fluorescent lighting??

[steppinRazor]

For whatever reason i have to take some 5' tall plants away from their 2k watts of hps heavenly goodness, to make room for some of their babies..

i'm not going to get into details on why i have chosen to do this but i will say these beauties are about 18 days of flower and havin a great time!!

they will be sittin right next to their offspring but wont get much light since the clones are about 4 inches tall and the mothers are 5 feet..

well my origional plan was to purchase the ample lighting these honey's need, but some things came up and its just not in the books right now.

i'm thinking about buying some 4' fluorescent shop lights to supply them with the much needed light they need.
its not going to be much but its better than nothing.

i've never experimented with fluoro's excluding the one i use for cloning..
so my main question is - Will this help much? and what type of fluoro's are good for a flowering plant???

i know what spectrum they should be getting but do they make this type of fluorescent bulb?

any advice or comments are much appreciated!!

 

[selfprofider]

I use flos for seedlings, clones and vegging and have used to flower. Flos don't have a good light penatration so I put them just 1" from the plants. working with 5' plants IMO i would hang a few verticly around the plants and a few on top. Using flos to flower increases flowering time slower growth and deceased yield, but can be done. Using a warm deluxe and a cool white combination seems to work for me and ther are cheap. Here are some examples of what I have done
A simple set up and the buds it produced







here I flowered short LST clones



Hope this gives some ideals
Laterthumb

 

[steppinRazor]

damn! thnx for the info and pics, really brings things into light.. lol

yeah thats onething i expected was a decreased yeild and most likely more airy buds, but im willing to make the sacrafice for a better cause.

another question that i have thought of - will this effect the plants feeding of nutrients?

should i give them less seeing as how they have less light energy to process the food??

 

[freeradical]

To give adequate lighting for several 5' girls, it would be cheaper to get an HPS over buying all the fixtures/ballasts and bulbs. You'd be surprised how cheap you can get an HPS ballast and bulb. Hung vertically, centered around the plants would work great, and you can adjust the colas to get more of that light. 400W bulb+ballast can be had for $70 or less, 1000W bulb+ballast for $170. Spending $150+ in fixtures(10x$15) and $30+ for bulbs for crap lighting just isn't worth it.

 

[steppinRazor]

To give adequate lighting for several 5' girls, it would be cheaper to get an HPS over buying all the fixtures/ballasts and bulbs. You'd be surprised how cheap you can get an HPS ballast and bulb. Hung vertically, centered around the plants would work great, and you can adjust the colas to get more of that light. 400W bulb+ballast can be had for $70 or less, 1000W bulb+ballast for $170. Spending $150+ in fixtures(10x$15) and $30+ for bulbs for crap lighting just isn't worth it.

right on... im abit confused on what you're tryingto say.
these gals are right now under and useto 2,000 watts of hortilux HPS light.

i can order a new 1k light, ballast and reflector for about 260 after shipping but like i said money's an issue at the moment..

i would most likely buy a few cords and maybe 6 shop lights totalling at about 60 bux max...

you have a link for these cheap lights and ballasts?? i'd love to check'm out!!
thnx

 

[Pandemic]

Can you pull off something like this?
Just cluster the the taller plants around the peripheral, turn then a few times a day....

 

[justanotherbozo]

censorship sucks!

 

[steppinRazor]

Can you pull off something like this?
Just cluster the the taller plants around the peripheral, turn then a few times a day....

yeah its a good idea but it next to impossible for me to raise the clones to reach the lights..they will all be in 5 gallon pots and the amout i'll have.. it just isnt practical

but on a side note i'm also relying on some of the light to hit the mother plants.

hey steppinRazor, slap me if you've already thought of this but, at 5',
those plants are probably almost done, right? if so, why not leave your
2k of HPS on the big ones until they're done and just use CFL's over the
little ones until the big ones finish.

you can find bathroom vanity fixtures that will hold standard, household
CFL's so no need to purchase any ballasts and if you do some shopping,
maybe a discount builder's supply house or a builders recycle yard, you
can find them for less than $10.00.

CFL's also give you the ability to mix'n'match the spectra of light very
easily and they are cheap to buy and easy to find as well.

heres a couple pics of one of mine to give you an idea what i mean.





about 3 weeks from harvest

yeah you would think at 5 feet they would be close to done but they arent a sativa dominant plant.. flower time on them is 70 days and on the other strain is 56 days.. so they really have quite some time to go

man thats a pretty cool set up..
seems like i would need about 8 of those shits that you got set up there..


anyways thnx for the replies.. its given me a few ideas

 

[bakelite]

man thats a pretty cool set up..
seems like i would need about 8 of those shits that you got set up there..


anyways thnx for the replies.. its given me a few ideas

SR, you can pick up 23 or 26 watt cfls for cheap. They throw out 1500-1700 lumens each. Using those in that 8 socket setup above would throw out 12-13,000 lumens which would be more than adequate for seedlings and early veg.

Another option would be to use one of these



You can pick one up a Big Lots or similar store for about $7.00.
Hope this helps.

bakelite

 

[Hermit43]

What spectrum or type cfl's are you guys using?

 

[justanotherbozo]

censorship sucks!

 

[steppinRazor]

yo Bakelite,

i really like those shits you showed me, those cheap ass reflectors with the clfs


i bought only 2 just to try them out along with some "200" watt "daylight" cfls
they say they are "200 watt" while only using 42 watts

i gotta say they are pretty bright for what i thought they'd be but not near 200 watts.

anwyas just wanna say thnx for the ispiration.

really all of you helped me out and i gotta say thanks.

ima run these douche baggs and im about to put anywhere from 4-6 more on them untill i get my new hps..


and really its nice to have these fuckers around for a little side light on lower branches so no moneys wasted.

straight the fuck up!

keeep it mofuckin GREEN!!!

 

[justanotherbozo]

censorship sucks!

 

[Reefdoggie]

The higher spectrum CFL's are not as easy to find in your local HD or Lowes (hit or miss), but you can get them from Expresslightbulbs.com. I ordered 2 of the 6500k bulbs (42 watt=150 watt) and got them within 3 days. Note-the ballasts are bigger on the 42/150 watt bulbs than on the 29/100 watt units, and the bigger ones would not screw all the way into the sockets of my "utility" fixture (wouldn't clear the reflector at the socket base). Also, they won't fit into the recessed sockets of a typical outdoor floodlight type fixture. I was able to find plastic sockets and cut 1/2 inch off the ends so there was no recess.

 

[Thundurkel]

Bro just get a few 42w 2700K cfl's heres what I do with them and my nugs are as hard as they can get!!! I've been in big HPS gardens and my nugs look and taste just as good...