Do I Have Enough CFL's?

SquirrelGod

SquirrelGod

New Member
I have a 20W day light (blue tint), a 24W (100W replacement) soft white, and a 13w (60W replacement) soft white, I have a splitter so i can add another 13W but it wont fit in any of my lamps... Do I need more or will this work for my one plant (bout 13" tall)?
 
daisy2687

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
You're going to need a LOT more, especially for flowering

You can make a nice cheap light fixture using a power strip, plug-to-socket adapters ($2 at home depot) and Y adapters ($1.50)

Try to get at least 23w bulbs and use 'daylight' for vegetative and 'warm white/soft white' for flowering

Hope this helps
 
PolyploidyPrince

PolyploidyPrince

Well-Known Member
Need a pic of the plant, but offhand that doesn't sound right at all....When you're vegging you need to stick to the daylight bulbs. Plant needs at least 3000 lumens of daylight CFL to grow properly. Sooooooo 1200 lumens each (I think) you need 3 or 4 of those. If your running out of sockets go down to ACE and get some Y splitters so you can use more bulbs.
Just for reference I'm using 8 23w Daylight CFLs and my plant Isn't 13" but Its bushy as hell.
 
SquirrelGod

SquirrelGod

New Member
I have Y splitters, but they won't fit in my lamps :( unless I ditch the reflectors, but then I'll be wasting lumen's, so i figure for now I'm good with the current set up, my plant is growing fine I have about 4100 lumen's, all focussed on one plant so I'll add more if I see it necessary, but as fast as it's growing, I'm good with this. However I do have to say thank all of you for your help... And I will definitely add more eventually...
 
daisy2687

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
Yeah, eventually is the key word. I started off small and kept adding, eventually having around 250W for flowering. I'm having excellent results.
 
Freedom Fighter

Freedom Fighter

Well-Known Member
i had that issue with my lamps hoods... Instead.. I made one using the power-strip method.. Got me 4 lights for under 10 bucks. And then i basically sawed off the lamp heads or hoods /refelctors of my lamps...so i could fit the y-splitter and have two lights per lamp.
i figure having an extra bulb per light lamp outweighs any loss of light from removing the reflector..Plus you can attempt to capture the light in another ways.


Question..

So daylight for veggie stage.

I got 3 daylight 26 wat CFL...But for the past 2 days been using two 42wat CFL not sure the spectrum but it's 2700 lumens... on very young plants. about 1.8 inches tall.

So.. should i take out the two 42wat and add 4 more 26 wat daylight bulbs?
or should i keep it as is now which is two 42 wat bulbs and 3 daylight 26wat bulbs all at once?

I figure once i flower .. I'll have about ..the same 3 daylight 26wat bulbs, plus about 5-7 42wat bulbs.. full spectrum, varies 42wat bulbs.
 
daisy2687

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
I'd say keep the 42 watters. The light is more intense from them

Also you can tell if they're putting out blue or red light by comparing them to a bulb you DO know the spectrum of. The daylight bulbs look really blue next to a warm white bulb
 
Freedom Fighter

Freedom Fighter

Well-Known Member
hmm...about the 42wat.. im willing to buy a couple from 1000bulbs.com so they actually tell me if it's warm/cool/full spectrum. buying about 3... Should i go for the higher K. or the warm/cool or halogen? well here look please..
42 Watt Compact Fluorescents

What should i cop Daisy, anyone?

come flowering time.. Does it matter? cause i basically plan to use all the lights i have..from the very first 3 daylights to every improving light bulb that i got along the way.
 
daisy2687

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
Ok here's the scoop...

For vegetative you want all your lights to be above 5000k. Preferably 6500k. The reason for this is this is the spectrum the plant really really wants during this stage. Red light is a waste of energy and will actually induce stretching.

For flowering you can keep all the lights on there you wish but the plant really wants red light and will use it the most to make the buds. However, having blue light here will still help the plant and will have no negative effects.

With this in mind I would spend the cash on red (warm white/2700k) 42w bulbs and SAVE them until flowering.

If you have cash now and will have some more cash when you start flowering then buy some 42w 6500k bulbs for veg, then buy some 2700k bulbs when you start flowering. Then you can replace your 26w 6500k bulbs with the 42w 6500k bulbs, as well as having the new 2700k 42w bulbs.

Did this make sense?

P.S. Halogen is BAAD for growing
 
Freedom Fighter

Freedom Fighter

Well-Known Member
yes..thank you first..

so
Warm/white 2750k 42wats for later.

And for now. a couple one or two more of..

Compact Fluorescent - 42 Watt - Full Spectrum 5100K
or
Fluorescent - 42 Watt - Full Spectrum 6500K

You said..preferable the 6500 k.. and since they are both full spectrum.. and same price. I should just get the 42wat 6500 k one.
 
eyewtkas

eyewtkas

Active Member
A good way to find out if you have enough CFL lumens is to calculate your lumens per square feet.

First, get the square feet of your growspace by multiplying length x width.

In my case, I have a 1.875 Sq. ft growing space.

Next, get your total number of lumens.

In my case, I'm using x4 42w CFL's that give out 2600 lumens each, so a total of 10,400 lumens.

