CFL Lighting/LST Questions

TypicayGrower

TypicayGrower

New Member
Hello ladies and gents First time grower, first attempt in growing this beautiful plant actually. :oops: You guys have been sweet enough to help me in the past, so I'm asking for your help once again. :|


I started a 'Fast Auto Bud' in soil, 5 Gal pot. (Not here to discuss the pot size.. I'm happy starting a Auto in a 5 gal pot, already had this debate lool) After a few days, the gal popped out :hump:She's been growing good, looks healthy. No bad signs so far. I have her under a 40 watt (Yes actual watt) CFL a few inches away from her. With a fan to help her stay cool, and to help her grow stronger. She's been growing quite well. I'll be posting pictures for you guys. Anyway, my first question. Judging by the pictures I posted, do you think i could start LST? Or should I wait longer? I've been reading mixed reviews on when you should start LST on an auto. Some say to start LST ASAP since autos have a time frame. Some say that's just bad for the plant? I want to increase the yield as much as possible. The plant popped out of the soil on April 19th 2017. So it hasn't even been two weeks yet. I already bought the soft wire ties.



My final question, which I've been breaking my head over. :wall: THE LIGHTING. :cuss: Ok, I was told it was fine to keep the 40 watt CFL since I'm just growing the one plant, and the plant was early in it's life. They did tell me to increase the light after 1-2 weeks. Since this is my first grow, I'd prefer sticking with CFL's before I upgrade to a 150 Watt HPS lamp. I'm sticking with CFL's for now. Anyway, I've been reading tons and tons of mixed reviews, debates. It's overwhelming. So what would you guys recommend? For a CFL setup for one plant? It's indoors, my room. I've heard the 23 Watt Sun Blasters are pretty awesome to use. Some people say to use 5 or 6 of them and spread them around the plant evenly. Some say the higher the wattage the higher the yield. So 50, 100, 150 200 watt CFL's are the way to go. But then I hear a lot of them saying 5-6 23 Watt sun blasters would be a lot more effective because 5-6 23 Watts, provide more lumens than a few 50 100 150 Watt CFL's? I was thinking about doing two bulbs on the left side, two on top, two on the right side. Does anybody know where I can get good quality, cheap CFL's? Should I get higher wattage CFL's or a bunch of the 23 Watt Sun Blasters?

Someone please help :oops: Thank you for reading and taking the time to help a Noob out. If you guys have any questions message me. :wall::clap::finger::wall::weed::P
 

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haloman420

haloman420

Well-Known Member
LST- Depends on how short you want your first bend.

Lighting- One 40 watt cfl is not adequate. I see some stretching. I grabbed a 200 a while back and it did well up to the 10 inch mark, then started stretching. I recommend 4 150s to 200s. I would have a socket spliter on the top and one on both sides. You can actually grab the cfl while on and not get burnt. Heat shouldn't be an issue.
Amazon or ebay.
 
srh88

srh88

Well-Known Member
TypicayGrower said:
Hello ladies and gents First time grower, first attempt in growing this beautiful plant actually. :oops: You guys have been sweet enough to help me in the past, so I'm asking for your help once again. :|


I started a 'Fast Auto Bud' in soil, 5 Gal pot. (Not here to discuss the pot size.. I'm happy starting a Auto in a 5 gal pot, already had this debate lool) After a few days, the gal popped out :hump:She's been growing good, looks healthy. No bad signs so far. I have her under a 40 watt (Yes actual watt) CFL a few inches away from her. With a fan to help her stay cool, and to help her grow stronger. She's been growing quite well. I'll be posting pictures for you guys. Anyway, my first question. Judging by the pictures I posted, do you think i could start LST? Or should I wait longer? I've been reading mixed reviews on when you should start LST on an auto. Some say to start LST ASAP since autos have a time frame. Some say that's just bad for the plant? I want to increase the yield as much as possible. The plant popped out of the soil on April 19th 2017. So it hasn't even been two weeks yet. I already bought the soft wire ties.



