Fluorescent Lighting

[Ketamine]

Can someone clear up the fluorescent lighting powers and HID equivalent. Can you use fluorescents exculsively for all stages?

 

[mdTHC420]

yes you can. no you dont want to. from experience only time true flouresents are good is clones. ive veged and flowered with a few and it worked but sub par. a 8 bulb t5 is about the same as a 400 MH setup so its just as expensive or more. id say your better off with a 400 than a shit ton of CFLs. it would be better in the long run.

 

[dentonland]

:banana1sv6:Sure you can do it all with fluor... my buddy does because of electrical expenses.. fluorescents dont put out the heat and u need alot less a/c and that all adds up. But and its a big but the hps or mh is alot faster and better for buds ... but u get weed either way padre:banana1sv6:

 

[Spliff-killa]

Like MD said, yes you can, but you get fluffy buds. Save yourself some trouble and get an HID.
Flours=clone, seeds, maybe veg (I've vegged under flours)(MH much better for veg)
HID=veg and flower

Flours=Good way to learn if you are new to the game.

 

[Steve Z]

:banana1sv6:Sure you can do it all with fluor... my buddy does because of electrical expenses.. fluorescents dont put out the heat and u need alot less a/c and that all adds up. But and its a big but the hps or mh is alot faster and better for buds ... but u get weed either way padre:banana1sv6:

GO HID i promise.

and t5's can put out some fucking heat. use the wattage equivalent of an hps and tell me that shit aint hot. your a fuckin liar if you do haha.

i have an 8 bulb 4' t5 and that tent can get high 80's on a hot day, vented correctly (no ac though)

 

[beezleb878]

Not taking away from what those have already said but their is a very good grow tests with a badboy T5 light here on the farm. The results were surprising and worth looking into.

 

[mdTHC420]

let me ammend what i said slightly. using CLF bulbs and pointing them at the plant will work but poorly. if you actually drop the cash for a 8 bulb t5 which is about the same cost as a 400 HID you can get results both ways. from everything i have seen and done, CFLs, even the 8 bulb will not get a foot print any larger than the size to the set up because it doest throw the light nearly as far or as strongly, why if heat allows which it usually does with CFLs to drop them 6 inches from the canopy. i am not saying that an 8 bulb t5 doesnt throw heat, it just doesnt get into the 100's and become untoutchable and burn anything that gets close or comes in contacts with it.

i guess it really just boils down to what your space and heat constraints are. if you have a small closet that you cant really vent, go CFL. if you have a room with a bit more space and room, go 400 HID.

i have used a 400 in a closet with no venting and it does get a bit toasty but not to bad for veg.

hope any of that helps / clears some things up.

 

[ookiimata]

Cervantes says you can run CFLs for the entire life cycle of the plant. And everything I've read by growers online confirm. Doesn't seem to give particularly impressive results, though. And when you start adding up the price of the bulbs and wires and Y-splitters and everything, you may as well just buy HID. I know someone said that in an earlier post, but I just want to reiterate it. Check the lumen output and PAR ratings on HID compared to the CFL bulbs you're looking at, and you'll find you're not going to save any money going CFL (and you still won't be able to get the HID PAR).

Out of curiosity, I'm going to pick up a few hundred watts worth of CFLs and put them in my microcab and record the heat. Then I'll compare that with an equal wattage HID bulb. I have a feeling most of the claims about the CFLs putting off less heat are way exaggerated. I know the high 150w grow CFLs you can get on the internet are supposed to get toasty. I want to play around with various wattage smaller bulbs and see what the heat output is. It should at least be a little more dispersed.

 

[Bill Bloome]

I use a combo of cfls and tubes in a 2x2 growbox with stellar results.I replaced the 100 watt cfls wt]ith 150s and the heat difference was minimal.I did add a 70 watt HPS bulb robbed from a driveway fixture from Lowes{40 bucks} and the flowering plants LOVED it.Pics are in my gallery.

 

[deadcat]

Can someone clear up the fluorescent lighting powers and HID equivalent. Can you use fluorescents exculsively for all stages?

