newbie hydrocfl experiment

[Weedhound]

Well their lineage doesn't matter as long as they're there for you at the end..

[justanotherbozo]

and it isn't a total unknown, my first grow was with one of these strains and it was better than what i've been buying.
i have to say that i really enjoyed growing it too.
thanks for stopping in and giving me some feedback WH, i really appreciate it!

[italian04]

just a question....how often do you change out the water?? or how long do the nutrients actually last in the water?? we actually have the same setup. we only have 4 plants with 2 60watt and 1 40watt.

[iamgrowerman]

I love watching the CFL grows.

Good luck to ya on your harvest, I can't wait to see how you do.

I read about a guy who's using some of the really big CFLs - have you thought of that for your grow?

[justanotherbozo]

just a question....how often do you change out the water?? or how long do the nutrients actually last in the water?? we actually have the same setup. we only have 4 plants with 2 60watt and 1 40watt.

you should check the FAQ's and thread's in the hydroponics section, and check with ClosetDWC, his name alone should tell you he know's about these set-ups.

the thing with me is, even though things have been going really well, everything i'm doing is for the first time, i really am a newbie myself.

with my limited experience, i would suggest you change your res at a minimum of every 2 weeks. obviously, the more often you change your res, the more nutes you will go through but, by doing so you reduce your risk for problems. nutrient lock-out in particular is something that can be prevented in large part by regularly changing your res.

good luck with your own grow, you should start a log for people to view, then, if you have problems, people can more readily help you.

that being said, bake on

[justanotherbozo]

I love watching the CFL grows.

Good luck to ya on your harvest, I can't wait to see how you do.

I read about a guy who's using some of the really big CFLs - have you thought of that for your grow?

i'm using smaller CFL's (mostly 40 watters) partly because they're so much easier to find, they're way cheaper than the big ones and, maybe more importantly, the smaller bulbs allow much more flexibility when it comes to tweaking your light spectrums.
for example, a 200 watt, 6500Kelvin bulb will never be anything but 200 watts of 6500K light. on the other hand, 5 x 40 watt bulbs can be split between spectrums so you can add some reds as well.
anyway, that's my reasoning, whether it makes an appreciable difference in yield remains to be seen. lol

so, toke amongst your selves

[iamgrowerman]

That's a really good point. I'll have to remember to point that out to him the next time he's bragging about how big and bright his lights are.

You say you use 40w CFLs - I'm assuming you mean 40w actual, with a 100+ equivalency? A 26-27w CFL is supposed to be a 100w equivalent, so I'd guess a 40w would be about 150w equivalent?


Has anyone done any kind of comparison between the lumen output of, say, 5 100w equivalent CFLs versus one 500w equivalent? Does one option make more heat than the other?

I'm tempted to try a little side-by-side but there's no point in reinventing the wheel if someone else already has. (Or spending a bunch of money on it.)

[justanotherbozo]

That's a really good point. I'll have to remember to point that out to him the next time he's bragging about how big and bright his lights are.

You say you use 40w CFLs - I'm assuming you mean 40w actual, with a 100+ equivalency? A 26-27w CFL is supposed to be a 100w equivalent, so I'd guess a 40w would be about 150w equivalent?


Has anyone done any kind of comparison between the lumen output of, say, 5 100w equivalent CFLs versus one 500w equivalent? Does one option make more heat than the other?

I'm tempted to try a little side-by-side but there's no point in reinventing the wheel if someone else already has. (Or spending a bunch of money on it.)

that's all bullshit, look at the actuall wattages when you buy, and some bulbs don't specify the spectrums, if you can't tell, leave them in the store.

and yeah, the 40's are equal to 150's, really though, forget that bullshit, it's just marketing hype.

another thing for you to consider is that, in truth, CFL's will produce more heat than an HID, watt for watt, the difference is that with HID's, all the heat comes from one source only, with CFL's there are many sources so the heat is spread out more.

what would be cool to test is a comparison between 10x40watt CFL's against 1x400watt HPS. the results of that test would really have some value.

anyway, toke amongst yourselves

[justanotherbozo]

so far, my new bubble cloner has worked like a dream. in my first run i got 17 rooted clones out of 18 cuttings, yipee! LOL (and all starting showing roots within 8 days!)

anyway, now i have to transplant my rooted cuttings and i thought i'd take some pics to document and post for the other newbies.
first i potted some in dirt for a friend which is pretty simple, just be gentle.

so, bake on (after you pot your clones)

[justanotherbozo]

like i said, potting into dirt is pretty simple, just be gentle and remember not to leave too much space between the level of the dirt and the rim of your pots, you don't want a lot of dead, stagnant air pooling around the base of your plants.

the pots are from my first grow (2 liter coke bottles, not big enough for mommas but fine for clones that only resided in them for 10 weeks and 15 of them fit into one of my underbed bins {post #1, pic #2})