Suitability Of Lights

[theshed430]

Ill make this short and sweet.

Constructing an HPA Aero, LED but wanted to get some experience. Did 6 triple cheese in soil and nose dived it pretty hard. Had no end of issue for heat to humidity etc.. ended up getting 2oz of decent bud and another 2oz of crap. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Much more prepared this time. Happy I have got the nutes and watering right, much better control over the temp and humidity. I began and have continued with a trimming / topping program. I have now just cut away all the bottom and lower "tops" 2 week into flower that i think will produce the popcorn to give the level of tops near the light the best chance.

So all in all pretty happy.

My question is how will my lights limit me now if I have got everything else right? I have a 8 tube CFL 400Watt then supplemented this with 7 x 20watt 3500K CFL and a random 6400K 65watt CFL I had spare. I know these are not suitable but it was only meant to be a short term experiment to gain a bit of experience. I am looking forward to finding out but I like to hear your opinions. I have not supplemented any CO2 and it sits around 400ppm.

Thanks in advance

 

[Thirstymuppet]

Alright chief. Sounds like you are starting off on the right foot..."more power to you". .
I did something similar on my 1st run recently. I thought I did quiet well with very little lighting by CFL. You have way more by the way so should do comparatively well. I wanted to see how much I could produce without going out and buying too much stuff. Now that I have a baseline I am thinking of upgrading to one of those square LED banks(or whatever they're called!). I would imagine your setup is well lit up but would depend on the size of your canopy. You might include that info. While I'm here, if anyone has seen a thread on LED buying guides I would be very grateful for a link cause I can't find one here! .

 

[theshed430]

Thanks for the reply. Done my final trim and all is looking well. I'm looking forward to re the results. I did a lot of reading on LED lighting and ended up building my own.
50% made up of individual wavelength leds and 50% of the the 3 white varieties mounted onto an aluminium sheet. You can do it at a fraction of the the price if you have a basic electronics knowledge.

 

[Thirstymuppet]

Wow that's amazing. I never considered building my own. Ill have to check that out. Did you make a journal? I would love to see the setup as it was and your LED setup. And especially your results!

 

[PurpleGunRack]

Ill make this short and sweet.

Constructing an HPA Aero, LED but wanted to get some experience. Did 6 triple cheese in soil and nose dived it pretty hard. Had no end of issue for heat to humidity etc.. ended up getting 2oz of decent bud and another 2oz of crap. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Much more prepared this time. Happy I have got the nutes and watering right, much better control over the temp and humidity. I began and have continued with a trimming / topping program. I have now just cut away all the bottom and lower "tops" 2 week into flower that i think will produce the popcorn to give the level of tops near the light the best chance.

So all in all pretty happy.

My question is how will my lights limit me now if I have got everything else right? I have a 8 tube CFL 400Watt then supplemented this with 7 x 20watt 3500K CFL and a random 6400K 65watt CFL I had spare. I know these are not suitable but it was only meant to be a short term experiment to gain a bit of experience. I am looking forward to finding out but I like to hear your opinions. I have not supplemented any CO2 and it sits around 400ppm.

Thanks in advance

With CFL you are limited by the poor penetration which means you have to train your plants so all buds are almost touching the light.
CO2 only has an an effect if you have your growspace covered with more than 1000 PPFD, which you're very far from.

While I'm here, if anyone has seen a thread on LED buying guides I would be very grateful for a link cause I can't find one here! .

It's right here and super simple: Build your own or buy HID!

If you're interested in building your own check out the link in my signature.