hps & cfls

Hey people,

Right, My light set up is 3 x 25watt cfls and 1 x 20watt cfl (1plant in soil) in the 12/12 stage and i must say it seems to be dragging now its female which is sweet tomroow will be the 3rd week and no buds,, there is tiny lil things and a few white hairs,,,,

I take it my lighting is not enough,?

everything else ive got alright Ph water is good, soil is ok, big pot, fan goin, good nutes, and no light during dark period

Ive got hold of a 50watt hps bulb, but i would have to get rid of the 20watt cfl and replace it for the 50watt hps

so that would mean i would have 3 x 25watt cfls and 1 x 50watt hps

Would this inprove / speed up the 12/12 growth??

50W HPS is maximally about 80 lumens per watt. Your CFLs are doing about 70 lm/W. Fluoro light is also minimally about 10% more effective lumen to lumen. So there's a very small actual difference, but it is in favor of the HPS.

The choice is yours.

really, i fort that there would be a mediud sized difference, swapping a 20watt cfl for a 50watt hps, if its only a small difference i wont change it would cost more to run a 50watt hps to a 20cfl energy saving

I meant watt for watt. As in, if you swapped the 20 for two more 25 watt CFLs, you'd be doing very similarly to a 50w HPS. Or adding a 42 watt, and keeping the others, you'd exceed the 50w HPS.

HPS systems under 400w are a waste of time and money, IMO. 250w would be a grey area....

Ok well ive done a bit of reasearch and went on wiki and other sites and its coming up with compact fluros between 9-26watts will produce 57-72 lumens per watt, where as a hps bulb will produce 85-150 lumens per watt, so really it would be best to swap the 20watt cfl for the 50watt hps, so hps v cfl in the flowering stage (on the basis they where both producing the same amount of lumens) what would be the better one?

with the lumens being egual the CFL is better. Better spectrum 2700K CFL compared to 2200K HPS. And the CFL is cooler letting you put it closer, thereby using more of the lumens available. CFL work great if you use them properly. Tea Tree knows his CFL's he could tell you too.

I jus get confused, cos loads of people on here swear by hps, so i should stick to my cfl 20watt ,,

well 2 X20 watters right? yeah

I've used both. Thats a CFL bud in my sig. picture.

They swear by high wattage HPS(400 watts or better). This is where the lumen output, even considering the higher quality light of a fluoro... is easily stomped by the shear intensity of HPS output. High output T5's can be as much as 140% as effective as HPS(even at high wattage), watt for watt(vegetative). While comparing a CFL... you can get as low as 55% as effective as an HPS(again, high wattage), watt for watt. This assumes you use them identically in a set-up...(in relation to the plants) which is rarely the case.

It's hard to guess what your actual comparison will be, as most CFL growers rig their own setups, so the mileage will vary widely. There are growers that do extremely well with CFLs... and others(probably the majority, that don't use reflectors properly.. or at all) that don't.

Ok so ive read a bit of the thread roseman posted, and it said cfl produces about 64 lumens perwatt, ive got 95watts in total 95x64=6080....

the three 25 watts are on the ceiling looking at the top of the plant and one 20watt bulb is to the side of the plant (i spin the plant around once a day to try spread the light)

My grow area is 2 foot by 2 foot about 4foot high reflective tin foil/ mylar is covering about 70-80% of the area, would you say that is enough for one plant?

Add more if you can, if you can't....it'll be enough. Happy growing.