growing wide

[Vancefish]

I took some great shots. However I don't own any photo altering software. So I returned the camera to the friend who I borrowed it from, with the pics still in it. She's going to edit them down and email them to me.

I should be able to post them either tonight or tomorrow. :thumbsup:

Here's a HUGE sneak peak..

[firstfist]

I ended up ordering a 200w cfl, and it came today.....broken . Amazon is sending a replacement that should be here by Sat.

Anyway, I've had it growing for a few weeks just getting window sunlight, and it has been doing ok. Slow as she goes. This morning I got impatient for the light, and put a 23w cfl on her (it just showed it's sex yesterday, I'll ask about that in a second). Just having that one light on her got 2 days worth of window sunlight growth. Wish I had my camera to get a shot of her, but alas its miles away at the moment.

So a couple questions. If it is starting to shoot out the female pistules? does that mean it is in the beging of the flowering stage? Sunrise here is currently around 7:30am, and sunset at about 8:00pm. Should I start the new light regement slowly, or should I go right to a 24/7 light schedule to bring it out of flowering?

Thanks!

[Vancefish]

Having female parts doesn't mean it's flowering. However 18on/6off will veg a plant faster. Also, outdoors a plant CAN flower (or at least start to) with 11 hours of darkness.

I took a couple pics today of my LST. Here's a couple for you at 32 days flower.

[firstfist]

Awesome! Good news indeed, and those look quite nice!

So glad I took your advice and used some LST. It is starting to get a bit hard to tell where the actual "top" of my plant is. Two of the shoots look just like the main stem, and a bunch of others will look like the main stem in a day or two at my best estimate.

[Vancefish]

Awesome! Good news indeed, and those look quite nice!

So glad I took your advice and used some LST. It is starting to get a bit hard to tell where the actual "top" of my plant is. Two of the shoots look just like the main stem, and a bunch of others will look like the main stem in a day or two at my best estimate.

Shoulda shown you these too. :thumbsup:

[firstfist]

Don't have my set up still, but I'm a bit confused about 200w lighting. This is the bulb that I have coming. I have read both that I will need a ballast, and somewhere else that these cfls have internal ballasts. Is that true? I'm starting to think it is true as I can't seem to find any 200w cfl ballasts. Kinda lost here I guess.

[bigtopsfinn]

Looks like that thing has a ballast already, it's the plastic thing between the bulb and the socket screw. Should get your started :thumbsup:

[Vancefish]

I just looked at that bulb too. Just like any CFL the ballast is part of the bulb.

What I find interesting is I, for the life of me, can not find any info on the lumens this bulb puts out. I built a CFL/tube light hood totaling 333w which puts out 17,900 lumens with 4 x 4' 2700K tubes, 4 x 23w 5000K CFLs and 3 x 27w 6500K CFLs.

I'm curious what these put out, but even Hydrofarm themselves don't have it on their site. I'm sure it's going to work great! However watt to lumens efficiency is an unknown, without that number.:wtf: Makes me think they don't want us to know.

Hydrofarm - Hydrofarm FLC200D 200 W Compact Fluorescent Bulb - Daylight

[firstfist]

I have seen the lumens for these bulbs in a few spots. Here is one of them. For some I have seen as low as 8000lumens, and as high as 12000 lumens for single 200w bulbs.

[Vancefish]

When you get your replacement you'll have to tell us what the box says.

However if 8000 is all it pulls then multiple standard CFLs are more efficient. As each 27w puts out 1700 lumens. So, five standard CFLs equal 8500 lumens, and only use 135w.

If it puts out 12000 lumens. then it would take seven regular CFLs to get 11900 lumens, and those seven would use 189w.

This tells me that although this is a good bulb for growing. Either with the 8000 or 12000 lumen version. The standard CFLs are better. Because you get more light per watt. Plus using multiple bulbs, the light comes in from many angles, instead of just one.

Although I think this is a good bulb, I think you should consider standard 27w 6500K CFLs from home depot. They only cost about $8 for four bulbs. Then buy some lamp sockets($3 each) and lamp cords($4-5 each). Make your own drop lights.:thumbsup: