New to CFL, How many estimated lumens per plant?

njap0025

njap0025

Active Member
Hey everybody i'm not new to growing but i am new to cfl's. The situation is i recently sold my house and am now living with my grandparents because they need the help with theyre old age. I have a rubbermaid 1'x2' grow box with two 23w daylight cfl's for vegatation producing around 3200 lumens on the one plant i am growing. Sodium and metal halide are not an option due to the heat factor and brightness, (cant let the grandparents find out, they are fine with outdoor growing but the arizona heat is just too intense). I plan on vegging with the blue spectrum 3200 lumen until i have a pair of five leaves, then i am going to switch to softwhite, red spectrum producing around the same lumens, can i grow 1 plant succesfully in a 1x2 grow space using 3200 lumens? Any advice helps....
 
G

GreenAngel

Member
ok here's the 411

1 - You need CFLs that are 6,500K for veg the best one you can get that can be using in a regular light socket is 45w CFL
2 - Your gonna need more then just 1 or 2 CFLs for flowering
3 - if you can buy 96% reflective mylar
4 - use a couple or a few PC fans to move the air
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
the general rule of thumb is one cfl for every 2 leaves,and contrary to what the gentleman above me said,they do not have 45 watt cfl's,only 42 watters and like 5 per plant should be fine,3 2700k 42 watters, and 2 6500 k,bulbs, running at the same time per plant,because you are trying to saturate the plants in light hence the need for 5,you can always add more but to start i would use 5 bulbs
 
njap0025

njap0025

Active Member
GreenAngel said:
ok here's the 411

1 - You need CFLs that are 6,500K for veg the best one you can get that can be using in a regular light socket is 45w CFL
2 - Your gonna need more then just 1 or 2 CFLs for flowering
3 - if you can buy 96% reflective mylar
4 - use a couple or a few PC fans to move the air
Click to expand...

Ya these are 2 23w 6500k daylight bulbs i am using for veg, will that work for veg? Question 2 how many of the red spectrum(soft white cfl's) should i use for flowering and how long should i keep them on per day? Question 3 i understand they need 12 hours dark to flower, do i have to turn them on the same time evry day or just any time as long as they will be dark for 12 hrs, thx
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
p.s the reaso why i say every one to 2 leaves is because the closer you get the lights to the plant the less coverage you have to spread the lights,you can use a reflector but it sorta defeats the purpose due to the fact that cfl's give off more lumens when they are sideways and unfortunately those 10.00 shop light reflectors dont allow it
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
you should add another 4 of those bulbs but in the 2700k spectrum and i recommend leaving them on for 20 hours so that you get decent root growth,youre gonna need more light because those 2 that you have are gonna make the plant stretch too much,the general rule of thumb is the less watts you use the more bulbs you'll need
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
you have to scroll to where you want to insert a cooment and click the icon that looks like a mail letter
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
njap0025 said:
Anybody know how i can get the pics in the post from my computer
Click to expand...
i just told you,scoll down to the quick reply box and click the icon thats next to the globe icon,it looks like a mail letter

oh nevermind,i see you got it
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
yeah,for right now i would say its fine,but as soon as you can you need to add more light and think about when the plants start to grow,because when she starts she'll take off after 2 weeks or so,about a inch per day,so you could already imagine the space constraints youre gonna be putting her thru in the upcoming weeks,but for right this minute i would say they are fine
 
njap0025

njap0025

Active Member
Ya she doesnt look to be stretchin, its been 8 days and she is getting what sould be the 3's she seems to be growing really green and slow, but i feel its maybe a little two slow, i'm not lookin for mass quanity maybe a dime or a dub ......
 
njap0025

njap0025

Active Member
Ya nikk i thought about the size restrictions, almost every plant i have grown i top or tie down so it grows across the desert floor, but for this i planned on flipping the tub on its side when she gets a little bigger, and thanks for that info i thought she was growing very slow i was curious about when those growth spurts would start kickin in
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
njap0025 said:
Ya she doesnt look to be stretchin, its been 8 days and she is getting what sould be the 3's she seems to be growing really green and slow, but i feel its maybe a little two slow, i'm not lookin for mass quanity maybe a dime or a dub ......
Click to expand...
no its never too slow,she's still young yet,maybe in a week and a half you'll start to notice the growth explosion,and the less she stretches the better,you are basically trying to replicate what a metal halide bulb does,with a metal halide bulb the plant would grow short and stocky because she wont need to stretch for the light,but since you have the cfl's the closer the better
 
njap0025

njap0025

Active Member
Ya and i really dont wanna stress her out so when do i flower and what would be the best way to take her from veg to flower without putting her into shock?
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
dont get me wrong tho,if you follow my lead you will definitely have a couple of ounces to smoke when its all said and done
 
nikk

nikk

Active Member
njap0025 said:
Ya and i really dont wanna stress her out so when do i flower and what would be the best way to take her from veg to flower without putting her into shock?
Click to expand...
there is no real best way,the only real tip i could give is use the veg nutes for veg and start the flowering/bloom nutes a week after putting her in 12/12
 
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