Cfl Proximity To Foliage

ok im using cfl's on my grow. I was wondering if anyone would know whats going on with my plant...or have even heard of this. it was on 12/12 lights for awile and now has been on 13/11. its about 18-19 weeks into flowering and ive noticed i keep getting ALOT of new grownth. i just keep noticing new growth....new stems, new leaves and new white pistols. and there is only a few amber trichomes. about 5% amber if that. but when u look at the plant, the pistols are about 50% amber...but like i said i keep getting the new growth and my flowers are not filling out like i hoped for. I didnt think super cropping would have done this but could that be why it continues to grow new plant? i mean i even use sensi bloom too, and gave it another hour of dark. well please reply.....i have NVR heard of this happening. thanks

Do you have enough light? Is it possible there is light leaking in during lights on? After that amount of time, they should be done!

there is alot of light and its really dark during flowering. i have all the basics down, ive just nvr heard of a sativa that flowers that long. i mean i looked up on google and stuff, and there are sativa strains from africa and columbia that flower for 20-30 weeks.

Ever single picture i see here is people without hoods... CFL's are spiral, your loosing half if not 3/4 of the light by not having a hood or reflective walls to bounce the light back in...

I myself have grown with MH/HPS and Flourescent... Even Pro Med growers use CFL's to veg their clones to the size they want before going to flower.. its the most cost effective and draws
the least amount of current and literally no heat.

I myself build my own hoods to fit my nets.... Each hood is 5ft long x 3ft wide housing 10x32W cfls' to produce 1000Watts. Internodes are always Superclose and never stretching... lights hood is 6 inches from the top and no light waste as the hood is designed to reflect everything down the the canopy.

I use mix spectrum 70/30 (so in the 1000w hoods i have 7x6500 cfl's and 3x4500 cfls. I also have a hood for flowering which is same size in dimention but use 10 bases with 10 Y adapters for a total of 20x23Watt cfl's producing 2000watts and i see ABSOLUTELY! no differnce in buds (of the same strain) growing under HPS vs CFL ... if you dont treat your plant properly and give it its correct nutrients and keep its PH where it should be you can have a million Watts and you will still get crap.

#justmy2centswithoutreadingallthepagesinthisthread.

tre93543 said:

Well, I knocked them down a bit, but they came back with a vengeance. I have caught maybe 1000 of them with sticky traps, but they are breading quicker than I can catch them. Today I went out and got some neem oil, mixed it up and drenched the soil with it. I hope it works. I have not seen much growth on her lately, just a lil fattening of the buds, and that tells me that the root gnats are winning. I will post in a few days and tell how it went.

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the neem oil worked very good, 3 treatments in 2 weeks, and they were all gone. sorry I forgot to post this sooner

how do you sub? i only get on here once in blue moon... I know I joined in 2007.

What strands are you growing that you're flowering that long? 12 weeks should have done the trick

Quick Question for you Veteran growers....

I have looked for hours on the internet and cannot find a reasonable answer...

During Flowering (currently week 6) is it more important to get direct light (using CFLs) on the actual flowers/bud sites or on the leaves? I ask this because I have an abnormal light configuration and am wondering which will be more productive to the plant overall.

Another way to ask is: Is it more important to have the light closer to the individual bud sites or higher up providing an even distribution of light across the entire top of the plant (sacrificing closeness in proximity to the flowers)?

thank you all for your time and direction....

Well I been growing with 26watt/1750 lumen cool/warm for a few yrs, and what I have noticed is that cfls are a good stretch bulb. I have a fem right now at 3weeks and 4days who has 6 26watt 1750 lumen warm bulbs shining down on her and some lights on the side and base. Im covering at least 90% of the girl in light. My top light at most is 3inch away from the beautiful colas n white hairs but she seems she still wants to stretch around the lights. It looks amazing because its only the leaves from the 1st n 2nd nodes pointing up. from the top down.The rest of the plant is relaxed.

SmoothPollock said:

Quick Question for you Veteran growers....

I have looked for hours on the internet and cannot find a reasonable answer...

During Flowering (currently week 6) is it more important to get direct light (using CFLs) on the actual flowers/bud sites or on the leaves? I ask this because I have an abnormal light configuration and am wondering which will be more productive to the plant overall.

Another way to ask is: Is it more important to have the light closer to the individual bud sites or higher up providing an even distribution of light across the entire top of the plant (sacrificing closeness in proximity to the flowers)?

thank you all for your time and direction....

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I keep them as close as possible w/ daily rotations of the pot. Seems to love it.

I have , im budding with 250watt MH and 2x 150watt "Daylight" replacement CFLs i have gotten about 25+ tops and the lights are on every side , 250w from top down and 150w cfls on two opposite sides , i have 3 feet of growth in 2 weeks , my main strain is DJ shorts Flo , its a fast grower for sure , but i have to adjust my light every day , by the end of the flowering its should be about 6 feet if not 6.5 feet , she is an Amazon for Sure , i have pics and vids if any one wants to take a look , lol As for the person i replying too , i hope this will give you a good anwser

p.s In Vegg room i use 60watt CFLs 900 Lumens each a 12 pack at walmart is about 2.89 after tax and i also use dual 48" vegg FL bulbs in a shop light , fantastic for a bench style vegg and clone room.

I have a thread posted on this but can't seem to get any answers so I will try here... These girls have been in the solo cups about 10 days under two 42W 6500 CFL in a small cabinet. My tent runs 14 23W. Do you think these plants are okay to put under the full light?

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I use a lot of CFL for Veg and even flowering. I have had great experiences with them and their ability to supply abundant and specific light for a low cost. There is no problem with bringing them into full light as you have described, but I would keep lights away at first and gradually move closer to very small seedlings or clones. Hope his helps. Rock those energy savers dude. They work great when you play around with them a little. I prefer a large multi spectrum CFL flowering light over HPS in most situations!

how close can yall have a 125wcfl to seedlings/clones? just got one just ofr that.

I have a 125 watter w/ a hood cover, I keep it 2-3 inches away from the top of the foliage at all times (very close), then add 26w CFLs all around as they grow into the space! You can practically have the bulbs almost touching the plant if you have a good setup with proper ventilation and temps going...

GrowinDad said:

I have a thread posted on this but can't seem to get any answers so I will try here... These girls have been in the solo cups about 10 days under two 42W 6500 CFL in a small cabinet. My tent runs 14 23W. Do you think these plants are okay to put under the full light?

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Yea man, I would deff putt 'em, under the full light...they should do well, Good Luck!

I am using cfl's in a 4'x4'x7' grow tent. I have 16 cfls (approx 1000 watts total) and the plants love it. I did notice they will grow tall if you do not put the lights close. I started with 6700K bulbs and now have changed to 2700K during the flowering. Will there be enough light for the buds now that i've changed to 2700K? The best improvement i've seen with the cfl's is a lot less heat and less electricity usage.

Hmmm, I am now at day 17 in a cabnet I built, These are what they look like so far under 2x42 watt 2700 k and 2x13 watt 2700k. I know I need more and a hotter Kelvin range for a real good harvest but cant afford more till the 1st of june, some reflective surfacing wouldnt hurt either, but for now since its erly veg , how long should I let them go before it really starts to effect the outcome?




These were taken last night and I have since seperated the three in one into thier own containers.

Lots of people on here talk about how bad tinfoil is, but its still a reflective material whether it creates hotspots or not, my question is is it better to have tinfoil than to not have anything reflective at all?

I just like to have a moveable fixture the size of my ceiling in my box filled with CFLs. I then just LST them and grow like that. Works out very well.