Compact Fluorescents for the Grow Room

[Aspire420]

:( Basically I have a lot of questions for you guys and gals who have experience with CLF's. You know they have a 100-200 watt fixture available from Hydrofarm and some other suppliers. I was wondering if it was possible to recreate that fixture with local hardware store goodies. I found a 100 watt compact fluorescent bulb at the store. Do I need a ballast or can I just straight up wire it to a cord that will carry the voltage? Also what colors do you guys or gals prefer when you use them? I saw daylight, soft, and no warm colors in orange or red at the store. Where do you get the warm colors at and how which do you use for veg and for bloom? I would really appreciate the insight and will definitely post some pics of the project with a few reports dedicated to you all if you can help me out!

[Aspire420]

Crap I meant CFL.

Basically here is what I need to know if you can help me out;

1) which color type do you prefer for veg and flowering

2) can I wire a mogul socket CFL to a plug in cord or do I need a ballast to do that

[AIRHEAD48]

for vegging, use a light that produces wavelengths around 450â??495 nm. (Blue Light)

you will not need a ballast for powering your CFLS.

hope this helps :jointsmile:

[fishbonez]

for vegging, use a light that produces wavelengths around 450â??495 nm. (Blue Light)

you will not need a ballast for powering your CFLS.

hope this helps :jointsmile:


Maybe I'm mistaken, but I believe that he may in fact need a ballast. Some of the CFL grow tubes do not have the ballast built in and do require a fixture with a ballast. I've seen those CFL's at Lowes.

[McDanger]

:( Basically I have a lot of questions for you guys and gals who have experience with CLF's. You know they have a 100-200 watt fixture available from Hydrofarm and some other suppliers. I was wondering if it was possible to recreate that fixture with local hardware store goodies. I found a 100 watt compact fluorescent bulb at the store. Do I need a ballast or can I just straight up wire it to a cord that will carry the voltage? Also what colors do you guys or gals prefer when you use them? I saw daylight, soft, and no warm colors in orange or red at the store. Where do you get the warm colors at and how which do you use for veg and for bloom? I would really appreciate the insight and will definitely post some pics of the project with a few reports dedicated to you all if you can help me out!

soft white is warm, that is usually 2700k-3000k, the daylight bulbs are usually 6500k and cool white is a little lower, around 5700k.
I would use 1/2 warm and 1/2 cool for veg, but I switch to hps for budding.
is the bulb you are talking about actually 100w or is it 100w replacement, actually 23w? The 23w bulbs have a built in ballast. These you can just get a painters light and put a splitter on and use 2 bulbs per fixture or use 3 splitters to use it for 4 bulbs.
here are some pics of the fixtures I use.