What's The Minimum Lumens For A Grow?

[GMNRecordsCT3]

I'm looking at some CFLs... It's an 85Watter and has 5,000 lumens... I'm growing like 2 plants so I was wondering if 2 of these lights would be a good idea?

5k x 2 = 10,000 lumens


other little questions:

1. CFLs don't get as hot as HPS right?
2. Isn't It Cheaper as far as electricity bills go?
3. All I need is sockets for CFLs?

 

[GMNRecordsCT3]

...Actually I found some CFLs that are smaller but cost less and I'd get more lumens... 8 x 23 watts = 13,280 total lumens

it's like 3 dollars cheaper too... plus I could have more light all around the plants...

 

[buster7467]

That would be the way to go then. This is not the first time that i have heard of people getting the 23w instead of the 42w. If you get about 8 to 10 of them, you should be fine with a couple plants.

 

[Zhu]

well I use cfls as well for the current grow. I use a 125w cfl a 13w T5 full spectrum and 3 35w cfls. I honestly love the bastards, it seems to not care what I throw at them. I have 9 plants under these and they are all over a foot tall with 9-12 sets with max of half inch node spacing. the 125w takes a special hood but its well worth it! the 35w bulbs I have reflectors from walmart on them. also the foot tall plants went from seed ungerminated into jiffy pucks onto a 24/7 running playstation 2 for warmth into dixy cups with at least 8 roots poking out the jiffy cup to being rootbound in them 2 weeks later and into a 3 gallon planter. since I transplanted them they really took off. I fed them 3/4 teaspoon miracid and 1 tblspoon miraclegrow per gallon per pot. Ran a gallon into each planter and let it drained out the bottom. then placed the dry plant into the planters and placed a cup of each solution at the base. I then lowered all the lights within a inch of the plants and covered the sides with bubble mylar and cut a whole in it to place a fan. over a foot tall extremely bushy and already stinking at 2w6d. so yeah 8x23w would be very nice. Theres only 1 problem I have found with cfls. Grow amazing but the buds are shit you really need a hps for budding.

 

[beennoobed]

buds are shit--- thats amazing, sure says alot nobody has bothered to come back and stick up for the cfl's...boo!

 

[DWR]

Minimum is 25'000 for me peace !

 

[Tanuvan]

"buds are shit" <-- come on. "shit" is so generic. How could go on to explain in detail all the setup from seed no less...and on the part that matters most...we get "buds are shit"

Would it kill you to elaborate on what you didn't specifically like about the buds compared to HPS? That would do your post far more justice.

I've heard about density issues. Aside from that, is that all?

 

[rkm]

I'm looking at some CFLs... It's an 85Watter and has 5,000 lumens... I'm growing like 2 plants so I was wondering if 2 of these lights would be a good idea?

5k x 2 = 10,000 lumens


other little questions:

1. CFLs don't get as hot as HPS right?
2. Isn't It Cheaper as far as electricity bills go?
3. All I need is sockets for CFLs?

Lumens do not mean a thing if they are the wrong spectrum. Lumens are how WE HUMANS perceive the brightness of the light. You could have a single bulb at 20,000 lumens and it will be useless if it is only in the green spectrum.

 

[beennoobed]

the agruement with the buds are shit is from ZHU, he said it i was repeating...

and no shyt the spectrum matters...where u come from dude?

 

[rkm]

the agruement with the buds are shit is from ZHU, he said it i was repeating...

and no shyt the spectrum matters...where u come from dude?

Because people put too much emphasis on lumens. Lumens is how humans perceive the brightness of light, not the plants. Plants do not "see" lumens, they "see" spectrum. If the sun gives off 10k lumens, I wear sunglasses, I have never seen a plant wear sunglasses because its too bright.

 

[beennoobed]

omg....
dude, cfl come in 2700k/3500k(flowering) or 6500k(vegging) i believe,
either way you need more lumens so the plant can grow, meaning more lumens more growth!!!!

 

[rkm]

omg....
dude, cfl come in 2700k/3500k(flowering) or 6500k(vegging) i believe,
either way you need more lumens so the plant can grow, meaning more lumens more growth!!!!

Ok man.

 

[Zhu]

sorry about the basic buds are shit in my post I was rather high myself at the time. But heres why I say the buds are shit. Cfls produce good smoking buds but they have no density, extremely fluffy, and just don't weigh. a 5 gram bud could have weighed 10-15 if flowered under a hps. Alot of the shwag and downtown brown that floats around are examples of cfl flowered plants, looks all fat and nice till you weigh it and you got a quarter weighing 5 grams

 

[Tanuvan]

sorry about the basic buds are shit in my post I was rather high myself at the time. But heres why I say the buds are shit. Cfls produce good smoking buds but they have no density, extremely fluffy, and just don't weigh. a 5 gram bud could have weighed 10-15 if flowered under a hps. Alot of the shwag and downtown brown that floats around are examples of cfl flowered plants, looks all fat and nice till you weigh it and you got a quarter weighing 5 grams

Ah ok! That has some meat to it. I understand much better now! Thanks dude! So the buds themselves still taste good. cool cool

 

[leetsoup]

still, RKM is being completely irrational. Knowing the lumen output would help to at least some degree if you took "wondering" a step further and calculated each spectrums ratio of light output.

 

[joebaze]

listen...
lumens is as important as spektrum..
you can have the best spektrum with one 23watt bulb and youll grow shit...
you can have 10000 lumens with a green spektrum and youll grow shit..
both of you guys are correct..
but dont bag on wich ones more important.....

 

[Dr.RR]

Getting back to the original poster; I'd also opt for the 8-10 23W CFL's. I've learned when using CFL's, the more bulbs the happier the plant. It will get light from all angles which is very good.

Now just for some info - My first grow saw me using one 13W CFL for 3 plants which worked believe it or not. They did stretch but the plants still alive. Now that im in the flowering phase I have 2 42W & 2 26W and couldn't be happier.

Guess you really don't need all those 10,000 + lumems BUT if u want a sweet grow with a big yield, the more lights you get the better you will be off.

 

[growone]

and you can get very nice bud from cfl, provided you get the cfl real close to the bud
strain makes a big difference too
but to get a large plant with dense buds, that's where it gets tough for cfl's
to do that you need a lot of cfl's all over the plant, up tight and close to the bud
there is a point where plant size makes hps more attractive

 

[ryangeneral]

I have a Sylvania S55 150W HPS lamp. It gives off 15,800 lumens at 2000K.

I have had this forever and just need a ballast to get started. I just want to grow one plant to start with, should I get a ballast for this bulb or start with something different?

 

[joebaze]

thats an alright bulb..
i have one too n im just looking for the right ballast.
thatll do as long as u have good ventilation!!