Light ratio?

I'm new but make sure if you're planning to use the box through the whole grow that it's high & wide enough so they have room to grow but yeh. Kind of depends on how many plants you want to get going. I dont know a lot yet but if that helped I'm glad and if it didn't sorry :\

50 watts per sq ft is speaking towards HID lighting.

I don't know what to tell you becauser I don't use CFL's. I would just start putting em in there...one at a time...closing up the space after each addition and montitoring the temps. Put as many as you can in there (there won't be too much light from these tiny, tiny little lights, believe me) and STILL KEEP YOUR TEMPS LESS THAN 80 DEGREES.

That's about all you can do, IMO....(other than save yer cash and buy a real light)

You can use a couple of different sized cardboard boxes as test units...then build your box to model the one that works the best for you.

But seriously..don't waste too much cash on CFL's. Until you get an HID you aren't gonna keep yourself in smoke and are gonna be somewhat frustrated that it takes so long each cycle and you get very little weed for your efforts. (not enough to keep from buying it and spending $$$ you should be spending on your grow on weed)

once you plug in an HID you'll NEVER believe you **tried** to grow with CFL's. (meant for reading, not growing)

good luck

bt dt

k-town said:

I seen a post somewhere that said to have a minimum of 50watts and 2000 lumens( i think) per square foot but wanted to make sure that I do this right since I don't really have money to make too many mistakes.

Click to expand...

I thought you were going to get a 400w HPS?

Forget watts per square foot - it's irrelevant because not all lights put out the same number of lumens per watt.

You want to be looking at somewhere in the region of 2,500-3,000 lumens per sq foot for vegetative growth and 10,000 lumens per sq foot for flowering. These figures are for a 'single point light source' which means you cannot simply add together the lumen outputs from two lamps.

Hey dude, you never mentioned how many plants do you want to grow?
Obviously you'll need a space big enough to house your new babies.

As I near the end of my grow, I end up in 8" pots. I recently bought some square pots at the dollar store. This should help you decide on the size.
Make sure you have a fan, it'll help prevent mold, and grow a healthier stem.
(To help hold up them buds!)

Of course height is another issue, try growing an indica if you have a choice in the matter, it'll be much shorter. With an indica, you could end up with a 30" tall plant, or there abouts.

I would plan on cfl's having a light penetration of somewhere around 8" or there abouts. Deduct about 2" for the distance that the light will be from the plant, leaving you 6", which isn't too bad.

More light is always better, but if I were you, I'd shoot for about 4-5 bulbs per plant as a starting point. Having several bulbs hanging down along the sides of the plant.
Peace

k-town said:

What's up everybody,​

So I want to start a small CFL grow using 26watt(6500k) CFL's and 42watt(2700k) CFL's for two plants and was planning on building a grow box for them and was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on what dimensions to make this growbox and how many of each CFL's I should use for vegetation stage? And how many of each I need for flowering stage?​

I seen a post somewhere that said to have a minimum of 50watts and 2000 lumens( i think) per square foot but wanted to make sure that I do this right since I don't really have money to make too many mistakes.​

Really appreciate any input or comments​

Peace out K-town​

Click to expand...

I am going to get a 400watt HPS system but I am getting ready to move and figured it would be easier to wait till I get to the new house to start setting up 400watt HPS and a decent growroom