Advice/Help deciding on cfl setup

bucketjack said:

Ok so background on future grow is;

1 plant, grown in a small diy grow cabinet which i haven't built just yet but it is going to be approximately these sizes:
60cm wide X 50cm deep X 120cm Tall.
I will be having pc fans intake/exhausting air. And lining with diamond lightite mylar. Will be mainlining it too, to hopefully increase yield and keep size down low and wide.

Im going cfl for the full grow with around £50 set aside for lighting, but i cant decide on what setup

1st idea is:
To get this 200w dual spectrum bulb (12,000 lumen) for late veg/flower.
And also buy a 125w 6500k bulb (7,000 lumen) to use for when its seedling/beginning of veg.

Or

2nd idea is:
5x 30w (2,000 lumen each) 2700k bulbs
5x 30w (2,000) lumen each 6500k bulbs
Total 300w 20,000 lumens
And plug 1 of each into these

y adapters and then plug into 5x 2m lamp sockets and have them hanging down around and so i can raise and lower each one individually. I will start with just 4 blue bulbs though for seed/early veg, then add the rest.

I just cant decide, both ideas will cost me around £50(ish). I like the 1st idea as its got the reflector and its dual spectrum and just one piece so is a bit easier. ...but the 2nd idea is a fair bit more watts and lumens, but not sure if will it be worth the extra work and maybe it will be too hot, also no reflector, although I'm sure i could make a reflector and attach to each one.

Anyway i cant decide so would appreciate some advice/opinions etc, thanks. Please don't say get a Hps or something similar though as thats not what I'm after.

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justugh said:

LED
is a better choice in light then the CFLs

led gets a deeper penetration of use able light
led makes less heat then CFLs (temp of a cfl is 160-170 degrees)
led has a higher use able energy then CFL (the plant will grow more make more using LED then a CFL)

i have used every form of light there is except cob and plasma
CFL has a huge flaw as u add more lights the heat it makes increases at some point the amount of heat it makes vs the amount of light u get is not worth it anymore ....Cfls only have about 12 inches of use able light after that it is to defused to be any value to the plant ...and u need to keep atleast 2to 4 inches away from the light leaving 10 to 8 inches of worthy light

the only benefit to Cfls is the the fact they cost so much less but it does not make a plant worth the energy or time compared to LED


if u are dead set on CFLs your best choice is to pick strong watt bulbs so u have less actual lights in there making heat ( your going to lose out on over all lumen power and coverage but the heat will be manageable )

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bucketjack said:

Thanks for the reply man. Very useful info i was looking at led but where the grow cab i wanted to make is short the plant wouldn't be very tall just low and wide, but with led it would have to be quite tall because you need to have a biggish gap between canopy and light. What sort of lumen/wattage led would you suggest for the area ive suggested?

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justugh said:

300w led with a 90 degree lens ....if u can find one with 120 degree that would work too

the degree of the lens tells u how much the light will spread out
the higher the degree the larger the footprint but the less depth it gets
u do not need to go to big or deep so a 300w will be a nice overpower for u and if u can get a 120 lens with good reflective walls it should put your whole grow area in the maximum par range for that light (par is how they measure the energy plant gets ....instead of lumens ....Photosynthetically active radiation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthetically_active_radiation

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bucketjack said:

Cool thanks again man. This led looks sound, and matches what you have suggested, reviews are good on all mars lights i have read anyway. Unless you meant 300w true power? Heres the light and specs.

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bucketjack said:

Yeh already said about that in the first post, ive been researching about it and diamond lightite seems to be the way forward. Will be lining all the inside of the diy growbox with this diamond lightite mylar:

Also any chance of answering my last post please mate, can continue my light search then. Thanks

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justugh said:

that light will do u very well.......your good no need to work on it any more

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bucketjack said:

Brilliant! Thanks a lot for all your help mate much appreciated! I couldnt settle until you answered that lighting question lol.

So basically to finalise and get your seal of approval hopefully haha:

Ill be growing from seed and mainling
1x fem photoperiod plant (probably Violator Kush, as its short, high yielding, high thc, mainly indica.

-DIY plywood grow box 60(wide)x45(deep) x120cm(high) approx sizes.
-All interior lined with that diamond lightite mylar.
-2x 120mm 74cfm pc fans exhausting with diy carbon scrubber built in for smell.
-1x 80mm 54cfm intake pc fan (plant height so should hit plant when young to strengthen aswell as being a air intake)
-1x 300w mars (true power 140w) led grow light.

-Medium is plagron light mix soil with added perlite 70:30.
- Plant magic old timer grow/bloom nutrients.

I will be keeping it relatively straight forward as it will be my first time growing anything, (bar cress which i grew when i was about 5 lol) just want a little stealth grow, hopefully pull a few ounces from it ill be happy then.

What you reckon?

