Autoflower Thread & Resource Guide

Crypnotic

Active Member
Hi guys. Like I said earilier I am growing a non-auto Mazar, she is just in flowering now. Cant wait to get the auto version!

I am also growing some other things, namely I think my EasyRyder is almost done, she is exactly 2 mos old from sprouting today. What do you think time left for her is? I have taken a few nugs from her already and dried them. Couldnt wait any longer! I will say she nails me to the couch, albeit the smoke is a little rough.

Also, meet my stupid fucking cat. He loves to chew on the plants whenever I dont watch him close enough when I am working in the grow room. Stupid fucker even ate my second ER plant while I was at work one day and I accidently left the grow room door open, she was only a week or so old. He is blind in one eye so I give him a pass and didnt make him an outdoor only cat... yet.

Been growing all with CFL, got some real 125w ones along with an assortment of the 23w kind. Still havent decided the best arrangement, it gives me something to do.

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LMFAO. Dont take offense, but your cat looks a little slow lol. Must be his bad eye that give him that appearance. I say give the poor guy a break lol. Not sure if it will work, but maybe spray your plants with neem. Cats dont like certain smells and that stuff has a strong citrus smell to it. Wont hurt him either if he eats any.
 

Crypnotic

Active Member
You know what I love about the word can't? Any time it is used, it inspires someone to try anyways. In this case, it most certainly CAN be done, it would just be an awful waste of money. The cheapest way would be to go to Home Depot and buy five 68w (300w Replacement) CFLs to flower them with. They are the size of footballs and use a regular socket. But they are $15 a piece, plus you would have to buy sockets and not to mention that the CFLs would not penetrate nearly as far, giving you less bud per plant. You can go with the higher end CFLs (125 true watts or better) but they require different, more expensive sockets, and for the price you could have bought a nice HID with a reflector and remote ballast.

I did flower 2 Diesel Ryders under a single 68w CFL and got just over 7g dry off each. I think I could have ended up with more but I had to keep them in small 6" pots due to height restrictions, and the light schedule was on 12/12 because I had other strains in the cab that were not AF.

And as far as the 600w goes, it would be ideal but I really think you could do 12-16 AF plants SOG style in small (1gal or less) containers under a 400w, maybe even a 250w and get decent results. I have 8 Diesel Ryders and 3 Apollo11 (non AF) under a single 250w right now and they are all looking gorgeous, none of them stretching for light. Now all mine are in 1gal grow bags, and I am not topping or training in any way, otherwise the canopy would be so large I would need two 250w.

I think most people who prefer CFLs have to worry more about heat and thats why they go with CFLs. Well Im here to tell you, 250w of CFLs get hotter than a 250w remote ballast HPS. Each CFL had a ballast between the bulb and socket which produces heat along with the bulb. Watt for watt, a remote ballasted HID bulb will always be cooler than a CFL. What CFLs are damn handy for is supplemental light, or when you are using no more than 150 actual watts. Anything more than 150 actual watts of CFL in one space, and you could probably increase your yield by 25% or more just by switching to a HID bulb of equal wattage.

There's just nothing I hate more than seeing someone spend gobs of money on a zillion CFLs when one HID would do much better, run cooler, and be easier to maintain. I was scared of HID bulbs for a long time, but once you use one you will always have them in your arsenal. Now for veg I ALWAYS use CFLs or fluorescent tubes because you typically dont need hundreds of watts.

Just putting some food for thought out there. All too often I hear people thinking they have to conform to a certain way of doing something because people say it CANT be done. Well many years ago people would have said fluorescent lights CANT grow quality buds, or AF strains CANT produce high potency buds, and we have proven them wrong so why not keep trying? :)

KB
Nice post. To be honest, an HID setup should be at least three times hotter than a cfl setup. Hard to argue with you b/c you have used both and speak from experience. I use three 105 watt cfls and they raise the grow room temp about four degrees without vent. I posted for ppl witht he same grow room as mine that operate a 400 watt HPS. On average, the 400 watt hps increased temps about 15 degrees without venting.

I can put my hand on my cfl and it feels warm, not even hot. My ballast on each are not even warm feeling, almost no heat at all. Maybe its new technology, IDK. You put your hand on hps 400 watt bulb and you will pull away a giant blister that resembles a hand. I think what is important here, the higher the watt the bulb, the hotter will be. The less surface area to disapate heat, the greater the heat that comes from one point, or small space. The more cfls the more surface area for disapation. the greater the watt for HPS, the greater the heat in one focused point.

I think a 250 watt hps is prob not that bad. A 400 watt is twice as hot. and 1000 watt is three time as hot.

Dont get me wrong, I dont think cfl do a better job than HPS, they dont. I one of those ppl that have heat issues so I use cfls instead.

Have you ever used 400, 600 watt hps? Have you used 400 and 600 watts of cfl?
 

husalife

~ Out-Dawrz ~ Moderator ~
yea it is if you want shit results and that aint what this is about KULONG
I have grown quality all organic bud under nothing but CFL's. lol just because you may have gotten shit results

doesn't mean we do. You may get shit results outdoors, then what, you gonna try to convince everyone that its impossible to grow

that you can only buy it.....because you couldn't get it too work.

