Question on lighting: Important

BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
To put it bluntly...

Three Plants, one light and staggered grows.
How do i do it?

I am planning on growing a few small plants:

One Lemon Haze by Greenhouse
One L.S.D by Barney
One Shooting Star by Heavyweight

I am looking to get the plants around the 2 foot mark before flowering,
I only have about 3 foot of space height-wise...
Now the trouble is that I only have one light,
A 300w Dual Spectrum CFL.

I will be staggering the plants hopefully by around a month each,
so i can achieve a steady flow of bud...
I know i can raise the plants on bricks or whatever when growing but how do i flower one whilst the other is vegging? Plus i have an autoflowering plant and normal together. Is this overly complicated, would it be much more sensible to grow them all together and flower as one when they all reach an acceptable height?

The whole process should theoretically be very simple, one light, three plants in soil, water every few days, collect my bounty...

Some experienced advice would be very handy :-?
 
budderbutton

budderbutton

Active Member
The only way you can do this is to grow auto strains, then the amount of light received per day for each plant can be kept the same 18/6 and just plant seeds a month a part.
Better yet - getter another light. You are only using CFLs?? Definitely get a couple more lights - and another area to keep the flowering plants separate from the bloomers
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
Thanks for the quick reply.

The CFL's are quite expensive:
http://www.basementlighting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?page=1/prod/elc250http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/300w-dual-Spectrum-CFL-grow-light-lamp-for-Hydroponics_W0QQitemZ270589776719QQcategoryZ43555QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3907.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D20%26pmod%3D280518054257%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63

I've done my research though and I think you can grow 3-4 small plants if you do it right,
I will have reflectors and try and get every possible last lumen out of it.
The issue here is heat, as it's in a loft space and I'm not looking for a fire...

As for the autoflowering, I thought this is what would happen.
Would it make any sense to use two 125w Dual Spectrums and split the space,
a plant vegging and a plant flowering? I presume one 125w bulb would only provide enough for one plant...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/125w-Dual-Spectrum-CFL-hydroponics-grow-light-lamp-bulb-/280518054219?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item41502dd14b
 
budderbutton

budderbutton

Active Member
I'm not seeing lumen output on either of those so, not sure, but should be enough for vegetation. More light is better, especially during flowering.
I like that dual spectrum bulb, It sound nice - but again, lumen output
Many plants double height during their flowering stretch, so growing them to 2 ft before blooming will probably require to tying down if you only have 3ft vertical space.
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
By flowering i meant the noticable swelling of the buds,
so 2 foot after 2-3 weeks in, where they tend to stop the growth, sorry i should have made that more clear.

I know there is no lumen output written on either,
I believe the 300w to provide around 22,000... or so i read. Does that sound right?

The bulb is meant to be pretty large in size and provide some great quality bud provided there aren't too many plants.
I'm really looking forward to the grow!
 
budderbutton

budderbutton

Active Member
The bulb is huge. I've got a 300w equiv. (68 watts I think) cfl that dwarfs standard bulbs and yours sounds like straight up 300 watts after reading the links again.
A standard light bulb splitter around here handles 600W, so you could supposedly do that with one socket and a splitter - if your electrical box can handle the pull.
I'm currently using only 3 26W cfls and 1 34w for mothering - but I'm trying to slow down growth for a while
I'm not currently growing and my flowering plants use HPS, so I'm not sure on the cfl's for that. - But I think it will be good.
One thing though - when I DID have my full cfl setup growing (12 small bulbs and 1 large per 1-2 plants) - it did get quite a bit warmer directly under the bulbs.
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
Yeah, i thought that the 300W might give out quite a lot of heat,
not so much a problem in the space, but rather up close against the plants...

A HID technically gives out less heat, but near the bulb it is far hotter,
seeming as the height of the space is pretty low it would be far too much i think.
CFL's seem the way forward here.

That's really useful advice Budderbutton, thanks.
It is a straight up 300w bulb.
I have a light cable already running through the loft into the room below that isn't used,
could i run it off here if i set it up with a socket in the lift instead... and just hang the light from the beams above.
 
Cransi

Cransi

Well-Known Member
LAX Skunky BwS said:
get a HID light ... u wont be sorry u did
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this in a thread under the CFL sub-category.... you sire are a winner!!!


Yo Blunt, man I hope this works out for you. Hey are you over in the UK? That one link "basementlighting" is so I was just wondering. I sure hope you know what the 7P's are! Dual-spectrum huh? This might be an iffy grow, I think... I mean a staggered grow with a dual-spectrum light, 2-foot vegged plant in a 3-foot height area... I would keep them around a foot tall, well I would actually LST them. That might be your best bet is to design a LST path for each plant to follow to allow the staggered grow to take full potential of the light... damn just tryin to think about that is makin my head ache, shit it is late. Let me sleep on it an I will see if I can come up wit some weird off the wall ideas for ya.
 
budderbutton

budderbutton

Active Member
BluntSpark said:
Yeah, i thought that the 300W might give out quite a lot of heat,
not so much a problem in the space, but rather up close against the plants...

A HID technically gives out less heat, but near the bulb it is far hotter,
seeming as the height of the space is pretty low it would be far too much i think.
CFL's seem the way forward here.
Click to expand...
Agreed. You just don't have vertical room for an HID.

BluntSpark said:
That's really useful advice Budderbutton, thanks.
It is a straight up 300w bulb.
I have a light cable already running through the loft into the room below that isn't used,
could i run it off here if i set it up with a socket in the lift instead... and just hang the light from the beams above.
Click to expand...
Thanks, man. Sounds good. You might keep a thermometer handy and check the room temp for a couple days before putting any thing in. Good luck !
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
Thermometer is a great idea, i hadn't thought of that, simple but effective.
You sir, are a genious!

