Cheap lighting

Hey guys this is my first grow and i only have one plant (feminized).it is growing outside in a pot at the moment and i was thinking about doing an indoor cfl grow,and i dont have a lot of money at the moment and i had an idea about making a cheap light fixture.my idea is to take a power strip and buy bulb sockets that you can plug directly into the power strip.and i was wondering if anyone has done this,knows if its safe cuz i dont need my house burning down.I am a noob to growi g and if anyone has any ideas to a cheap easy grow light feel free to let me know!my growing bidget right no is about 50 bucks i know its pretty pathetic but i really wanted to try my hand at this so any help is much appreciated.thanks in advance!

get some y splitters, and just hang your cfls.

150w hps can be had for around 80 dollers shipped online, forget cfls they suck for flowering not worth the time for low yield.

for 1 plant yea its fine just get the 55 watters from walmart or somewere their like 10 bucks here. during flowering mke sure to have soft white bulbs. the good thing with cfls is they wont burn your plant unless direct contact to the plant.

another 30 and you would have yourself a 150 hps. Do as suggested with the cfl's..get y splitters and hang them all around the plant a couple inches away from the leaves. There is more to growing indoors than just lights though unless you already have fans, carbon filter, nutes, cooling etc

cfls will not always generate low yield if you have them positioned right and enough of them so no shadow spots, you could say lol if your on a budget cfls work great good luck bud

I feel ya man I'm in the same boat tryin to grow without spendin too much money, and u can get those 26w cfl bulbs for just a couple bucks with a cheap clip light to screw the bulb into, or u could look gettin like 1 or 2 larger watt bulbs like 85w or 105w cfl, they compare the 105w bulb to a 400w reg bulb and I've seen em for around $26 for just the bulb and the clip light u can get 4 like $10 unless u already have one. Might wanna call around most places dont carry the 85 or 105w cfl bulbs but u can find em a specialty camera shops I think, or if u go to a hydro shop the smallest cfl bulb I've seen em have is the 125w and up to 200w I think. When u search this forum too search for the DIY(do it urself) stuff, might give u some ideas on saving some money.

train them really well and im sure youll pull of a good yield, people do it on here all the time. just gotta stay on top of em, cfls have to be put close or else youll lose a good amount of lumens, its gonna take a lot of attention plan on checking on them twice a day, sometimes they'll stretch out of nowhere

Thanks for all the replys,crazy,how would i hang them,through a fixture or what? What would i need to buy i might just go up to lowes and tell them im trying to grow tomatoes or something and see what they could suggest,i would like to get some HID lights but i dont have the money i could always wait till pay day but i dont like my plant outside its just a seedling its raining here in florida with 60 mph wind gusts i go outside every ten minutes or so to make sure my plant is still there.i do have fans and all the necisary supplies except for lights.its a pain not haveing money or the diy skills needed to make a nice fixture im glad to see all the people willing to help though.

Daf700 said:

Thanks for all the replys,crazy,how would i hang them,through a fixture or what? What would i need to buy i might just go up to lowes and tell them im trying to grow tomatoes or something and see what they could suggest,i would like to get some HID lights but i dont have the money i could always wait till pay day but i dont like my plant outside its just a seedling its raining here in florida with 60 mph wind gusts i go outside every ten minutes or so to make sure my plant is still there.i do have fans and all the necisary supplies except for lights.its a pain not haveing money or the diy skills needed to make a nice fixture im glad to see all the people willing to help though.

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get screw in anchors, they have these anchors that dont screw into your wall either, saw an infomercial about em like 2 years ago, im sure someone on here knows the name. you could get a reflector and mount multiple, ive seen some cool diy lamps in the past, im sure the DIY section on here may have one. buy y-splitters, the highest wattage cfls you can find(i think 42w's are still being sold, they were supposed to be banned i heard), some 6700K and for every 3 bulbs of that get a 2500K to mix up your spectrum, id do the opposite or just all 2500Ks for flower. as for outdoor growin out here in FL, come storm season it can be a bitch, before a hurricane id just put them on their sides. id raise them for about 2-3 weeks until they can handle all that though.

I was planning to have atleast four or five, maybe six hanging above and around the plant so wattage of the bulbs is less of an issue five 23w cfls would work i just have to fing them in the right spectrum for growing

Thanks,that sounds good with the y splitters so i think i will do that thanks for the advice

Daf700 said:

Thanks,that sounds good with the y splitters so i think i will do that thanks for the advice

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glad to help, youll need to train them, try to grow them around the pot or something like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_QRorECvo

Here an idea for a cheap light....peace

bigfattone420 said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_QRorECvo

Here an idea for a cheap light....peace

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i saw one with multiple mounts and y splitters, cant find the link though.

50 bucks is still tight. ya need a fan, a timer, a thermometer, ph kit, ferts, soil. 100 is more realistic. wait, imo, til you have more shekels

Find a over mirror bathroom fixture. They hold 4-6 bulbs and you could put y sockets in em. Garage sales,etc.

i have 14 26W bulbs for a 2' x 3' screen. the more, the better with cfl's.

Yeah that looks good but i dont really have the drill mine sucks ass ive had it for ten years

Yeah thatsa good idea too i wonder if the have a cheap one at home depot