update on lights

My HPS setup was trashed by my brother last week so I had to resort to growing from a window for a little while. He ended up selling my light set up for me and I recovered most of my investment. I don't want to spend a lot of money again so HPS is out of the question unless I really NEED it. I plan on going to home depot or lowes to night after work to pick up some new lights. After a lot of searching here it seems like CFL's are the right way to go. Can you guys help me out so I know what to buy tonight? I really don't know exactly what I need. I only have 2 plants going right now, both are lemon skunk....they are not even 2 weeks old.

I have an hour till work is over then I plan on getting the lights right after work. I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to lights so please help. I trust your guys opinion so tell me what you think I need. I don't want these babies to die like the last plant.

I am doing six plants that I have collected from really good shit I smoked a while back...was some green goblin and ak47. Anyway...I have been following SeeMoreBuds' Buds For Less book (great book btw, must read for any newbie grower) and I must say, (6) 42 watt CFLS (the ones rated at 150w equivalent output to incandescent...about $7 - $9 ) are vegging my 3 plants very nicely. If I end up only getting 3 females out of them I plan on doubling up the lights on one of the fixtures (built according to the book) and putting a Y splitter onto the 3 existing Y splitters to get a total of 12 lights on one fixture. I am not even using the reflector domes even though the book says that these are used as I haven't even noticed a need for them as of yet. I can't believe how easy it is to grow 6 plants using 6 CFLs a piece, and I'm sure that when flowering is done and I end up with a good harvest I will have confirmed by suspicions that the hoopla surrounding HPS and MH to be just that, hoopla. I mean I'm sure HPS/MH lighting is awesome and stuff but I can't believe the results I've gotten so far just using some elbow grease and off-the-shelf Home Depot/Walmart stuff. Obviously if a renowned person such as Seemorebuds can do it, document it, make a book out of it, and become famous for it, then using CFLs can't be all THAT bad.

yeah go pick up 6 42w cfl if you cant afford hps

Do I really need 6 lights for 2 plants?
Also is there anything specific to look for or should I just pick up a 42w cfl?
thanks for the help guys! I can't wait for these suckers to grow.

Bright white for vegging your plant and soft white for flowering. In my local stores I havent been able to find a bright white (6500K) in a 42w only in the soft white. IMO if you want to grow dank you are going to need a hps or at the very least a shit load of cfl's, depending on your grow. cfl's dont have the light penetrating ablity or the intensity of hps to grow hard dense nugs. When in flower you are going to need cfl's low, on the sides, and on top. But give it your best shot and see what happens you may amaze yourself.

Well I just finished up setting up the new lights....
Just went to lowes real quick and picked up 3 24w CFL's, it says 6500k and 1600 lumens....
I hope these will be enough, not really sure what I got but I need lights.

if you go on ebay there's a seller selling a 13" CFL 5000K 7000lumen bulb for $40 bucks. it's kinda pricey bc of the shipping, which is just over 10, but it's priority shipping so u should get it fast. i suppose this ONE bulb should be fine for 2plants bc 7000 lumens is a crap ton of output for just one light. prob a lot of ppl will disagree bc everyone loves their HPSs, but if you want to save money and not have some crazy setup, this is the best way to go in my mind.

That is what i am using, but i have 10 of them soon to add more my mothers are getting big.

I have some more questions guys....
I was rushing last time because I was busy and I over looked something about my CFL's. I bought 3 bulbs thinking they were all the same but they were not. Two of them are 23w 6500k 1600 lumens daylight CFL's while the last one is a 23w 5000k 1600 lumes full spectrum CFL. Now I want to know which light is good for vegging and which one is good for flowering? Please let me know so I can go out and get more lights to be enough for my grow. I'm starting to think I should get more full spectrum CFL's.

here is a cheap set up that is CFL the hood on my profile holds up to 20 bulbs and the hood in the pictures holds up to 28 bulbs but you dont have to have such a large hood it can be made smaller the guy that made it can be reached at [email protected] check him out he also dose lay away.

Thanks, I can use a setup like that.
What about the lights I got though. I have daylight CFL's and full spectrum CFL's......are those the right type of lights???

here are some more of my hoods all CFL's i have two of the small two bulb hoods for cloning and the big hoods are for vegging and flowering both were good cost and came with a warranty i got them from [email protected] i like these hoods because they produce a tremendous amount of lumens and not much heat they are great for small spaces the 20 bulb hood is 25 x 25 and it produces 80,000 lumens at 840 watts my bigger hood produces 120,000 lumens at 1006 watts just shy of an HPS 1000 watt set up.

well it all will work the 6500k ones are more blue and cause the plant to reach for the sky i use that kelvin rating for cloning and i mix them with 2700k for vegging and then i use all 2700 kelvin for flowering you just need to know the lumens per watt and the kelvin ratting you dont need to get the highest watt CFL bulb because the higher wattage bulbs tend to give out less lumens per watt and be more expensive do the math before you buy.

Thanks bro! I'm still learning, I've been trying for years to grow my own bud but always fail some how. hopefully I get it right this time. So far it's looking good( knock on wood)