Quick Q about Lighting!! Help! lol

Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
So I posted a thread bout my new lil project. But I currently am gettin pics to upload and edit. So thought i'd ask real quick while its on my mind.

I'm just growing one single plant right now, attempting to. And I have this little light bulb for houses. its a swirly florecent light. I think it says like 13W or somethin on the bulb. I plan on using more sunlight than anything.
But I have my lamp sitting about 4-5 inches over my plant. Will this light be effecient enough to grow a small personal plant??

-Mr.E-
 
max316420

max316420

Well-Known Member
nope you need something a little bigger, if your just using it so the plant won't bloom then your good but if you wanna actually grow something you can smoke you need some quite bigger
 
barefoot and stoned

barefoot and stoned

Well-Known Member
I'm in the middle of my first cfl grow I started with 2 13 watt bulbs like yours. The one lamp you have is no where near enough light to grow a plant you'll need at least 75 watts to go through a whole grow and probably way more than that to get any good smoke. Also you need to move your lights closer to the plant since CFLs lose intensity after 2-3 inches so get them as close as you can without burning the leaves. Check out the Cfl tutorial in the indoor growing forum it really helped me out.
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
max316420 said:
nope you need something a little bigger, if your just using it so the plant won't bloom then your good but if you wanna actually grow something you can smoke you need some quite bigger
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Hmmmm, so it will be efficient enough for the first stages of growth? And what would you suggest for a simple small single plant. And due to life's little joker cards I live with family so I can't be too obvious about it ha. Which is why I went the route of a lamp. So something small but good. Any suggestions?
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
barefoot and stoned said:
I'm in the middle of my first cfl grow I started with 2 13 watt bulbs like yours. The one lamp you have is no where near enough light to grow a plant you'll need at least 75 watts to go through a whole grow and probably way more than that to get any good smoke. Also you need to move your lights closer to the plant since CFLs lose intensity after 2-3 inches so get them as close as you can without burning the leaves. Check out the Cfl tutorial in the indoor growing forum it really helped me out.
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Awsome, thanks for the input. I just put my plant under light for the first time. Its been in my closet in the dark. I just woke up to it about an inch out of the soil and just dropped its casing. I'm quite pleased. And I left the lamp that far from it because it feels warm, first time don't wanna kill it off so soon. But I guess I can adjust to drop it down closer. Whats a safe range to not burn it??
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
max316420 said:
150 w hps....
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Googled it, thanks. That looks perfect, and will get me nice buds? Given I do everything else properly ha. And also, should I use one of those metal domes around the bulb? I read somewhere not to use foil because crinkles can cause those little ant killing beams. and burn your plant.
 
barefoot and stoned

barefoot and stoned

Well-Known Member
Mysterie said:
Awsome, thanks for the input. I just put my plant under light for the first time. Its been in my closet in the dark. I just woke up to it about an inch out of the soil and just dropped its casing. I'm quite pleased. And I left the lamp that far from it because it feels warm, first time don't wanna kill it off so soon. But I guess I can adjust to drop it down closer. Whats a safe range to not burn it??
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About 2-3 inches is where i've kept my lights any further t han that the plants start to stretch. You can get them as close as an inch probably. A good way to tell if it's going to burn your plant is to put your hand in between the bulb and the plant if there yr hand doesn't get hot then it should be ok.
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
barefoot and stoned said:
About 2-3 inches is where i've kept my lights any further t han that the plants start to stretch. You can get them as close as an inch probably. A good way to tell if it's going to burn your plant is to put your hand in between the bulb and the plant if there yr hand doesn't get hot then it should be ok.
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Alright rad. Thanks for the info. I've been like a paranoid parent lol. So I'll cut it down to an inch. But how long should I keep the light on it? I read somewhere like 8 hours a day. But not positive.
 
barefoot and stoned

barefoot and stoned

Well-Known Member
Mysterie said:
Alright rad. Thanks for the info. I've been like a paranoid parent lol. So I'll cut it down to an inch. But how long should I keep the light on it? I read somewhere like 8 hours a day. But not positive.
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Make sure the bulbs are 6500 k or daylight bulbs for your veg stage. you can keep the lights on 24 hours if you want but I think that the plants need a "sleep" period and almost everything I've read says that 18 on 6 off is the best.
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
barefoot and stoned said:
Make sure the bulbs are 6500 k or daylight bulbs for your veg stage. you can keep the lights on 24 hours if you want but I think that the plants need a "sleep" period and almost everything I've read says that 18 on 6 off is the best.
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Yea, everything needs rest from growing. Absolutely. And a I read that when the plant is growing in the dark its flowering. and when in the light its vegging. I think its what I read. How do I know the kelvin on a bulb?? All im gettin off lookin at these bulbs are the watts. and I know 13W is really shitty, but its what I had right in my room. And honestly seems like my plant is growing quickly. leaves just seperated in a couple hours. think I started growing like 3 days ago? Maybe im just over excited haha. But definitely probably turn the lights off when the sun drops down. Keep it natural?
 
