Anybody flowered under 4x 250W HO CFL's and know the effectiveness?

newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
Howzit fellow CFL'ers, has anybody completed a flowering session on any strain of weed with 250W CFL's. This is what I am using for my first indoor grow and am 5 days into flower currently. Although I was really happy with the vegging side under the same type of lights, just different wavelength...65K. I am just curious how well the 27K's will perform doing the flowering.

I have 20x easy bud autos from royal queen seeds and a few master kush which vegged with the autos for 3 weeks to a height of about 12 inches under the 65K's........and are now at about 22 inches 5 days into 12/12 under the 27K's.

This was mostly because I had the MK's which I wanted to finish 4 weeks after the 20 autos. Quite a bit of stretch between nodes even though in the veg cycle they were short, tight and of equal distance, they just seemed to have stretched quite a bit these few days, and this is even though I have kept the reflector/light quite low to the canopy?! Any ideas if that's commonplace?

I suppose this thread is a question of how well does 1000W of HO CFL flower??

Plant canopy size is approx 2x (3x3) aeroponic trays with 16 plants a tray and my lamps are 2x 250W with envirolite closed hood reflectors next to each other with a size of 600x600. The spread of light is very concentrated and adequately covers the canopy of 3x3.

Thanks..:blsmoke:
 
S

spindles

Active Member
I think the only way to know is to try. How are your temps with 2x250w in comparison with ambient. If you take a temp of running 1x250w, then both, that should give you a per-bulb gauge for how much temps will rise. It might be better to try some smaller bulbs and mix up the spectrum a little. For example, I run 1x250w, 2x85w in 2700k and 1x65w in 6400k. I found that when I added the 6400k lighting in I saw more trichome production earlier in the cycle and my plants are just dank as hell now, I'm adding an LED panel into the mix soon as well ;)

My own experience has seen me be a total geek and experiment with shit, I have done such exciting things as grown an entire 8 week grow using only a single 125w bulb with a clone in the main box to compare yields according to lighting conditions only (shared air containers ensured temps were broadly matching) and there is no arguing that pouring more lighting energy in makes a big difference. I would question the necessity for 1kw of CFL though, but that is only me.
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
I suppose when I decided to invest in some equipment to grow my own I visualised a set up. And now the set up a 2.4x1.2.2.0 tent with 4x 250W cfl's running over the 2 trays. I wanted a balanced set up probably because I'm anal and think that way LOL. Things needed to be balanced and I had bought the twin amazon 32 hole aeroponic system, I really to experiment with it, I am a product designer by vocation so have already bgun to develop my own version of a DWC/aeroponics system, but that is a story for another day.

As for needing 1000W, I think you can never have enough power...yeahboy!!! But I did go for CFL because I felt it would be more manageable taking me whole set up and growing enviroment beyond the tent...the flat etc.

My ambient temps in the tent are constant 78-79 with 70-80% humidity currently, it was lower before around 45-55 but since they have gone into flower they have grown more, drink more water and hence are sweating like pigs in there. But they look really healthy and vigorous. I also have 2 homemade co2 2 litre bottles with the sugar, water, yeast mix but have no idea what the ppm is.

So yeah you are right, lets wait and see!!
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member


This is day 25...I think!! You can see I tried a bit of LST on the autos. The Master Kush is on the left, the easy buds on the right.
 
crazytrain14

crazytrain14

Well-Known Member
nice set up. i have a 125w clf so sorry man can't help ya on this one. im interested to see how the lights flower out

peace
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
Sweet mate, I'll try to keep regular pics up of their progress. I plan to add the 4 other "50's to the mix tomorrow...so 2000W of CFL.......woooohhoooo!!
 
MasterHemp

MasterHemp

Well-Known Member
hell yeah man setups looking awesome, i'll be watching and see how you go, is this your first grow using all those cfls?
as wbw said you will get more bang for your buck if you switch to hid's, but im not doubting your setup cause it looks awesome and you should get nice buds with all those lights
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
Mostly I wanted to keep things more manageable, I started with 600hid's but really struggled with the heat, I can't open any windows to vent from outside of the room, it HAS to vent into the room itself and the passive intake is also from the room so any heat coming out just went straight back in, where as the CFL's kept things more manangeable.

Also because of the stuff I grow and the size of the trays/canopy I feel I am getting almost as much lumens from the CFL vs. HID. A 250W covers 2 sq. foot giving it 9750lm per sq. foot. Light to canopy = 4 inches most so most of it is not lost.

These are just numbers though so I began the post to try and document what the result will be. As far as I know nobody is doing this that I could find on the net, however I'm sure there must be someone else out there with similar.

My theory was the same as HID...power power power. As we all know HPS has very little of the right spectrum but what they have in their favour is raw ooommph to produce light intensity and create photosynthesis. I'm trying to create the same in a tighter more controlled enviroment. Only time will tell though!! lol.
 
wyteberrywidow

wyteberrywidow

Global
newworldicon said:
Mostly I wanted to keep things more manageable, I started with 600hid's but really struggled with the heat, I can't open any windows to vent from outside of the room, it HAS to vent into the room itself and the passive intake is also from the room so any heat coming out just went straight back in, where as the CFL's kept things more manangeable.

