I think the question is how you get 8 square feet of space out of one plant. Even screened, you shouldn't be taking up that much room. If it were me, and I had only one plant and--I'm guessing here--you have some sort of height issue in your cabinet, I'd LST. For one plant, 12 26 watt bulbs is overkill unless it's a monster plant for an indoor grow (as in 5 ft. +). A "normal" indoor plant that's 2.5 to 3.5 feet high can be flowered quite well with 4 or 5 26 watt CFLs. A plant that size usually takes up about 15" x 15" of space...that's about 1.5 sq. ft., more or less.

Anyway, I'd like to hear some more details. How long has you plant been in veg? How tall is it now? I'm just trying to picture a single indoor plant taking up eight square feet of space....
Roughrider Reviewed by Roughrider on . SCROG/CFL lighting I am filling a 2x4ft screen with one plant and am using CFL's placed about 2 inches from the trained canopy. Currently I am running 12-26 watt CFL's @6500K for veg. I plan on upgrading the lights to 18 - 26watt CFL's (9-3000K and 9-6500K) for a mixed spectrum for flowering. I did the math and the total lumen output for the 18 bulb setup would be 28,800 lumens. Figure in my square footage (8sq. ft.) and it equals out to 3600L/1sq.ft. I know the optimum goal is for 5000L/1sq.ft. But is this Rating: 5