Next, divide the total lumens by your square feet growspace and you will end up with lumens per square foot.

2600 lumens x 4 = 10,400 lumens / 1.875 sq. feet = 5546.66 Lumens Per Square foot

And according to a post I saw (I will look for the link, but it might be from another grow site) you need:


a MINIMUM of 2,000 lumens per square foot. But expect crappy buds with the minimum.

5,000-7,000 lumens per square feet and you get decent sized buds

7,500+ lumens per square feet and you start getting nice fat buds.

of course, the more lumens you have in your growspace, the bigger the buds will be.

so use this as a little basis. it has always worked for me.
 
daisy2687

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
Freedom Fighter said:
yes..thank you first..

so
Warm/white 2750k 42wats for later.

And for now. a couple one or two more of..

Compact Fluorescent - 42 Watt - Full Spectrum 5100K
or
Fluorescent - 42 Watt - Full Spectrum 6500K

You said..preferable the 6500 k.. and since they are both full spectrum.. and same price. I should just get the 42wat 6500 k one.
Click to expand...
Looks like you got it.

Good luck and happy growing!
 
babylonburn

babylonburn

Well-Known Member
lots of power strips and y splittrz and ure intha game...yourii gonna need alot more lights tho bout 8 mixed spec a plant and go for like 30-50 watt the 100 watts dont work as well ii heard...alsothe equivilant aint shit yourii gonna go with what wattege it is not the equiv.
 
SquirrelGod

SquirrelGod

New Member
eyewtkas said:
A good way to find out if you have enough CFL lumens is to calculate your lumens per square feet.

First, get the square feet of your growspace by multiplying length x width.

In my case, I have a 1.875 Sq. ft growing space.

Next, get your total number of lumens.

In my case, I'm using x4 42w CFL's that give out 2600 lumens each, so a total of 10,400 lumens.

Next, divide the total lumens by your square feet growspace and you will end up with lumens per square foot.

2600 lumens x 4 = 10,400 lumens / 1.875 sq. feet = 5546.66 Lumens Per Square foot

And according to a post I saw (I will look for the link, but it might be from another grow site) you need:


a MINIMUM of 2,000 lumens per square foot. But expect crappy buds with the minimum.

5,000-7,000 lumens per square feet and you get decent sized buds

7,500+ lumens per square feet and you start getting nice fat buds.

of course, the more lumens you have in your growspace, the bigger the buds will be.

so use this as a little basis. it has always worked for me.
Click to expand...

Well the grow space is not even one sq. foot, closer to like .9, but I'll just round to one... I have 4100 lumen's per square foot... Thank you. However, all you would of had to tell me was to calculate the lumen's per sq. foot. It's kind of self explanatory, but thanks.
 
eyewtkas

eyewtkas

Active Member
SquirrelGod said:
Well the grow space is not even one sq. foot, closer to like .9, but I'll just round to one... I have 4100 lumen's per square foot... Thank you. However, all you would of had to tell me was to calculate the lumen's per sq. foot. It's kind of self explanatory, but thanks.
Click to expand...
for you, it might be, for MANY others it's not, trust me, lol.
 
homegrownboy

homegrownboy

Well-Known Member
eyewtkas said:
A good way to find out if you have enough CFL lumens is to calculate your lumens per square feet.

First, get the square feet of your growspace by multiplying length x width.

In my case, I have a 1.875 Sq. ft growing space.

Next, get your total number of lumens.

In my case, I'm using x4 42w CFL's that give out 2600 lumens each, so a total of 10,400 lumens.

Next, divide the total lumens by your square feet growspace and you will end up with lumens per square foot.

2600 lumens x 4 = 10,400 lumens / 1.875 sq. feet = 5546.66 Lumens Per Square foot

And according to a post I saw (I will look for the link, but it might be from another grow site) you need:


a MINIMUM of 2,000 lumens per square foot. But expect crappy buds with the minimum.

5,000-7,000 lumens per square feet and you get decent sized buds

7,500+ lumens per square feet and you start getting nice fat buds.

of course, the more lumens you have in your growspace, the bigger the buds will be.

so use this as a little basis. it has always worked for me.
Click to expand...

YOU CANNOT ADD LUMENS TOGETHER...EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you want more lumens....get a bulb that produces lots of lumens.

I hope your not trying to get a pound of bud off of 1 plant using those lights...since you been running around telling everyone that you can get a pound off of one plant.
 
Last edited:
SquirrelGod

SquirrelGod

New Member
homegrownboy said:
YOU CANNOT ADD LUMENS TOGETHER...EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you want more lumens....get a bulb that produces lots of lumens.

I hope your not trying to get a pound of bud off of 1 plant using those lights...since you been running around telling everyone that you can get a pound off of one plant.
Click to expand...
I never said I did, but Ive seen some huge fucking plants! Plants that have weighed out to 27 ounces in bud alone, that's quite a bit more than one pound, but I wouldn't expect you to know that bitch. Now when did I say I was going to get a pound off one plant? Because I'm pretty sure I said you CAN get a pound off one plant, maybe because I have seen it done before, not that I have, or was planing on letting this fucker grow that big!
 
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