Also because of the stuff I grow and the size of the trays/canopy I feel I am getting almost as much lumens from the CFL vs. HID. A 250W covers 2 sq. foot giving it 9750lm per sq. foot. Light to canopy = 4 inches most so most of it is not lost.

These are just numbers though so I began the post to try and document what the result will be. As far as I know nobody is doing this that I could find on the net, however I'm sure there must be someone else out there with similar.

My theory was the same as HID...power power power. As we all know HPS has very little of the right spectrum but what they have in their favour is raw ooommph to produce light intensity and create photosynthesis. I'm trying to create the same in a tighter more controlled enviroment. Only time will tell though!! lol.
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Well i would like to see how this grow turns out.Im sure the cfls put out some heat and the power consumption is about the same or more.Either way im tuned in to see this till the end.Good luck on the grow.
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
wyteberrywidow said:
Well i would like to see how this grow turns out.Im sure the cfls put out some heat and the power consumption is about the same or more.Either way im tuned in to see this till the end.Good luck on the grow.
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Thanks, as for the power draw...I dont have a way of measuring the actual draw at the plug but so far they are 200W less than 2x 600hid. I have noticed a slower rate of consumption with the cfl's though.

Heat is much less than the HID, I can touch the bulbs no problem and the ambient temps in the tent are around 77-80 most of the time but never higher, this also with only a 5 inch scrubber and fan in a 8"x4" tent with 2 small passive intakes. Believe me it is much less heat, the big CFL's are really good at that. Although this may be interesting to some, the first few days they were as hot as hell then seemed to settle into a relative heat but that was about it.

Anyway I will try to post as many updates on this as it seems to be quite pioneering it seems without sounding to big headed lol.

I think it would be a great learning curve for me and others to see the results.
 
stonesour

stonesour

Well-Known Member
Nice setup, Im curious to see how it works out. I know for me CFL's do provide a cooler way of lighting. HIDs just could not work in my box without doing a major rehaul of the whole setup. Running at close to 900 watts, I find it pretty easy to keep my box cool and provide more than ample light for my 4 shorty plants. Im sure if I were to do a bigger grow like yours, my lighting needs would definatly be gretter. Ill be watching this for sure.
 
del66666

del66666

Well-Known Member
hi mate, i started with enviros, had 3 x 200 watts in a tiny cupboard, was then using a 250 enviro and some 70 watt hps, now i got a 400 watt and 250 watt hps in a 3 x 3 1/2 by 30 inch hi purpose built grow cab vented into the room. enviros are great and i used them cause i believed what i heard about heat issues and needing loads of space and using loads of electric with hps.you will have some good bud off them but when you change to hps ypu will smile like the cheshire cat. used to get 4-6 oz wet per plant, now 9-15 oz a plant. good luck looking good mate
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
del66666 said:
hi mate, i started with enviros, had 3 x 200 watts in a tiny cupboard, was then using a 250 enviro and some 70 watt hps, now i got a 400 watt and 250 watt hps in a 3 x 3 1/2 by 30 inch hi purpose built grow cab vented into the room. enviros are great and i used them cause i believed what i heard about heat issues and needing loads of space and using loads of electric with hps.you will have some good bud off them but when you change to hps ypu will smile like the cheshire cat. used to get 4-6 oz wet per plant, now 9-15 oz a plant. good luck looking good mate
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Cheers Del, I value your input, gave you some rep for that. Must say though that what you used and what I am using are quite different so i am sure the results will be different, or at least I bloody hope so LOL.

This has always been an experiment, I have nothing to lose so am finding it very informative.

Today I added only 750W as opposed to the 1k I anounced last night, one of them got broke when I accidentally stood on it...OOOOOOOPS!!!!!

I took pics but only on my mobile and dont have the cables right now so will rather take some with my camera later tonight.

Anyway things look really well and the calyxs are really starting to spring from everywhere, I just cant get good enough pics of them just yet. Hands too shaky lol.

I wish everyone could teleport themselves to the room and view it and discuss it as I'm nuts about growing right now. Memories wided straight after of course LOL.
 
newworldicon

newworldicon

Well-Known Member
Added the extra 750W of 65K lights, few pics of that and then some close ups of the fledgling buds already I see a big change from yesterday.



https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163353-dscf3974.jpg

https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163370-dscf3982.jpg

https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163369-dscf3981.jpg

https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163367-dscf3979.jpg

https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163366-dscf3978.jpg

https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163365-dscf3977.jpg

https://www.rollitup.org/members/newworldicon-267502-albums-1st-week-flowering-picture1163361-dscf3976.jpg
 
S

spindles

Active Member
That is an insane setup! +rep for that alone :)

How many reflectors is that in there? I count...lots!

I am going to be really interested to read about your results, I have experimented with the lower end of the wattage range and run on just shy of 400w getting nice results mostly, am just upping my wattage a little atm and can't wait to see what effect all that CFL light has :)
 
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