Yes, I'm over in England :)
I have spent a lot of time with plants so i have some general knowledge...

At Cransi:

I think I have decided to go the autoflowering route... keep things simple, light changing won't disturb any plants,
I can always try and sneak the odd normal plant in as an experiment, besides after the rig is set up, the cost of one seed won't matter too much.
I can set up a grill above the plants for them to grow into if height becomes a concern,
The light will be adjustable and the plants can be lowered slightly by removing the insulation.
Not to mention that i will be cutting them at around 4 nodes to form multiple colas at angles, keeping the height lower...

Will the shiny side of the insulation reflect light towards the underneath of the plants?
I'm concerened this could cause heat damage.

Weird and wonderful ideas are welcome, I'm open to any suggestions anyone may have.
If all goes well then this should begin within the next month,
after the last Oz's are smoked...
I'll be sure to create a journal so as to keep you all informed and gain feedback.
 
budderbutton

budderbutton

Active Member
BluntSpark said:
Thermometer is a great idea, i hadn't thought of that, simple but effective.
You sir, are a genious!

Yes, I'm over in England :)
I have spent a lot of time with plants so i have some general knowledge...

At Cransi:

I think I have decided to go the autoflowering route... keep things simple, light changing won't disturb any plants,
I can always try and sneak the odd normal plant in as an experiment, besides after the rig is set up, the cost of one seed won't matter too much.
I can set up a grill above the plants for them to grow into if height becomes a concern,
The light will be adjustable and the plants can be lowered slightly by removing the insulation.
Not to mention that i will be cutting them at around 4 nodes to form multiple colas at angles, keeping the height lower...

Will the shiny side of the insulation reflect light towards the underneath of the plants?
I'm concerened this could cause heat damage.

Weird and wonderful ideas are welcome, I'm open to any suggestions anyone may have.
If all goes well then this should begin within the next month,
after the last Oz's are smoked...
I'll be sure to create a journal so as to keep you all informed and gain feedback.
Click to expand...
Thanks Blunt, A digital one is best. Mine records highs and lows as well as current temp and humidity. Fairly cheap. Very easy.

Yeah, with autoflowers you should be able to use 12/12 and grow from seed. 12 is plenty of light for them.

Yes, the shiny side will reflect light to the underside of the plants. There could be some pockets of warmth in spots depending on the angles of reflection.
This is a garret right?
I might be confused here but, If you're right on top of your insulation, how will you water your plants? I would hate to have wet insulation.
You may just want to go ahead and put down a water/odor barrier barrier or plywood.
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
The plants will be in pots placed on a large plastic tray which will hold any water that comes through, i was thinking of putting some gravel in here,
otherwise i may find my plants drowning or developing rotten roots if left to sit in the water for too long.
There won't be anything directly on top of the foil backed foam insulation,
if i remove some for height reasons it will be straight on wood anyway.

And yes, a digital one is what i would get.
 
Cransi

Cransi

Well-Known Member
Hey Blunt, in that loft area that your gonna grow in are there any vent fans/holes? If not could you put one in? I am just thinking about the heat that will already be in the loft, plus the additional light heat. I think autoflowering will be the best bet for the stagger. So what kind of dimensions does the area have for length/depth. Are the rafters exposed on the loft roof?

Just an idea... I was thinking if ya wanted to try LST, ya might be able to droop a piece of white poster board from the ceiling at an angle down to the pots. That way you could path the plant back an forth like traveling a switch back road/trail while going up a hill/mountain. Some loss in light saturation near the angled top might be a problem, depending on the hood/reflector you are going to use. If you are. I think you could get a shit-ton of bud sites if that did work... I think I might have to try something like that!
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
The loft is surprisingly cool, much cooler than the room below and it's been around 20 degrees C today.
There isn't really any ventilation minus the hatch when the room’s windows are open. I can see a crack of light though and am quite happy to put a little effort in creating some proper ventilation,
even if it's just a quick solution. The rafters are exposed and can be used; the length of the loft is about 4 metres and 3 metres in width.

That is a very unusual suggestion that’s actually pretty interesting, i would never have thought of that.
I could theoretically control plants in more or less any direction i wanted, and as the roof is angled setting up a board would be no problem.
Thanks very much for that idea. I will look into this. There might be a loss of light though, but as long as i set up something reflective around the walls i could bounce back some lost light without distracting the plant from the main board.

This loft could end up being one hell of a crazy contraption. I think it'll be more a cannabis assault course than a grow room... :)
 
BluntSpark

BluntSpark

Member
I have decided on the following seeds, all being single pick and mix:

http://www.herbiespicknmixseeds.com/single-pick-n-mix-samsara-supersonic-crystal-storm-autoflowering-feminised-seeds-2538
http://www.herbiespicknmixseeds.com/single-pick-n-mix-samsara-thunder-bloody-mary-autoflowering-feminised-seeds-2539
http://www.herbiespicknmixseeds.com/single-pick-n-mix-heavyweight-auto-shooting-star-autoflowering-feminised-seeds-2560

All are autoflowering, short in height, quick to harvest and brand new on the market...
I am quite excited to see what these are like,
for the grow after i will be choosing more well known strains.

I was wondering whether it would be possible to get away with less than 300w with these three,
being such small plants...

We get a lot of helicopters round here and heat is always an issue,
I'm not sure how much heat a single 300w CFL will produce in a loft (3m Depth x 2.5m Width x 0.7m Height once done up)
I will be adding a small fan outake to the outside to help.

Hopefully progress will begin in 3-4 weeks.
 
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