CFLs for flowering? How Many? What Spectrum?

Its my first time and I want to know if CFLs will work instead of an HID light. My box is a narrow 2 cubic feet with room for 2-4 plants depending how big of pots I go with. Anyway, Im thinking of using 100 watt CFLs so I still get high lumens without heating up my small box to a million degrees. Low cost is also a must for me. I know they work for veg but what about flowering? How many 100 watt lights should I use? Do I use a mix of Colors?

Any Help is much appreciated

i use cfls all the way,definately use them if you only have a small space n few plants,blue spectrum for veg,red for flower,check out my pics,i do ok n i cram the buggers in lol,i get too greedy,i dont veg them for long so that they dont grow very high because my height space is limited

it'll work, most will say 6500k (daylight) for veg and 2700k (soft white) for flowering. for a small scale grow it's not going to make too much difference especially since vegetative growth isn't important to you in such a small space.

i think you could get away with one 45 watt CFL (the one that is rated at 150w equivalent) or a couple 23 watt (100 watt equivalent) CFL's and still flower, be warned you may get a few grams and that's prolly it.

i had one cfl,5 10" plants and i got nearly 3oz....did pretty well i thought,put them into flower 10days from seed so i had kind of a sog setup goin on except it was more like a puddle than a sea

I think im going to go with 4 100w. You said 23w is equal to 100w but what I have now says 100w on the package so Im not sure whats what 2 of each color. Would this get me through a whole grow with good results?

Also, I want to hame a DIY hood. Anyone have good plans for a super cheap lighting hood?

Sqweedles said:

I think im going to go with 4 100w. You said 23w is equal to 100w but what I have now says 100w on the package so Im not sure whats what 2 of each color. Would this get me through a whole grow with good results?

Also, I want to hame a DIY hood. Anyone have good plans for a super cheap lighting hood?

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dude seriously jus buy an 240w envirolite for like 20quid,they come with a non bend reflector...........if u dont wana do that then i put turkey foil around my grow room for reflection,but use the less shinier side so it doesnt burn ya plants

When you say SOG, sea of green right? Does that just mean lots of little plants with short grow periods? 10 days from seed seems very short from what Ive read.

Sqweedles said:

When you say SOG, sea of green right? Does that just mean lots of little plants with short grow periods? 10 days from seed seems very short from what Ive read.

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ye sea of green,its short from what iv read aswel,many people have said that it will cause stress to the plants makin them male or only bud a little bit,but i only had 1 male,whereas the grow before wen i vegged them for a month had 2 males.....most people THINK they know best on here but they dont.i did it cos i dont have much space so with flowering them young they dont grow very tall and they concentrate more on the top colas instead of puttin there energy into the tiny buds around the bottom,my advice to you,is experiment,fuck what everyone else says (within reason) and just go for it,you'l be pleased with whatever you get

and another thing,people wa tellin me that u should only have few plants to one cfl.....my first grow had 6 plants ,
and i dont use a fan
obviously if u hav a stronger bulb the results will be better,thats just common sense,.........but im happy with my setup at the mo

One of Four. 1 100w CFL. Planning to go to 4 and flower with those. I think this ones at about 15 days from seed sprout.

im using 2-23 wattrs and honestly im alittle worried at 14 days in i got a week little plant.. its not underwatering, and the temp is always at 75-80. i have a nice size pot and used mix miricle grow with perlit.... im gonna grab four 100 watters which is suppose to be about the same as a 300-400-hps in output... but who knows.. im interested and subscribed... keep us in the loop bra...a href="005.jpg - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/chadhaltom/Indoor veggies/005.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

to B3ANFLICKER that is a good crop just for 1 CFL..I plan on gettin like 6 or 8 for my closet garden hopefully i can grow big assssss plants

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/125764-first-grow-how-they-looking.html

- new account and grow journal

This is my first grow and I've been using CFLs and I love them I got one plant in a 3 cubic foot area (due to the fact my other 2 plants were male). I average about 3 inchs every 24 hours and I'm using them for flower right now and the seem to be doing wonderful, I would Def say go CFL!!!

this is my setup

6 42w(150 equiv) cfl's 5x 2700k's and 1x 4100k or 6500k i can't really tell for sure

its nice and breezy in there and the lights are like 2 inches away everywhere

i know im going to get more than just a few grams
cfls work fine

ttuason1369 said:

This is my first grow and I've been using CFLs and I love them I got one plant in a 3 cubic foot area (due to the fact my other 2 plants were male). I average about 3 inchs every 24 hours and I'm using them for flower right now and the seem to be doing wonderful, I would Def say go CFL!!!

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how long you guna veg for?id veg it for a while,use the fim technique and make it a big plant seen as tho u only got 1.

What do you think of my new light setup? DIY with 5 bulbs, power strip and some sheet metal

Yea i Actually already started flowering her, i'm heading home for christmas and I had to have her ready cause i'll be gone for awhile so she'll be done about 2 weeks before christmas. Shes 2 feet and 3 inchs as of today and she's still anywhere from 5-7 more weeks. But i love CFL they are working amazingly

homegrwn said:

im using 2-23 wattrs and honestly im alittle worried at 14 days in i got a week little plant.. its not underwatering, and the temp is always at 75-80. i have a nice size pot and used mix miricle grow with perlit.... im gonna grab four 100 watters which is suppose to be about the same as a 300-400-hps in output... but who knows.. im interested and subscribed... keep us in the loop bra...a href="005.jpg - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/chadhaltom/Indoor veggies/005.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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dont use miricle grow.....

whoever said they got 3 oz off of one cfl is lying.

unless it was one big ass cfl!

yeah and in addition to above poster miracle gro potting soil is over-nuted and will burn plants, you can grow with it but it is harsh on the plants especially at the seedling stage. miracle gro organic choice potting soil will work however, since it isn't so heavily nuted (it's nuted organically with chicken shit instead of high doses of chemicals).

and 400 watts of CFL doesn't come close to 400 watt hps. i would rate it about as effective as a 150 or MAYBE a 250 watt hps.