You keep your Kelvin Temps in check and you could grow a house full with CFL's
 

123petey999

Active Member
If you say so.

Happy growing. ;)
whats the point havein 15 plant with 5g on each u might aswell get a hps and have 15 with an oz on plus if you get cought u mite aswell be getin the most out of it as 15 plants is 15 plants no matter what size they are
 

KuLong

Well-Known Member
whats the point havein 15 plant with 5g on each u might aswell get a hps and have 15 with an oz on plus if you get cought u mite aswell be getin the most out of it as 15 plants is 15 plants no matter what size they are
My poor child...

If you are only getting 5g each with your CFL's, you have more problems then your lighting son.

Keep up that 8g with your HPS if it makes you happy. ;)
 

upthearsenal

Well-Known Member
okay, it seems like there is a bit of a debate about CLFs and HPS, look at riddleme's calling all n00b post where he talks about making it rain, "I am all about personal medical grows and showing folks how easy and cheap it is to grow your own medicine so for my first grow (to prove a point) I grew Matilda a 21 inch tall plant under one cfl with an added T9 (it was only 97 watts of light) I harvested 47.2 grams off her (1/2 gram a watt) and while pics of her are all over this site I am including them here for those of you that have never seen her."

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/316301-calling-all-noob-growers.html

that's just to get that facts straight. i dislike CFLs because i have my t5 and HPS (400w), and i would never go through a complete grow with cfls or t5, but that's because I like my setup.
it is possible to have an amazing grow under CFLs, you just need to know what you're doing.

your yield and light are not as closely related as you think.
 

KolorBlind

Well-Known Member
Nice post. To be honest, an HID setup should be at least three times hotter than a cfl setup. Hard to argue with you b/c you have used both and speak from experience. I use three 105 watt cfls and they raise the grow room temp about four degrees without vent. I posted for ppl witht he same grow room as mine that operate a 400 watt HPS. On average, the 400 watt hps increased temps about 15 degrees without venting.

I can put my hand on my cfl and it feels warm, not even hot. My ballast on each are not even warm feeling, almost no heat at all. Maybe its new technology, IDK. You put your hand on hps 400 watt bulb and you will pull away a giant blister that resembles a hand. I think what is important here, the higher the watt the bulb, the hotter will be. The less surface area to disapate heat, the greater the heat that comes from one point, or small space. The more cfls the more surface area for disapation. the greater the watt for HPS, the greater the heat in one focused point.

I think a 250 watt hps is prob not that bad. A 400 watt is twice as hot. and 1000 watt is three time as hot.

Dont get me wrong, I dont think cfl do a better job than HPS, they dont. I one of those ppl that have heat issues so I use cfls instead.

Have you ever used 400, 600 watt hps? Have you used 400 and 600 watts of cfl?

I hear where you are coming from, but in all honesty, I dont have ANY experience with non ventilated grow as I think this is MADNESS!!! Haha, but hey if you are making it work then obviously it can be done. I used nothing more than a computer fan blowing directly on my bulbs and a 100CFM fan WITH a scrubber to cool my last grow. It was a 250 and 150 HPS side by side and barely rose above ambient outside temps.

I guess my best comparison would be when I put a 150w HPS in my mini fridge with the ballast wired to the outer back side, my temps were never over 81F. When I took my 150HPS to use for my closet, I put a 125w CFL in there, same ventilation and same fan blowing on the bulb and could not keep it lower than 90F without opening the door 5 times a day.

Another example is when I used four 68w CFLs in my large fridge, the temps rose to 91F with a 80CFM fan & no scrubber. I replaced them with a 175w MH and a 150w HPS and wired the ballasts up in the freezer section (non working fridge) and my temps were a slightly cooler 87F max.

And you are 100% right about CFL bulbs being cooler to the touch, I have never been dumb enough to attempt touching any of my HID lights as the radiant heat lets me know it would be a dumb idea. I really think that, in an enclosed space, CFLs disperse heat better, which is not a good thing. Keeping all the heat in one general area makes it easier to direct your fans & ventilation to extract more efficiently. After all, its better for the canopy temp to be 85 and the ambient cab temp be 77 (average for me with HID) than for the ambient and canopy to be 83 (avg for CFL in my case). Could be the way I set things up in particular, or maybe just luck who knows.

I will for sure always have both CFLs and HIDs (and soon some T5s) in my arsenal because, well.....why not right? They all have their place and this hobby is so fun to experiment with. Also, more often than not, people run 4 to 10 CFLs where 1 or 2 HIDs could be used and I think that is where people need to stop and realize they are making more trouble for themselves.

