New To This But Loving It

[NewToThis87]

Hello guys! I am new to this indoor growing, I used to grow outdoor but now I am loving this indoor thing!
I am using CFL's for my grow:
4×45W, 7x34W, 5x30W 5x25W with 6500K on a 3'x2'x3' growing Area and I am using ProMix HP and having some Cotton candy kush and white rhino babies.

Is the light enough for it for the time being? How many bulbs should I add or replace with 2700K warm white colour? Any tips? Thanks All

 

[Leew421]

Get t5s. You won't like the cfl grow

 

[brazel]

I disagree. CFL can grow awesome herb, I've done it many times. Have they sprouted? I can't see any plant. If they haven't then
You have way too many lights, just the 4x45 would be fine. Seeds don't need light to sprout. No need for 2700k.

 

[NewToThis87]

I disagree. CFL can grow awesome herb, I've done it many times. Have they sprouted? I can't see any plant. If they haven't then
You have way too many lights, just the 4x45 would be fine. Seeds don't need light to sprout. No need for 2700k.

Yeah 7 plants sprouted! 2 plants with 4 real leaves and everything is going great and I am running the AC on 75 temperature, i will upload some pictures for the babies should i disconnect some bulbs for now until they enter the veg stage? Thanks alot for your advise

 

[brazel]

Yeah 7 plants sprouted! 2 plants with 4 real leaves and everything is going great and I am running the AC on 75 temperature, i will upload some pictures for the babies should i disconnect some bulbs for now until they enter the veg stage? Thanks alot for your advise

So after the Cotyledons you have a set of two leaves and another set of two leaves?
I'd put a 45w over each one as close as you can get without burning it which should be pretty close. Use the next brightest cfl when you run out of 45w. Once your plant sprouts you're going to want to put light on it so it doesn't stretch cuz it'll go looking for light. You're gonna need a stand to set your plants on, if your light ain't adjustable individually. With cfl it's best to have them individual so you can place them around the plant. Should've went with all 45w.

 

[NewToThis87]

So after the Cotyledons you have a set of two leaves and another set of two leaves?
I'd put a 45w over each one as close as you can get without burning it which should be pretty close. Use the next brightest cfl when you run out of 45w. Once your plant sprouts you're going to want to put light on it so it doesn't stretch cuz it'll go looking for light. You're gonna need a stand to set your plants on, if your light ain't adjustable individually. With cfl it's best to have them individual so you can place them around the plant. Should've went with all 45w.

Yeah after the Cotyledons another 2 sets of leaves, this is my first time so its a bit messy but i will adjust the lights later on and for now i will disconnect some lights in order to turn it on later after all my babies enter Veg stage but for now i will limit the light a bit and will add more 45's 2700k when flowering starts, what do you think?

 

[brazel]

Yeah after the Cotyledons another 2 sets of leaves, this is my first time so its a bit messy but i will adjust the lights later on and for now i will disconnect some lights in order to turn it on later after all my babies enter Veg stage but for now i will limit the light a bit and will add more 45's 2700k when flowering starts, what do you think?

Yeah that'll work. Just keep them close and surround the plant too once they take off.

 

[heisen]

I can already tell thats not enough light.Your gonna burn the shit out of your plants cause they wont have enough light to keep up.Grow will be very slow going and your plants are gonna leak sick.it can be done like brazel said but that looks like alot of engineering for a bunch of CFL's when u could have just got 1 CMH ballast and cheap wing reflector and a 315W CMH bulb and you would have killed them CFL's.Why didnt you ask if was gonna be enough light before you set all that stuff up?
Do yourself a favor and download a lux app for your phone.It uses the front camera light sensor to give you a rough estimate.I use mine religiously when lowering and raising my hoods.On those young plants you should be hitting at least 23,000 to 32,000 LUX.if your below 12,000 your gonna be very disappointed.The LUX app is a very handy tool to have in your grow area.It may be a little off from an expensive one but it will give you accurate readings that you can get use to.My plants under full veg are taking 40,000 - 55,000 LUX of light.so this is a number i always aim for when i set up my hoods.1 foot under a 600 watt HPS will give you around 75,000 LUX and under a 1000 will be around 110,000.I also use the app to tell me when to change my bulbs.Just measure a foot under a new bulb and write it down.check your bulbs before every grow and see how much it has dropped.directly under a 8 bulb T5 HO i get around 24,000 LUX which is perfect for young plants.the reason alot of guys like t5's but the t5's footprint is only as big as the fixture.straight down from the bulbs.LUX drops off dramatically outside of the lights.

 

[heisen]

these plants are 4 days old under a 600W HID.they just cracked the shells off 4days ago.Dont skimp on light.plants have to have it and im not sure why growers are scared to give there plants light,

 

[NewToThis87]

I can already tell thats not enough light.Your gonna burn the shit out of your plants cause they wont have enough light to keep up.Grow will be very slow going and your plants are gonna leak sick.it can be done like brazel said but that looks like alot of engineering for a bunch of CFL's when u could have just got 1 CMH ballast and cheap wing reflector and a 315W CMH bulb and you would have killed them CFL's.Why didnt you ask if was gonna be enough light before you set all that stuff up?
Do yourself a favor and download a lux app for your phone.It uses the front camera light sensor to give you a rough estimate.I use mine religiously when lowering and raising my hoods.On those young plants you should be hitting at least 23,000 to 32,000 LUX.if your below 12,000 your gonna be very disappointed.The LUX app is a very handy tool to have in your grow area.It may be a little off from an expensive one but it will give you accurate readings that you can get use to.My plants under full veg are taking 40,000 - 55,000 LUX of light.so this is a number i always aim for when i set up my hoods.1 foot under a 600 watt HPS will give you around 75,000 LUX and under a 1000 will be around 110,000.I also use the app to tell me when to change my bulbs.Just measure a foot under a new bulb and write it down.check your bulbs before every grow and see how much it has dropped.directly under a 8 bulb T5 HO i get around 24,000 LUX which is perfect for young plants.the reason alot of guys like t5's but the t5's footprint is only as big as the fixture.straight down from the bulbs.LUX drops off dramatically outside of the lights.