I've heard what people say, but here's what I have done. 4ft plant, dense buds, all the way through plant life with 2 20watt fluorescent lights (aquarium/plant from home depot). I got 1 1/2 oz's so not too bad. problem is, just like everyone reading this prob already knows, the fluorescent bulb can't exactly reach the lower branches as well as you'd like, what happens is the top half or so will flower faster than the bottom. When the top half is finished, harvest it, and move the light down to finish flowering the bottom half. Another problem is that the flowering stage will take longer, I have a pocket microscope I used to determine harvest time, took 3 months to finish flowering the top half, and about another 2 month for the bottom after that, so there are draw backs. I now use T5 HO lights 6500 (spectrum of light) for veg, 3000 (spectrum of light) for flowering, also I start budding at 2 ft now to avoid the not enough light/double harvest problem.

 

[MedicatedChrist]

GO HID i promise.

and t5's can put out some fucking heat. use the wattage equivalent of an hps and tell me that shit aint hot. your a fuckin liar if you do haha.

i have an 8 bulb 4' t5 and that tent can get high 80's on a hot day, vented correctly (no ac though)

me too and its not nearly as heatish as my 430 watt hps i run next to it, especially considering it has a built-in ballast ;[]

 

[Steve Z]

serious and HID can be air cooled. how you gonna cool tube lights.

i dont understand what this cfl craze is. are yall scared of buying a real system or what?

all i hear all day from med users starting is starting with cfl.s. man im not saying it wont work, im just saying that if you do a run or two flouro, then buy an HID and do a run, not only with you laugh at your previous runs but you'll feel dumb for all the herb you realize you missed out on.

HID. cfl's are for 16 year old in their parents closets. its like when a friend shows you that one plant, and the pot is like covered in tin foil. with a cfl over it lolololol.

like yeah dude, let me know when thats done!~ haha

 

[buddha]

first timer

yo this is my first time growing and im doing it in doors and im useing a compact fluorescent light bulb but its only 20watts and givs off 1200 lumens i just need to know will this work to help my plant grow or should i justuse another light bulb but the only othere one i hav is a ultra soft white bulb with 100watts and 120v will any of them work or no plz get back at me any help at ill b thankfull for

 

[GanjaGardener]

yo this is my first time growing and im doing it in doors and im useing a compact fluorescent light bulb but its only 20watts and givs off 1200 lumens i just need to know will this work to help my plant grow or should i justuse another light bulb but the only othere one i hav is a ultra soft white bulb with 100watts and 120v will any of them work or no plz get back at me any help at ill b thankfull for

Little brother, you have some basic research to do. The answer is no- 1 20w CFL isn't diddly and incandescents, (soft white) is even less diddly. Before I went full time indoors I had a room w/ 50-60 23 w CFLs (I called it my cat house) that I used for clone starts and veg for my OD grows- never flowered plants under them, however. If you're broke, CFLs are a good way to go- get some pendant lamp fixtures, (I got 100 of them from the "2nds room" @ IKEA for about 25 cents ea), hang them from bars or use a square of concrete wire mesh like I did, and get at least 10 23w CFLs for starters, (20 would be better.) Total materials cost: figure $1.00 ea for wire/socket (pendant), 25-50 cents each for CFLs and $5.00 for a piece of wire mesh. good luck
PS pigtail the wires together, (I went 6-1) so you won't need as many power strips.

 

[KushMe]

i try to run 100w ft/sq
this last run was T5 experiment. It works just fine. just train/bend LST/SCROG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQx96w9Sfj4
thats a little video i made playing around with my laptop and digi cam

 

[GanjaGardener]

yo this is my first time growing and im doing it in doors and im useing a compact fluorescent light bulb but its only 20watts and givs off 1200 lumens i just need to know will this work to help my plant grow or should i justuse another light bulb but the only othere one i hav is a ultra soft white bulb with 100watts and 120v will any of them work or no plz get back at me any help at ill b thankfull for

Methinks I've been duped... hook, line, & sinker. :blush Good job, to whoever you are.:itwasntme

buddha
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 1

 

[strictlyOG]

wow that's odd i used a 11k system and my temp is currently at 62.7f
are you sure you guys ventilated correctly? i also dont use ac. day temps never reached above 70f.

SB 420 (HS 11362.7)