Compact Flourescent

hey guys sorry to be a bother but i have a problem. the weather has not been consistent for me to grow outdoors, i have seedlings sprouting and i dont want to fuck em up with reg lamp light. im looking for a compact flourescent which i can use. how many lumens am i looking for. i have a small seed starter box with a lid. any help is appreciated. i just need something that will provide adiquate light for another week or so until im able to move them outside into pots.

 

CFL's will be fine for a few weeks, i am not sure of the amount of lumens, i would get a few of them, more powerful the better(sure u know that). I would put 3-4 of the highest output Cfls i could find. it may not be top-end on light output, but the plant should be fine for a week. for sproutlings u would proably be fine with one bulb per plant, but i personally would get more.

 

200W envirolites are used by a lot of growers. Type envirolite into google.

 

CFL's ive seen are only like 23W and are eqiuv to a reg light bulb. im thinking of just throwing my seedling tray outside in the 60 degree overcast....

 

i have a plant outside in heavy rain, overcast skies, temp around 70...it is growing better than i predicted.

 

I'm experimenting with CFL's right now (23W bulbs).
I've got a very nice looking shrub of a plant (2ft tall) and it's ready for harvest with I predict at least 1oz, maybe 3 (about 1oz per sqft is my estimate, and the plant takes up about 2 to 3 sqft). The buds are VERY tight. Better than most of my HID harvests. The nodes are only 1/2 inch apart along most of the mainstalk.

I've pretty much made up my mind, the CFL's produce a better crop than HID, but the maintenance expense is quite a bit more. I'm using 2 to 3 CFL's/sqft, which gives me 3200 to 4800 lumens/sqft. That's alot of bulbs (i've got 6 bulbs on the one plant), and if I do grow with CFL's again, I will invest in envirolites. Even for the 200W CFL's, they cost about $40 a peice when bought on discount even (buy two get one free, basically). At least in North America so far. And HID bulbs have about 2x the life of flo's.

In all, flos are very comparable to HID, producing a better crop IMO, though the cost of running florescent is a bit more. I'll have to sit down and figure our the cost per grow one of these days, factoring in power, bulb and fixture life and temperature management.

 

I should mention that eventhough flos have a better PAR, they do come in different spectrums too. Cool whites (blue spectrum) for veg, Warm whites (red/orange spectrum) for flowering.
I used 2 cools and 1 warm per sqft for veg and switched to 2 warm and 1 cool per sqft for flowering.

 

To Gratz:
Just for seedlings, you wont need as much light as a fully matured plant.
1 bulb/sqft will be good though 2 would be better, 3 might be too much. Use cool white and make sure it actually says on the pkg that it's rated for about 1600 lumens, some just say they are equivalent to a 60W incandescent, and might only be 1000 lumens. If you intend to actually grow to term under the CFL, you will need at least 2/sqft.

I should point out that if you don't give the seedlings enough light they will stretch, and maybe topple over before you can get them outside. Too much light however, will stunt them.

 

Hoping to get 3 ounces per square foot with my 400W HPS but I think this is more down to my training methods and genetics of strain. Personally I reckon the best option would be cfls (envirolites) for veg and HPS for flowering for that extra penertration.

 

To increase your yield training is essential, I put a net above the plants weaving them in and out of it as they grow this method lets the whole plant get maximum light even with cfls(envirolites). As they flower though you need to let them grow upwards normally to around two feet above the net this is when the extra penetration of a HID comes into play.
I reckon if you were to use cfls(envirolites) for your full grow then this training method would be even more essential as it keeps the plants very short giving you a sea of two foot colas. If you let your plants grow to a meter or so you will be losing half of your potential yield espescially with cfls.