barefoot and stoned

barefoot and stoned

Well-Known Member
Mysterie said:
Yea, everything needs rest from growing. Absolutely. And a I read that when the plant is growing in the dark its flowering. and when in the light its vegging. I think its what I read. How do I know the kelvin on a bulb?? All im gettin off lookin at these bulbs are the watts. and I know 13W is really shitty, but its what I had right in my room. And honestly seems like my plant is growing quickly. leaves just seperated in a couple hours. think I started growing like 3 days ago? Maybe im just over excited haha. But definitely probably turn the lights off when the sun drops down. Keep it natural?
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Just get a timer from walmart they're like 10 bucks for a digital one. The kelvins should be on the packaging it may say daylight or soft white. Daylight is what you need until you want to flower then switch to soft white which is 2700k.
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
barefoot and stoned said:
Just get a timer from walmart they're like 10 bucks for a digital one. The kelvins should be on the packaging it may say daylight or soft white. Daylight is what you need until you want to flower then switch to soft white which is 2700k.
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Damn that means actually investing money into this project! lol. So far this has all been free. But its all good. So a timer and a new bulb. So a daylight bulb to make it grow, and a soft white to make it flower. Hmmm. Keep that in mind. thanks again. you been a lot of help. I don't have the packaging on the bulb anymore. But its some cheap ass wal-mart brand. This will have to be my lil hobo girl until I get into town to actually get proper lights and such lol.
I'm assuming a normal 65~75 Watt light bulb for everyday house use isn't a good thing to use for growing?
 
dew-b

dew-b

Well-Known Member
Mysterie said:
So I posted a thread bout my new lil project. But I currently am gettin pics to upload and edit. So thought i'd ask real quick while its on my mind.

I'm just growing one single plant right now, attempting to. And I have this little light bulb for houses. its a swirly florecent light. I think it says like 13W or somethin on the bulb. I plan on using more sunlight than anything.
But I have my lamp sitting about 4-5 inches over my plant. Will this light be effecient enough to grow a small personal plant??

-Mr.E-
Click to expand...
you will want to get more bulbs. one bulb should keep it alive. but don't expect a big plant with 1 bulb. the lumes are more importain then the watts. you should keep the cfl bulb 1-3 inches from the top of your plant.get some y spliters
 
Mysterie

Mysterie

Member
barefoot and stoned said:
nope they make the plants stretch badly. When you get your lights you need to get a few of them b/c one cfl simply doesn't work
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What do you mean stretch? Sorry im goin back and fourth with you quite a bit ha. But yea. Do you mean stretch to get to the light? I know plants will turn and move to get to the light source.

Edit: And you may laugh at this one dude. Just got done riggin up a little LED lantern I have sittin around. So now I have double lighting CFL and LED not sure if its bad to do two different lightings. but the CFL is above, and the Lantern unfortunately is slightly behind the plant kind of angled over " \ p\ " like so. P is the plant lines are beams. Its like 6 LED lantern. but been reading LEDs are really good. but not sure about how many lumens my lil lamp puts out.
 
barefoot and stoned

barefoot and stoned

Well-Known Member
Mysterie said:
What do you mean stretch? Sorry im goin back and fourth with you quite a bit ha. But yea. Do you mean stretch to get to the light? I know plants will turn and move to get to the light source.

Edit: And you may laugh at this one dude. Just got done riggin up a little LED lantern I have sittin around. So now I have double lighting CFL and LED not sure if its bad to do two different lightings. but the CFL is above, and the Lantern unfortunately is slightly behind the plant kind of angled over " \ p\ " like so. P is the plant lines are beams. Its like 6 LED lantern. but been reading LEDs are really good. but not sure about how many lumens my lil lamp puts out.
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Yea I'm talkinng about the plants stretching toward the light. With only one bulb or the lights too far away the plant will grow up until it gets close enough to the light to get the energy it needs, they will eventuall fall over if you don't corret this. And I don't kow anything about LED lights i've heard good and bad things though.
 
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