was told today that cfl lights grow a lot more slowly...

is this true? I am using 300 watts for 3 plants and havent seen any growth (although they have yellow leaves so i think thats why) although the same person who told me this also said that its normal for clones to be yellow because of how much stress it puts on the plant to clone them

can anyone confirm this or..?

I vegged 2 plants with 250W cfl and they were growing like on steroids. I`m growing 4 under it now and it seems ok too, so 300W for 3 plants should be plenty as far as vegging goes. Not sure about them clones being yellow though - did that person sell those clones to you? How old are they?

madmad said:

I vegged 2 plants with 250W cfl and they were growing like on steroids. I`m growing 4 under it now and it seems ok too, so 300W for 3 plants should be plenty as far as vegging goes. Not sure about them clones being yellow though - did that person sell those clones to you? How old are they?

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no the three plants i had were not from him. I was just looking around at different dispensaries and i mean, he was pretty much accurate as far as i can tell. most places had a lot of plants with yellow leaves...

i ended up buying 3 more clones off that guy. they looked healthy. again though this is my first grow.

its been a week only since i got my initial clones. but things just seem to be getting slowly worse. i do have ventilation and a fan blowing on them. my ph runs about 6.0-6.5

My first guess with the yellow leaves and slow growth is a lack of nitrogen. What kind of soil you got, how close are the lights, and have you fed them yet? Pics are always helpful. Your pH is a tad low. Is that the pH of your runoff?

cfls are great as long as you keep your plant within inches on your bulb, And my theory on the yellowing leaves, Or atleast the one i've heard the most is, they yellow because they have to use energy/nutrients to make roots. Personally i've only had a few outta the 15 or so i've done turn yellow, So can't tell you forsure about the yellowing but i am positive about the CFLs.

They are yellow 'cuz there is a lack of chlorophyl. Growing roots will not "suck" the green out. First and foremost the plant needs healthy leaves so that it can produce the food necessary for the production of roots.

CFLs do not put out as much light per watt as HID lighting does. The chart below does not show the curly pigtail looking home lighting CFLs that many growers use, but it does show how it takes more florescent lights of any type to equal the same wattage in HID lighting. CFLs also lack penetration when compared to HID lighting. So, if you use CFLs you need more of them and you need them at different levels to make up for them putting out less light and having less penetration. Also, just like with HID lighting you do want to make sure that you are using the proper light spectrum for vegging and then change to the right light spectrum for flowering.

[SIZE=+2]Light Output Comparison Chart[/SIZE]

yea, metal halides will beat cfs anyday

The OP should still be seeing growth even with CFLs. They should not be yellow. Obviously HIDs are better, but dude wants to know why his shit is yellow and ain't growing.

what's the color of yer cfls 6500 K ? is that 300 actual watts, are you over watering ? we're not psychics here !

frmrboi said:

what's the color of yer cfls 6500 K ? is that 300 actual watts, are you over watering ? we're not psychics here !

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i bought the cfls at home depot. there the 100 watt equivalents. 2 of them are soft white, and one is true color. they are from eco smart. soft white sais 2700k lumens and the true color sais 5000 lumens.

the other topic i started is here with a pic ill get a better one up later.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/471777-i-need-second-opinions-mg.html

rock lobster said:

i bought the cfls at home depot. there the 100 watt equivalents. 2 of them are soft white, and one is true color. they are from eco smart. soft white sais 2700k lumens and the true color sais 5000 lumens.

the other topic i started is here with a pic ill get a better one up later.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/471777-i-need-second-opinions-mg.html

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if its 100 watt equivalent then its not actually 100 watts. all that means is that it has an output of lumens equal to a 100w incandescent bulb.
2700k is usually reserved for flowering. 4000k and above is for veg stage. there are a lot of factors when you use cfl's. i would go read up on it.

Rock Lobster, while all these color temperatures for the proper spectrum for each stage are basically correct, to address your immediate problem they have no value. Using what you have available to you at the moment, you should be seeing green leaves and good growth. While they aren't OPTIMAL, many people grow every day with CFLs, regardless of the perfect portion of the spectrum. Focus on what is going on, and not what would be ideal.

No they are not Mg deficient. They are in all probability Nitrogen deficient. What soil are you using, and have you fed them?

They are probably yellowing due to lack of food, and those CFL's while sufficient to grow plants you most certainly will not get the best yield, growing with home lighting CFL's is not the same as using CFL's lamps made for growing.

Here is a home depot 100W equiv light:



and here is a 100W grow lamp





regards,

ru4r34l said:

They are probably yellowing due to lack of food, and those CFL's while sufficient to grow plants you most certainly will not get the best yield, growing with home lighting CFL's is not the same as using CFL's lamps made for growing.

Here is a home depot 100W equiv light:

and here is a 100W grow lamp

regards,

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would the only places to get a cfl like that online and in hydro/grow shops only?

i was looking for those and couldnt find them at any home depot.

Jack Harer said:

Rock Lobster, while all these color temperatures for the proper spectrum for each stage are basically correct, to address your immediate problem they have no value. Using what you have available to you at the moment, you should be seeing green leaves and good growth. While they aren't OPTIMAL, many people grow every day with CFLs, regardless of the perfect portion of the spectrum. Focus on what is going on, and not what would be ideal.

No they are not Mg deficient. They are in all probability Nitrogen deficient. What soil are you using, and have you fed them?

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i am using age old growing soil. nutrients are the age old grow. i have fed them twice since getting them. these plants were like 6 inches when i got them.

what would you recommend me do about a nitrogen deficiency?

also I lifted the plants out of the soil to take a look at the roots and none of them were really sprouting through the rock wool. so i took enough rock wool off for them to make direct contact with soil. hopefully something good will come from that.

What are you feeding them?

I had a similar problem with my one plant.

The yellowing on a young plant's leaves must mean some problem, and I'd likely guess it's your water. Buy some bottled spring water, doesn't have to be evian or anything. But keep in mind stuff like Dasani is just filtered tap. Spring water. Tap water has bad PH and can have a lot of other minerals and metals and such.

Soon as I switched back to it, I saw an immediate improvement, the yellowing stopped spreading, the new leaves grew super fast.

And I'm just in basic soil with no nutes. it's only a couple weeks old. You don't need much in the way of nutes early on I'd say.

But for small grows CFLs rock and just keep them about 2 inches above the plant and you'll have em growing crazy fast. Just make sure you have a lot light. I have a big ass bulb the size of a softball spiral, plus 4 tubes, all surrounding the plants.

I have at the moment about 10000 lumens of white light in there. That will increase once the plants grow bigger. IMO one light per plant works while they're small but eventually you need light from a bigger area.

Jack Harer said:

What are you feeding them?

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just the age old grow nutes.

12-6-6

and i was thinking about switching to the alaskan fish fertilizer

5-1-1

rock lobster said:

is this true? I am using 300 watts for 3 plants and havent seen any growth (although they have yellow leaves so i think thats why) although the same person who told me this also said that its normal for clones to be yellow because of how much stress it puts on the plant to clone them

can anyone confirm this or..?

Click to expand...

i always use clf to start me grows just gotta be carefull at the start they are stressed and they need time to recover and start good root development you could try some root stimulants to give them a better start