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justugh said:

np glad to help good karma saves my ass daily

your box i would round out the numbers 90x90x120 .....this way if u make a scrog screen it will come out even holes even spacing
yep on the mylar

as for your fans u are using LED so that is not that much heat .....but that DIY carbon filter is going to slow down the suck on the exhaust fan ( u need your area to cycle the air complete once every 5 mins .....i like once every 3 mins ....a 90x90x120 is 36 cf so that should be ok

as for your soil i am USA .....i do not know that brand of soil so i can not comment on it
as for your feed........i know feed system those are only part of them

here is what u should look for
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004PS4B08
see it is a all in one buy kit on the side has a feed plan for u to fallow ....being new u fallow that and then the next plant u tweak it ....improving the plant each grow .....that system i just showed u is organic

since u are new u want to make sure your feed is a organic base ( less work less chance of something going wrong first time out ) .......chemical feed plans need special work to keep the soil in balance
http://www.amazon.com/FoxFarm-Dirty-Dozen-Starter-Kit/dp/B00KC8HWTM/
that is a chemical based feed system ......as u see it is more products and on the side of the box the plan to take care of it is much more involved then with organic system

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bucketjack said:

Cool, with the size of the box i chose that size; 60wide x 45 deep x 120 tall, because the mars led light only has a 1.5ft x 1.5ft area when flowering so didnt want the plant to grow out of this size and not get any light, also only wanted a small size box just in case i ever have to pop it out the way for a ahort time it could be moved easier by 1 person.

With the pc fan/diy filter, basically i was going to build a space bucket so bought sone stuff for it like the fans and diy filter stuff. the diy filter looks like that in the picture. Someone on the space bucket site has tried and tested it for 1 plant and says it works perfect. Basically because its 1 fan then the carbon then another fan on top (stacked) the fans cfm doesnt increase, but the fan pressure does, so doesnt lose much if any pressure. So the 74cfm should be real good still. As the make a box 60x45x120 thats i would only need a fan 11m3/h.

Just to make sure im getting things correct here, if my fan is 74cfm and i had a box which was 37cfm, that fan would change the air in that box twice in 1 minute, right?

Thaks again for all your help

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justugh said:

yep every 30 secs 28 secs
just have the intake a little less powered the system will maintain negative pressure when the door is close but it will still stay relatively cool maybe a 3/5 degree diff from the intake air ....so if hiding is a issue for u then u are covered thermal camera will not read much it will not trigger a response

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bucketjack said:

coool proper glad thats all sorted in the mind with the fans. Yeh thats why i chose a 80mm intake with 52 m3/h and a 120mm exhaust with 123 m3/h in the hope of making negative pressure, should be good right?
Oh on the hiding side i ment from certain family members that wouldnt appreciate that sort of thing. But yeh good to have it hidden from those kinda people too lol.

Thanks again man will report back here when the grow box is built. Or for more info/opinons.
Although the building side will only take a few hours to make it will probably be a good few months untill i make it yet unfortunately. Like i said i want to get as much info and plans ready so when the time is right im ready with the knowledge and a good plan.

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justugh said:

let me help u out ......the plans part does not matter as the plant dictates what u are going to do

really the only way to do this is to jump in and do this ........every grow here has variables that other grows do not so we are only good for helping u figure out a tweak to improve your system (basically trail and error with educated guessing)

u have the area covered with a good light and high reflective
next part is the soil/medium u are using for the plant (soil/hydro/super soil)
then picking a good plant strain (photo/auto....short/medium plant)
then getting a complete feed system ready ( chemical or organic)

as for the first plant .......i always tell ppl to grow it natural so u know what the strain does and fallow the basic feed plan on the side of the box ( next round u know what the plan does and did so u can tweak the feeds and try other training methods for the plant)

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bucketjack said:

Cool yeh I see what you mean, that's good man.

I have decided on Soil and Nutrients, id like to use organic nutes (plant magic oldtimer) reviews have been brilliant for it over here combined with a light mix soil, which i have chose Plagron also because of good reviews.

I cant wait to get stuck in now! But will likely be a good few months before I can yet.

I'm planning on growing from seed, id like to find a strain i like the sound of and buy 2x seeds, then my first grow do naturally, then 2nd id like to train as I'm really I'm really interested in mainlining, it looks so good and seems such a good way to increase yield too. Have you read this: http://www.growweedeasy.com/mainlining-nugbuckets ...its so interesting!

Also when I'm looking at strains and it says height, I'm never too sure how much that matter because I always thought
for example; indica strain (normally grows 1 - 1.5 times more when flipped to flower) you can just flip the plant when its around half the final desired height, so even if it says on the seed website Height = 2metres, but you want a plant with a final height 80cm, you could just veg until about 40cm then flip it and it would only grow approx 80cm total.

Does that make sense? Anyway I always look to find strains that are short anyway or under 1 metre anyway because that's the final size I want to grow id rather low and wide.

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