How many CFL's can I split from one single outlet? And a quick flowering question..

I spent 9 hours today rebuilding my closet space and was able to add 1 more foot in height and 1 more foot in depth, so I'm extremely psyched about the 5 feet of headspace I have now.

My question is this - I have an extension cord (just 1 single outlet) with 6 CFLs running from it, I wanted to add 2 more lights now with the extra space, can I have all 8 CFLs coming from the same plug? The reason I ask is I will have to drill and hide a new plug if I can't lol.

And one question about flowering. I was under the assumption that when plants get around 5-6 nodes high roughly 4 weeks old that it would be possible to sex them. After doing a lot of reading here I'm seeing some MASSIVE plants that people are growing that still don't have flowers.

I NEED at least 3 females and have 8 plants total coming in now (5 are seedlings the other 3 are 4 weeks old). But my problem is I'm seeing plants double and triple the size of mine (mine are about 10 inches high on avg) that haven't even showed sex yet. If I have to wait for them to get that big I'm gonna wind up throwing away half my plants before they even flower.
Is there anyway around this? I can't put them outside and I'm not sure what to do. How big on avg does a plant have to get to see flowers? Or is it just maturation? Because mine are like 4 weeks and are showing something by the nodes but compared to plants I've been seeing it seems they need to get much bigger.

Dude.. Unless you're growing auto flowering strains you've gotta switch the light cycle to 12/12, The plants roughly triple in size during flowering, So if they're big now, You might want to start soon. If you're growing an auto flowering strain post the name of it here and someone will be able to tell you when it's going to flower, But I doubt you have an auto flowering strain, If you did they'd be flowering themselves by now. also if you're using all 6500k lights, Switch to your 2700k, Or at least combine the two, You want mainly 6500k for vegetation stage, And you want mainly 2700k for the flowering stage

No! they are not autoflowering thats why I asked basically I didn't know they could get that big during flowering. I figure they're a foot now about, I have an easy 3.5 feet of headspace left (including room for the bulbs) so I'm hoping if I start flowering tommorow they won't surpass 4-4.5 feet. I thought like the max they could grow during flowering was another foot or so see this is why its good to ask questions lol.

Thanks alot I'm definitely going to start flowering tommorow then considering what you said.

edit: sorry I'm an idiot I didn't realize part of the reason you recommended that was also so I can actually see flowers. I'm sitting here complaining that I can't see flowers and I still have them in veg stage lol.. classic.

You could always top your plant. Just make sure to give her a week or more. of vegging to recover.

/\ Thanks! I do know about topping a bit but I have a good deal more vertical space than horizontal so I'm trying to make them grow skinny and tall.
I just can't let them get too tall like r70 mentioned so I'll get them down to 12 hours tommorow and just cross my fingers. If I top them they're gonna run out of horizontal space and I wouldn't know what to do at that point.

they're most likely not going to triple in size, maybe double if you're real fortunate

worse comes to worse you can always tie them down, i had to do that with the last grow with an xj13 that grew 3 inches one day while i was out at the office, came back and it was nearly smacking the lamp!! fuuuuu...!

How many watts are your cfls?

Your 1 outlet will be fine. I've got 8 CFL's and 2 fans on a surge protector into 1 outlet.

smokefrogg said:

they're most likely not going to triple in size, maybe double if you're real fortunate

worse comes to worse you can always tie them down, i had to do that with the last grow with an xj13 that grew 3 inches one day while i was out at the office, came back and it was nearly smacking the lamp!! fuuuuu...!

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Well, According to high time's Ready Set Grow, They can nearly triple in size during the flowering period.

8 x 32w = 256w / 120v = 2.13 Amps. Most circuits are 20 amps on a 12 awg wire in houses, some done the cheap way are 15 amp... but either way you should be safe. If you had a microwave, hair dryer, and vacuum all on the same circuit it might trip.... but I'd say you'd be plenty safe. Oh, and most medium base sockets (like a regular bulb fits in) are rated 660w and 600v, so if you had enough y splitters you could technically put 15 x 42w (630w) to a single socket.

r7o2d6 said:

Well, According to high time's Ready Set Grow, They can nearly triple in size during the flowering period.

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do you happen to recall what strains specifically they were talking about? i've seen things double but never triple, man that would be an awesome trait to have in a strain =)

I'm starting to think I've got one thats gonna triple, it's just a Trainwreck bagseed. 2 weeks into flower right now, she started at 16" and is now 29" from the top of the dirt. As a relative newb I thought I'd be lucky if she doubled, but she's gonna outgrow my cabinet at this pace, its only got 52" max head room and the planter is 10" deep with 9 inches of soil, which puts her at 38" Hoping it'll slow down after her stretch, but looking like I'm gonna have to add some height to the cab somehow.