PharmaCan, I'm not so sure that the rigamarole of getting pollen to make seeds is all that necessary to an ongoing, continuous output op. I'm not otherwise sure of your purposes for doing this.

I sprouted 5 Sweet Tooth #4 (Spice of Life seeds) beans about 5-6 years ago- and have been using the stock ever since. I replace mother plants with one of their progeny about every 4-6 wks.

Here and there, I've seen cautions about taking clones of clones of clones forever and ever- but I've had no problems. ST4 still produces like it always has, since the first batch I flowered many years ago.

TGF said:
if you were to put the same replace your 400 watt HPS system (~55,000 lumens) with 400 true watts of CFL lights (~26,000 lumens), you would be drawing the same amount of power/electricity (400 watts), but you would be giving your plants less than half of the lumens than you had with your HPS. This means that the HPS is at least twice as efficient as the CFLs.
Spot on. Well said. BTW, thanks for the compliment,

However, even 26K lumens of CFL is still low intensity light. Suffice it to say that a CFL lumen is not quite equal to an HPS lumen; kinda apples and applesauce.

Here's a 250W HPS rated for 28K initial and 25K avg lumens. Remote the ballast outside the op airmass and I can't see how this would put more heat into the op air than 400W worth of CFL. Could very easily be cool-tubed for a micro op.

I'd put a 150W HPS (avg 14K lumens) up against 300W worth of CFLs in a small flowering situation any day of the week.

The purchase cost is similar, the running cost of HPS per lumen is much less, and HPS tube replacement is MUCHO cheaper at $20, compared to the cost of big self-ballasted CFLs.

Yes, CFLs have a purpose- but flowering isn't the best use of them... and the REALLY BIG CFLs (80-100W actual consumption and higher) are simply not a good choice compared to HPS or MH. If you think you need a huge CFL, what you probably need is a small HPS!
Al B. Fuct Reviewed by Al B. Fuct on . When am I using too many watts? Using too many watts for a grow is one of the indicators that can get the police on your case. I was just wondering how many Watts a typical household uses in an hour/day. How many Watts of power before you are obviously doing something out of the norm. If anyone knows of an ways to produce Electricity without leaving a sign, post some Ideas. I thought about a Hydrogen Generator, they exist, and can be converted from existing Internal Combustion Engine, but Hydrogen Rating: 5