CFLs going bad?

ok so iv had the same 6 cfl for my last 5 grows and for the first 3 they were fine but in the last 2 the plants look real limp and not good, but both of these were from the same bag of some fire fire fire kind bud. i know its not over watering b/c i let the media dry out b4 i watered again. and i noticed that for every grow since the first the plants have taken longer and longer to grow and finish. so my question is does it seem like its the lights going bad or the seeds or the enviroment. ill try to get some pics in the next day or so.

Thanks,
JC

Personally, I'd guess temperatures, but CFLs will lose lumens over time. 6 grows using the same lights throughout veg and flower? if so then

veg @ 36 days x 24 hours = 864 hours x 6 veg periods = 5184 hours
bloom @ 60 days x 12 hours = 720 x 6 blooms = 4320 hours

Add in some wear and tear for turning them on and off and you're at about 10,000 hours on those cfls - getting pretty old. I would imagine the output is significantly less than when they were new. Get a new bulb and compare them side by side. Or just get all new bulbs and rule that factor out - they are cheap and the ones you have seem to have done plenty enough to be "retired" or used as spares

What Tokudai said.
:)
Yeah, use them as house lighting, and get new ones for your grow.

thanks thats what i was thinking about doing just buying all new ones. i also thought it might be temps but its winter time and snowing so the temps stay in the 70s which is nice compaired to the 90s my first grow went threw. thanks for the quick replies. im a gonna go get me some new lights after urban forestry class.

Thanks,
JC

Urban forestry? That sounds like a really cool class.

How did your first grow turn out with temps that high? I'm struggling with temps myself.

actually it was the best out of all of them. since it was my first i wasnt sure of when to harvest so i took a couple small ones so all in all i got about 2.5-3 oz off one plant. all i did for the temps was to open the door a crack at night while the lights were still on ( not smart when you got people walking around) but i keep a good enough eye on them in order to shut the door b4 they got to it. but after that i added an intake fan and vented the out take outside. but like i said each grow has gone down in quantity and quality. and yes urban forestry is quite fun but i prefer my plant prop. class

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnny cottonmouth

all i did for the temps was to open the door a crack at night while the lights were still on... but after that i added an intake fan and vented the out take outside.

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I do the same thing. I leave the door open, I added an intake, and an exhaust, and it's still 81-85 in there. It's ridiculous. I also have 3 fans blowing on the plants themselves.

here are the pics. sry it took so long i coulldnt find my camera. the plant is 5-6 weeks old from seed and has not had any ferts. so does anyone have an idea what might be wrong?

Bump. Any one wana take a shot at whatmight be wrong?

whooaaa. kill that lol.. its prolly a retard plant.. unless ur thumbs are brown instead of green lol

is it your soil...cause i had some bad soil and thats what all my plants looked like.....is that your only plant

yeah its my only plant right now but i got about 7 germinating right now. it might be the soil im going to go and try to find some better media this is just some soilless mix that i usse for all my plants.

what kind of soil are you using.....

lol wow. that plant looks fucked.

A few things must be known in order for anyone to help you:

∙ What is your soil mixture (looks disgusting by the way)?

∙ How many times a day do you water it?

∙ What kind of lighting are you using and how much(wattage and lumens)?

i got an update. so i went back and reviewed my first grow where this happened and i remembered that when i put the plant in 12/12 it shot up in height so i decided to do that and it didnt grow much but it did show me that she was a she so now i got 6 more sprouts that just popped outta tha ground so im gonna put them all in 18/6 and try to grow them out, no use in throwing away a little girl. im using ferti-lome and vermiculite mix. i water it about every third or fourth day. and iv got 6 42w cfls.

update. the 6 seedlings that popped out on the 4th showed me the answer to my question. they were all halfway under the 2 new lights that i bought and half way under 2 of the old lights after a couple days the little ones were ALL leaning towards the new lights. so i guess the answer is yes they do go bad for growing. thanks to everyone. but if you know what is wrong with my plant other than the lights please do inform me.
Thanks,
JC