My final question, which I've been breaking my head over. :wall: THE LIGHTING. :cuss: Ok, I was told it was fine to keep the 40 watt CFL since I'm just growing the one plant, and the plant was early in it's life. They did tell me to increase the light after 1-2 weeks. Since this is my first grow, I'd prefer sticking with CFL's before I upgrade to a 150 Watt HPS lamp. I'm sticking with CFL's for now. Anyway, I've been reading tons and tons of mixed reviews, debates. It's overwhelming. So what would you guys recommend? For a CFL setup for one plant? It's indoors, my room. I've heard the 23 Watt Sun Blasters are pretty awesome to use. Some people say to use 5 or 6 of them and spread them around the plant evenly. Some say the higher the wattage the higher the yield. So 50, 100, 150 200 watt CFL's are the way to go. But then I hear a lot of them saying 5-6 23 Watt sun blasters would be a lot more effective because 5-6 23 Watts, provide more lumens than a few 50 100 150 Watt CFL's? I was thinking about doing two bulbs on the left side, two on top, two on the right side. Does anybody know where I can get good quality, cheap CFL's? Should I get higher wattage CFL's or a bunch of the 23 Watt Sun Blasters?

Someone please help :oops: Thank you for reading and taking the time to help a Noob out. If you guys have any questions message me. :wall::clap::finger::wall::weed::P
Click to expand...
youre not ready for lst in my opinion. if youre going to stick with cfl's this first grow, get way more. like the other guy said one 40w is nowhere near enough. i tried a cfl grow years ago. i used a shit load of 26w i think? it was a mess of wires and sockets everywhere. do a lot of reading and youll pull something.. and growing your own is much more fun then buying it. feels like you accomplished something big during your first harvest. after you finish this run if you decide to stick with the hobby skip the 150hps. grab a 600 or a 400. but id recommend the 600. the price difference in minimal for the difference it makes and foot print the lamp gives off. good luck new chick
 
Lorenzo420

Lorenzo420

Active Member
Hey Typ,

How's everything going so far? I'm currently working on a grow cabinet using CFL's, and I'll start by saying I've been really happy with the results, and that it was my own naivety and inexperience that has held me back with this current grow, not the CFL's. You started by saying you had your plant under 40 watts of CFL light, but that you planned to upgrade. I think that would be fine for the first week, but you want to up the wattage of lights as much as you're able. I currently have 9 23 watt CFL/s, and 3 20 watt CFL, 4 x 23 watt 6000K, 5 x 23 watt 2700K, and 3x20 watt 2700K for a total of 267 actual watts of CFL light. I hear the mixture in light spectrum is good to have, while focusing on 6000K for veg and 2700k for flower.

srh88 said it was a "mess of wires" using CFLs. Not my experience at all. As you can see in my first picture, I took a piece of wood and zip tied two power bars to the bottom, then I found light socket to wall outlet adapters, and then found a 1 light socket to 2 light socket adapter, giving me two lights for every 1 outlet on the power bar. I have both power bars running to a power brick with a built in timer. Works flawlessly. And from the pictures, you can see the girls don't mind the CFL's at all. All growth happened in a 3 week period, from the beginning of April, to when the most recent pictures were taken on April 26th.

Where I live, the average box of 4 CFL's runs about $18.00 CDN give or take. I hope this helps you!

Cheers!Lights.jpg Plants.jpg Plants2.jpg
 
Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence

Well-Known Member
If you can afford it, get a 315 ceramic. The 150 watt hps you're considering is incredibly inefficient - HID lights get far more efficient when you move into the 600 and 1000 watt range.

Or get this http://timbergrowlights.com/100-watt-citizen-clu048-linear-framework/ It will far outperform even 200 watts of cfl. It will pay for itself in one run.

And if head space is a concern, look into quantum boards.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/diy-with-quantum-boards.927159/page-196#post-13505251
https://www.rollitup.org/t/quantum-boards-grow.927065/

Quantums will also stomp all over CFLs
 
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