Compact Flourescents

[samiam]

Quick Question?

My signifigant other who is much smarter at this stuff brought home two 23 watt/1450 lumens (ea.) CFL's for our 26.5x19x53.5 (about 4 sq ft) grow space. We have some newly planted seedlings with root hormone started in potting soil (non-enriched) in jiffy-pots. I wonder if this is ok to use for at least the first 30 or so days or for sprouting?

samiam Reviewed by samiam on 07-29-2005. Compact Flourescents Quick Question? My signifigant other who is much smarter at this stuff brought home two 23 watt/1450 lumens (ea.) CFL's for our 26.5x19x53.5 (about 4 sq ft) grow space. We have some newly planted seedlings with root hormone started in potting soil (non-enriched) in jiffy-pots. I wonder if this is ok to use for at least the first 30 or so days or for sprouting? Rating: 5

[Marc Benson]

They'll work great but if I were doing it I'd have a couple 2 footers (two bulbs each) on each side also to give the lower area as much light as possible as they grow taller. Plus lots of white paint or mylar. I've also been using the reflectors they include with the actual lamps I put the cfl's in. Directs the light right at the plant and not all over the place. The lamps clip on anywhere you want so it makes it great for positioning them at different angles if you want.

[HARDDON]

Quick Question?

...two 23 watt/1450 lumens (ea.) CFL's for our 26.5x19x53.5 (about 4 sq ft) grow space...

I wonder if this is ok to use for at least the first 30 or so days or for sprouting?

No this will not be nearly enuff and your plants will not survive even 30 days.

23W CFL are as useless as tits on a frog. Even for one plant.

You dont mention how many plants you have or intend to grow....but here is my formula to follow...

Remember....your CFL must have a spectrum temp of AT LEAST 5500 for optimal growth....

PER One plant....

OPTIMAL: 125W (TRUE WATTS) 5500 / 6400K...each plant.
MINIMAL: 55W (TRUE WATTS) 5500K...each plant.

THis is good for 30 days and assuming refelction is optimally in place.

In either case....lights must be no more than 2" from light surface with good strong air flow between the light surface and plant tops.

Hope this helps....

[samiam]

Thx folks. I am starting 7 seedlings right now but anticipate that only 3-4 are going to be viable in the end. I did go out and purchase another reflector and 100 watt CFL that throws out 1471 lumens. So, in total we have about 4371 lumens in there and it is a smallish space. So, my thought process is that we will be fine at least for a couple of weeks until our 250w HPS stuff comes in. If I am wrong let me know.

[HARDDON]

Optimal Growth....7000 Lumens p/Sq Ft.
Adequate Growth....5000 Lumens p/Sq Ft.
Minimal Growth....2000 Lumens p/Sq. Ft.

The faster you get the lights you need...the better.

[Marc Benson]

I bow to the great Master of Canniboids wise words on cfl's. He knows much. But here's a good question. Can you have too many lumens per sq/ft? For instance if you had 8 sq/ft of grow space and put a 1000watt hps in there to flower (140,000 or 17,500 lumens per sq/ft), would it just be a waste or would they grow a bazillion mph with buds the size of footballs?

[4x4Turbo]

I grew 12 plants under one 4ft fixture (2bulbs) and in 30 days they were 1ft-1.5ft
I had the lights 1inch from the tops, no fan most of the time, and 24/7 lights.

Wouldn't recommend it but it WORKED.
Ebay has some pretty nice CFs. 125w 8,000+lumens for $70. Kind of expensive but I think i'll go with these instead of a hps setup. hps is too hot, ventilation has to be dealt with and I'm scared i'll get caught in an apartment with a hps setup burning so much electric.

[latewood]

4x4 turbo...I'm scared i'll get caught in an apartment with a hps setup burning so much electric...
you don't use any more electric with 400w hps than you do running a computer...so you would be well within tolerances of the big spike "they" look for

[HARDDON]

People too often get carried away with wattage...when the light temperature is at least as important as the watts.

If for example, you used regular light bulbs....say 10 bulbs of 100W each....you would have 1000W of light.

However, since the spectrum from a regular light bulb is not anywhere near FULL SPECTRUM....these 1000W will produce a ragged grow as well.

When considering lighting with CFL's, you need to make sure the Kelvin temps are in range for the suited plant you are growing.

The stories you guys hear about people getting busted for juice usage...

Those were for the most part years and years ago before the technology used today was around.

With todays lights, you get triple or even quadruple the lumenoscity of the bulbs of even 10 years ago.

Also, the growers who have their entire basement dedicated to growing and have many many many lights....they are the ones who have unreasonably high electric usage.

Hell a 1000W HPS wont even throw a blink in the usage department.

Worry not.

[4x4Turbo]

Thats SWEET harddon. I thought it would show a red flag.


I think I'll get 4 125w full spectrum cfl's and a 400w hps for flowering. Should i get 1 out of the 4 cfl's in red spectrum 2700k?