Thaanks a lot for the advise, the problem i dont have the space nor the budget to do any upgrade now, other than adding some extra bulbs, i downloaded the Lux meter and tried it i got an range between 22-34000 lux so i guess its not bad, i will work on the distribution of the bulbs in order to achieve 28000 lux on all plants, thanks again.

 

[heisen]

If your getting 34k over the plants your good.

 

[King Julien]

In my experience the more of those bulbs the better. However...

With that many in that small space all pointing straight down you are generating a lot of extra heat and wasting a lot of extra light.

Those CFL's cast the highest concentration of light directly out the side of the bulb. So up there you are only getting a small percentage of light actually usable from each bulb but you get all of their heat.

Personally I'd reconfigure things to use less bulbs but remount them horizontally.

I've grown with CFLs and while you can do it and pull yields that exceed 1 gram a watt, I didn't, it is a very labor intensive process to keep the lights the right distance away each day and not stretch or burn things. My best friend was a good fan that blew directly onto the bulbs and allowed the plants to get much closer than before.

Food for thought.

 

[NewToThis87]

Thanks Alot for the advise! Regarding the heat its controlled by an AC on 75 temperature and almost 70% humidity for now using a humidifier and for the lights, the problem i don't have much choices for now maybe on the next grow i will order a LED light, other than that the babies are growing slowly but everything seems good for now

 

[NewToThis87]

Here are my babies what do you think? And also i have a question, check the last pic, its very weird; the leaves look different in a weird way.

 

[heisen]

Not bad,I like to see the first true set of leaves a little bigger before they open the second set but still not bad.But you really got to be a shitty grower to fuck up a seedling,Where the real test will come in is about 2 weeks

 

[brazel]

If your getting 34k over the plants your good.

I agree, and that fixture is something! That's where his money went.
Heisenbubble, do think his reading is correct? It looks like a big spread and the gaps between the lights? And different bulbs?
That's another problem with that fixture, it doesn't look like the lights are adjustable.
Which is beneficial with CFL

Newtothis I know you put a lot of work into this and you're stoked! But I'd chop this up to the game and be stoked on what you learned. If you can disassemble and use the light Moguls individually.
Those moguls that hold two lights would be a better option. I also prefer the cfl twist style that are smaller. There's a light that looks like a u and probably like 18 inches long, I don't remember what there called but descent for the price.

Also if you built that then you have a little bit of knowledge of wiring. You can order online or go to electrical supply house and buy a magnetic ballast replacement it comes with the coil starter and the ballast and wire it up. Your coil and starter each have two wires, I believe the balast has 120v 240v 277v and 480v use the correct volts. Then get a big mogul and a light. You don't have to buy expensive builds get a cheap one until you can upgrade.
Make the wires between the Mogol and the starter, I believe the starter connect to the mobile it'll tell you. I'm going from memory from like 2001 but make those wirers longer so you can put the ballast outside the grow room or wherever.

It's cheap, and now I just realized you could probably find it one on Amazon for cheaper or already made. The ballast like 20 mogul like 5 and lamp like 10.... I'm guessing. Now I just through this out here cuz it's cheap and you like to DIY

Imo, I'd run metal halide whole grow

 

[brazel]

In my experience the more of those bulbs the better. However...

With that many in that small space all pointing straight down you are generating a lot of extra heat and wasting a lot of extra light.

Those CFL's cast the highest concentration of light directly out the side of the bulb. So up there you are only getting a small percentage of light actually usable from each bulb but you get all of their heat.

Personally I'd reconfigure things to use less bulbs but remount them horizontally.

I've grown with CFLs and while you can do it and pull yields that exceed 1 gram a watt, I didn't, it is a very labor intensive process to keep the lights the right distance away each day and not stretch or burn things. My best friend was a good fan that blew directly onto the bulbs and allowed the plants to get much closer than before.

Food for thought.

Yes! Thats good food indeed. You can get good quality and quantity! But like I said skill comes in play and DIY. you have like 80,000 lights that you have to have supported at different angles. I used desk lamps, regular ones and architect ones plus home depot shop lights with the reflector and the tap handle

 

[brazel]

Here are my babies what do you think? And also i have a question, check the last pic, its very weird; the leaves look different in a weird way.View attachment 748864 View attachment 748865 View attachment 748866 View attachment 748867

Being a new grower, I wouldn't worry about it. But if you wanna grow a strain you like, you'd plant as much seeds as you can. The more the better! 25 is a good lower number. You would cull mutants, slow growth, basically you monitor the different features between the plants the more you have the better. You keep the features you're looking, cull the others. I would murder the bottom, but you should let it grow and learn from it.

The top picture is a good example of perlite and how it floats up. Does it all float up no, does some float up yes, is it annoying yes is there better choices definitely will things ever change no

Cheers

 

[brazel]

i will order a LED light

Let me fix this for you!
I will research LED and learn, then I'll go to led websites and read their pages and compare it to what I learned so I can make a decision not based on marketing or what someone told you that bought a led.
Then share your knowledge with everyone here!!!
Just a tip! And being new grower has a great advantage, you learn real stuff and not spend years on the hype, then relearn

 

[heisen]

Naw the numbers look off from his pic.wonder where he is putting the sensor.it needs to pe over the plants