Cfl vs. Tube Flor

up for grabs....do they work just the same..i can pretty much move the plant towards the light. would two tubes be enough for 5 plants. or should i buy some cfl's to hang

I am using a combo of both High Output floro tubes and CFL's. I will be adding 4 45 watt cfls 2700k to flower to accompany my 6 39 watt tubes 6500k

Current
1 48" tube floresnent ecoluxlant & aquarium(wide spectrum light)-1900 lumens--

1 48' tube floresnent ecolux: sunshine(full spectrum)2250 lumens--

Does anyone know of a thread than can tell where to buy some good cfls...

sorry, I am growing 4 plants. Remember the more light the better! I will have a total of 414 watts of floro at 34000 Lumens

No thread but Lowes or Home Depot

I got all CFLs at wal-mart and Home depot, get the 40 watt or higher. Those tubes should do you well for vegging. add some CFLs if you can

my seeding process has been slow. i've gotten a hold of some "great bud" Two of them I put in a jar with some wet pt. and planted another in soil. The seed in the soil has sprouted and yet the others have yet to show life...should i give up on them? any tips on seeding

This is a picture of my veg box. It has 6 40 watt floro tubes and does a great job for veg. (the floro tubes are over the bottom plants). The more light you have the better. I got the floro fixtures at Lowe's for $7.50 each...So if you are going to use floro tubes and you have the room, they are pretty cheap to buy. Good Luck.

wait, somtimes it can take up to a week to germ. mine only took 2 days though. picsw day 2 of sprouting, third pic day 7 taken today

Back to the original question.
???- Can or do CFL lights grow the same quality and quant as fluorescent tubes per square foot - ???

Anyone ?

good question. i've been wondering for quite a while why i hear so little about tubes. it seems that everyone is convinced that cfls are the way to go. and maybe they are but with the results i've been getting i would disagree. i have 2 48" fixtures for my ladies right now with 2 60 watt high output tubes in each and have been getting great results. from initial sprout to about 24" is taking me an average of 3 1/2 weeks. and i've been getting about an ounce a plant on a 3 month grow cycle. not great but not bad either considering my size of space restrictions. each fixture cost me $20 with the ballasts and the tubes run me $4 each.

i use cfl's myself, and i haven't used tubes
but i did some searching and found some vertical setups with tubes
if NY goes legal, this is what i'd love to do, i'm doing micro grows until then

that's almost exactly what i was wanting to do originally however i couldn't find the space for a vertical light setup. my two fixtures are horizontally mounted above the plants with the plants growing in between and angled towards them. it was the best way i could think up to get the most light to the whole plant.

wally.rosenberger said:

good question. i've been wondering for quite a while why i hear so little about tubes. it seems that everyone is convinced that cfls are the way to go. and maybe they are but with the results i've been getting i would disagree. i have 2 48" fixtures for my ladies right now with 2 60 watt high output tubes in each and have been getting great results. from initial sprout to about 24" is taking me an average of 3 1/2 weeks. and i've been getting about an ounce a plant on a 3 month grow cycle. not great but not bad either considering my size of space restrictions. each fixture cost me $20 with the ballasts and the tubes run me $4 each.

Click to expand...

Similar setup with 2 tubes + 4 cfls and a molasses micro nutr mix. great results so far!!

Home Depot sells a 67watt CFL it's suppose to be equal to a 300w incandescent 2700k lumens good for flowering I think it costs $15.00

Spluffrollin to answer your question, yes and no. it depends on whether we're talking about t5 or t8 or t12 and or t5ho's vs cfl. are we talking about cost effectiveness? or just their ability to grow nice dank bud in the same space? the answer is they are both pretty cheap to start up depending on the resource (what stores or shops you can buy from where you live) and how you will control heat. the cfls put off way more heat than the fluro tubes ever will. my first cfl grow i was working with four 300w cfls and 4 100w and 7 45w(that kept my temps up in the high 80's low 90's) I had over 25000 lumen's on 6 plants in a 9 sq ft area, thats just an example of what i mean by amount of light and heat associated with it. if you go with the 40w or higher cfl bulb you will have have to have some decent intake and exhaust control to insure a health and happy grow environment for your plants. so in conclusion they work just as well they have different application I.E. what your space is and personal needs. its all about over all lumen's the plants can soak up and how well that light is able to penetrate the canopy. I hope this helps answer the question. I know when I'm looking for answer, or I have a question i like straight forward answer.

hope that helps,

Locdawg

"Stay Faded"

to be exact it was that exact 65 actual watt cfl constructionpig stated that i used i had four of them in my cab and all those other lights i posted got goood fruits from that set up. they cost about $12.00 before tax in Washington state at home depot. thats damn near where i bought everything i used to construct my grow room( still under construction at the moment)