Id say one major thing CFLs have over a HID is safety, however. If a 250w HPS falls, it will start a fire much faster than a CFL. I had a 68w CFL fall and sit on one of my plants for over 8 hours one time. The plant was pretty much toast but the plastic grow bag was barely starting to melt. If that had been a 250, I may have come home to a large smoke plume and the police & fire dept. waiting for me with handcuffs :-0

KB
 
LMFAO. Dont take offense, but your cat looks a little slow lol. Must be his bad eye that give him that appearance. I say give the poor guy a break lol. Not sure if it will work, but maybe spray your plants with neem. Cats dont like certain smells and that stuff has a strong citrus smell to it. Wont hurt him either if he eats any.
No offense. His bad eye makes him a little off balance. Which isnt a really bad thing, he doesnt jump as far and acts like a dog most of the time. I might get some of that stuff, but it would just be easier if I keep the door shut! He isnt going outside and he knows it. When I am nailed to the couch he is in my lap sleeping.

So anyone got any idea on the chop time for the ER posted? I am thinking a week...
 

Crypnotic

Active Member
I hear where you are coming from, but in all honesty, I dont have ANY experience with non ventilated grow as I think this is MADNESS!!! Haha, but hey if you are making it work then obviously it can be done. I used nothing more than a computer fan blowing directly on my bulbs and a 100CFM fan WITH a scrubber to cool my last grow. It was a 250 and 150 HPS side by side and barely rose above ambient outside temps.

I guess my best comparison would be when I put a 150w HPS in my mini fridge with the ballast wired to the outer back side, my temps were never over 81F. When I took my 150HPS to use for my closet, I put a 125w CFL in there, same ventilation and same fan blowing on the bulb and could not keep it lower than 90F without opening the door 5 times a day.

Another example is when I used four 68w CFLs in my large fridge, the temps rose to 91F with a 80CFM fan & no scrubber. I replaced them with a 175w MH and a 150w HPS and wired the ballasts up in the freezer section (non working fridge) and my temps were a slightly cooler 87F max.

And you are 100% right about CFL bulbs being cooler to the touch, I have never been dumb enough to attempt touching any of my HID lights as the radiant heat lets me know it would be a dumb idea. I really think that, in an enclosed space, CFLs disperse heat better, which is not a good thing. Keeping all the heat in one general area makes it easier to direct your fans & ventilation to extract more efficiently. After all, its better for the canopy temp to be 85 and the ambient cab temp be 77 (average for me with HID) than for the ambient and canopy to be 83 (avg for CFL in my case). Could be the way I set things up in particular, or maybe just luck who knows.

I will for sure always have both CFLs and HIDs (and soon some T5s) in my arsenal because, well.....why not right? They all have their place and this hobby is so fun to experiment with. Also, more often than not, people run 4 to 10 CFLs where 1 or 2 HIDs could be used and I think that is where people need to stop and realize they are making more trouble for themselves.

Id say one major thing CFLs have over a HID is safety, however. If a 250w HPS falls, it will start a fire much faster than a CFL. I had a 68w CFL fall and sit on one of my plants for over 8 hours one time. The plant was pretty much toast but the plastic grow bag was barely starting to melt. If that had been a 250, I may have come home to a large smoke plume and the police & fire dept. waiting for me with handcuffs :-0

KB
Thanks for the info.

I rent my place and cant cut holes in my closet. So no venting for me, and that pretty much rules out an HPS. I cant use a portable AC b/c the electircal wiring cant handle it in this house.

I prob have 170 bucks invested in cfls. With that much money I could have bought a starter HPS system for HTG Supply. I just try to do the best I can with what I got.
 

`SoA || Asi

Well-Known Member
thanks man
i have a cheap setup
mix is wormcastings/coirbrick thats it
and only gave her nutes less than half percent once so far (SeaSol)
energysaver/sun grow xD
 

KolorBlind

Well-Known Member
I rent my place and cant cut holes in my closet.
This is NONSENSE!!! Haha. I thought the same thing back when I rented, then a good friend came over and showed me just how easy it is to patch drywall. Landlords can never keep up with damages in their rentals, plus they pay people to fix things for them. If you patch a hole correctly, they will never even know its there. I told my landlord when I moved out that I put a small hole in the wall, and patched it up real well. He was thrilled that he didnt have to do any work, and I never heard from him other than getting my deposit back in the mail. The best part is, there is no way to tell it was a circle, so no one would ever assume it was for ventilation.

If you are interested, it will let you do so much more, here is how to cerrectly patch drywall:

-Find 2 studs, and cut your hole right in between them.
-Then when it comes time to move, cut a large rectangle around the hole that goes from the center of one stud to the other.
-Go to Home Depot and ask for some scrap drywall (they always have some). Worste case, spend $6 on a small piece of new drywall
-Measure the hole and cut a piece to fit as snug as possible.
-Use nails to secure the cut piece to the edges of the studs that you left exposed.
-Patch the seams with mud (very, VERY easy) and sand it all down.
-Paint over it with some cheap interior semi gloss white paint (thats what almost all renters use).
-You're done!!


In case you do decide to go that route, I make a little sketch in Google Sketchup (best program ever for designing grow rooms/cabs, and its FREE). The circle is the original hole, the rectangle around it is the hole you will cut before you move. I even colored the studs :)

Whatever you decide, hope tyhe grow goes well and thanks for being a productive debater and not an asshole, I love to see people who can agree to disagree and not get bent out of shape. Its how we all learn from each other, so keep up the good vibes :)

kolorblind-124986-albums-random-fun-pics-picture1177311-untitled.jpg

KB
 
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