Surrounding with CFLs, but how much wattage for veg? flower?

MountainMan86 - You know, you're right. I read that elsewhere yesterday when I was sizing bulbs to get. The end result is just use a couple per plant and you'll be fine, so while I guess it doesn't add more lumens, it still works fine. The key is about coverage - that is what I remember reading now - it is getting bulbs on all parts w/out losing lumens. If you don't have the bulb within 2-3 inches from the leaves, they don't absorb many lumens. And you can use these arguably low lumens bulbs (1600 each) in more quantity, so they are all over your plant, not just in one location - this way you push more lumens directly onto each leaf/area - something much harder to do with a single HPS bulb setup. Which is also why CFLs help HPS setups.

So I guess in summary, it is not about wattage or lumens - anything good and popular on this forum WILL WORK, it is about coverage and getting as many lights as you can to get them onto each leaf area - without generating too much heat..

Hey bro, check out this link.https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/41024-cfl-proximity-foliage.html. You may want to fabricate a fixture something like this. It's very important that if you're going cfl from start to finish that you use the 42 watt/150watt equivialent bulbs.You'll need at least six and probably more like 10 or 12 of these to get the desired effect.All of this info is available in the book "Buds for less". It's well worth the investment. All props to GK.

Yes, kmo, I think that is the thread I was referring to. Good details about COVERAGE in there. Thanks for finding that link for me to keep re-reading. I haven't heard until now (from you) that 42w is required - I see a lot of people doing it with the 23w (100w equivalent) lights, and that is what I have right now, so I will try with those. If they don't work, Home Depot will let me trade up to the bigger ones..

Coverage is the thing with CFL. To alleviate having to constantly move bulbs around plants, most people scrog or do a mini SOG with scrog being preferable if plant count is an issue.

Scrog seems to be one of the best methods to use with CFL. You get a nice even canopy, and bulb management is much much easier. Penetration isn't really an issue with scrog since you trim the foliage beneath the screen.

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/123581-nothing-like-hand-made.html check that out.. it seems to be working well for me.

Yes, I planned to do scrog. I originally was thinking I would just do one scrog and the other no-scrog - just to see the comparison and this is my 1st grow and I didn't want to mess it up. But then after reading about horizontal stems and yield, I realized immediately scrog was for me.

I am gonna do both in scrog now though because I was thinking what if my scrog is a male... *doh*

I will start off doing an LST circle around the pot, or at least partially for the first 10-12" or so... Then I plan to do the wire mesh like maybe chicken wire, and just keep poking it back down.

Yours looks like it's coming along nicely!!

SmokeDoggy said:

Yes, kmo, I think that is the thread I was referring to. Good details about COVERAGE in there. Thanks for finding that link for me to keep re-reading. I haven't heard until now (from you) that 42w is required - I see a lot of people doing it with the 23w (100w equivalent) lights, and that is what I have right now, so I will try with those. If they don't work, Home Depot will let me trade up to the bigger ones..

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Smoke, you don't have to use the 42 watt bulbs, it's just that the more lumens you have the better with cfls. It's also very important that you flower your plants early because cfls can't effectively cover a plant more than 20 or so inches tall. I can't emphasize enough that you read "buds for less", it is the " holy grail" of cfl growing. I would never attempt a cfl grow without doing so.