tracking stuff from mobile devices and give us unlimited space e.t.c ;)

if you happen to get some 6500k's then by all means use them for vegitation stage and maybe leave 1 in per board during flower, the rest i would use 2700k's
as per recent conversations on here, 2700ks contain more than enough blue light to veg with and the bulbs are substatially cheaper. if your able to get lots of bulbs i probably wouldnt even bother wasting money on 6500k bulbs.

yes you want side light top light any light you can possibly bring to the grow is good. i think like 100,000 lumins is real sunlight. if budget was unlimited i would even have a transparent floor with lights shining upwards, lol
 
GiGaBaNE said:
looks very good my friend, you will get the hang of it in no time.. it will help when my money starts to flow and i can make some myself to actually show rather than just try to describe whats trapped in my skull ;)
Click to expand...
In a topic i opened in another forum someone said that cfls arnt good for growing
what do u think about it?
 
im impressed, so your saying go with many 2700k and not bother with 6700?
and another question, how do i keep my plant short and wide instead of tall, ive read some guides but i couldnt understand much. i see people using things to keep the plant at a certain height like a net or something, is that for keeping it short? does it not hurt the plant when it tries to grow and something's in its way?
sorry for flooding but you seem to have good knowledge and im about to start so i want to know everything i can get while i have the time.
on a side note i was wondering, would a 150w MH take more electricity then say 6-8 bulbs? i was thinking if i use so many bulbs would i be better off getting one MH which covers the whole grow space?
not saying one is better but considering my space which is enough for 2 mature plants, i thought maybe mh would be better for me, as for heat i could get a small fan and attatch it close to the grow space, vents are out of the questions, its just a corner of a small room. will a 2m height be ok for a MH
 
yes 2700k will go just fine for the entire grow if you have enough of them, if you can get a couple of 6500k's then it couldnt hurt, they do contain a bit more blue light for their wattage and since height is a concern for you the more light they get the more short and dense they will be.

grows with things above them to influence the grow is called scrog, i havnt used these methods yet but we have a ton of info on this site about them.

LST is a method of bending the plant to reduce vertical growth and increase sidebranching and it works very well, but takes a lot of patience and time to maintain.

My favorite at the moment is called topping, which it basically cutting the growing top off the plant (which can be used to make a clone) this slows down vertical growth, promotes side branching and forces the top two side nodes that are left after topping to take over the job of the top so your plant now has two tops instead of 1, this can increase overal yeild too! its also very quick and easy to do compared to other grow manipulation tasks =)
 
good info! when can i cut the top of the plant and can i clone without a seed hormone? can i just plant the leaf in soil and water it normal like i do with seeds?
also what do u think of this vid for lst? i dont wanna mess my plant up and doing this thing im sure u can screw it up.
 
Take ur time mate im at work and i stil have some time before i get my plants indoor. Stil have painting building etc
ill upload a pic of my outdoor growing plant maybe u can tell me if it looks ok
 
ok back from school run.

from my thinking there are 2 types of cloning, water based and medium based.

one of the best ways is bubbler cloning which is basically a tub of water with air bubbles being driven into it constantly, some people dont even spray their plants with water using this method and the high o2 prevents rot type issues.

water cloning is best used for plants that will be water based such as hydroponics and deep water culture (roots for water are different from roots for ground, water roots have difficulty in soil and vice versa)

medium based cloning can be very difficult and frought with all sorts of problems, primarily drought death and fungus/rot death.
you could just stick it in mud and hope for the best, but this may take forever and most of the time wont work at all.

perlite is probably the cleanest and easiest way to medium clone as it drains well carries air very well and is easy to check if roots have formed.

rule one in all cloning really it to make sure you cut at an angle as this makes it easier for a stem to take up water for itself.

this is the method im currently using to make some clones. i havnt completed it yet as it was only written yesterday or the day before, but im an expert in clone failure right now and the odds of failure with this method look very low to me =D

kimmy said:
I have a cheap and very reliable method 99.9%.

1. I make a small hole in the side of a 3 oz cup at the the bottom.
2. I fill it with perlite and water it well
3. Use something to dig a hole to the bottom
4. Take a cutting with Fiskars
5. Make 1 light scrape on stem with the tip of a paring knife
6. Re-cut stem under water at 45 degree angle
7. Dip cutting in rooting powder
8. Place cutting in perlite cup, pack it down and water it in
9. Mist cutting with bottle sprayer
10. Place cutting in bathtub with the hole facing downhill so it drains well
11. 12 hours later mist again with bottle sprayer
12. At the 24 hour mark gently water it again
13. Wait 48 hours before gently watering again
14. Wait 72 hours until the next watering....
15. Cutting will be ready to transplant at the 12 day mark.
Click to expand...

now bear in mind that the spraying part should be applied intelligently as humidity in peoples cloning location can vary wildly.
damp buildings may never need to mist whilst dry ones will need constant vigilance.

going as long as the plant allows is critical as this is what forces the plant to learn to drink for itself.

rooting hormone is optional, but people swear by it...im not using it for my latest clones, mainly because im convinced mine is rotten.

a tip from myself: before you cut the clone candidate, take a mental note of the position it holds its leaves. if for example it holds them horizontal ie 3 and 9 o'clock, then you should mist when they sag downwards to 4 and 8 o'clock angles, if this looks like it will mean spraying more often than the plan intends, then hold off a little but never let the leaves sag to 5 and 7 o'clock positions before spray mising or you risk the point of no return, but thats just my theory and is as of yet unproven.
 

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