micro bonsai mum/clone cab, how to light?

[CaptainStoner]

just got hold of a little box which I thought would be perfect for some bonsai moms, and a small cloning area for a drbud/thundurkel style grow, the box is 14" high, 10" deep, 24" wide. To be taking pots slightly wider but not as tall as a beer cup as usd to good effect on this ere forum.

read OT1's bonsai guide and it says 20w/sqft of fluoro lighting, preferably cool white.. but this guide was written a long time ago..

I'm looking at triphosphor (high output) fluoros, and i'm trying to figure out how to light it.. don't want to waste electricity by having unecessary light if possible..

i'm thinking possibly a 2' 24w 6500k daylight T5HO, and an 18" 14/15w T5/8 2700k warm white tube.. or a 24w 6500 and a 24w 4000k cool white T5HO's if the first option isnt enough..

thoughts? help needed guys as i'm close to finished but this is holding me up cheers folks

 

[superpedro]

It's a tricky question
How many clones do you need to harvest, and how often?

I used to keep 4 bonzai's under 3x18 w T8 grolux to save power and work. It was cheep and easy to use extra cfl's for a turbo-mum when I needed to harvest many, or from the same strain two times in a row.

IMO If you have multiple mums all ready for a full harvest every one or two months, it's a waste of time and energy.

Cheers

 

[CaptainStoner]

well, the flower cab will take two clones a week so initially each mom of four will have to do a clone every two weeks.. i think i'll have space for 4 or possibly 6 small moms.. allowing for imperfect cloning, say a clone a week per mom at first. I plan to try revegging so hopefully i'll end up just keeping the bonsais for the odd clone here & there

strain: (blueberry x 'the blues') x blueberry.. and mr nice ssh, serious bubblegum are on the shopping list.. i'm supposed to be getting uk cheese from clone this year...
and if i've got more space for moms... who knows

 

[superpedro]

Ohh You will be able to cut far more than that with those lights. No problem.
Once they get going you may want to cut down on the wattage, if you don't want them to outgrow your cab.

Do we get an opportunity to see a pic?

 

[CaptainStoner]

so you reckon 24+14 would be enough? the reason i say those particular lamps is when i vegged under a 6500k cfl the plants bushed out but stayed really short.. thought i'd put a bit more light in but a bit of red spectrum to induce a bit of vertical growth.. so i thought a high output 24w 6500k and a standard output 14w warm white.. being T5 tubes makes it easier than CFLs tbh but so few people grow under tubes on these forums with cfls being so available and cheap, its a bit of a stab in the dark..

 

[Green Smoke]

when i vegged under a 6500k cfl the plants bushed out but stayed really short..

I thought that's what bonsai moms were all about.

I use 4 15w 6500k CFL coils and have no troubles. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping to 4 10w 6500k CFL coils.

 

[CaptainStoner]

hmm greensmoke you're doing a variation on drbud's grow too.. amazing job for such a small box.. i plan on doing much the same as you in slightly more space, and with 40w osram dulux L linear cfls in flower. nice to see the method done to an even bigger extreme as in your box.. man these grows are getting silly small i'm starting to feel big with 2sqft LOL

 

[ThisBuds4You]

I use very little light as well, I have 4 moms and 2 clones under 3-23 watt cfls...

-
TB4U

 

[CaptainStoner]

been talking to a man who mom/clones under similar conditions to mine, have decided on 1x 24w T5HO of 6500k for the veg cab, i can always plug in a little cfl if i need some extra warm white.

And in a similar area, but with slightly more height, 2x40w Osram Dulux L 2700k tubes for flowering a drbud style SOG. I'm ordering two of the T5 daylight tubes so i can always add one in flower for more light + extra spectrum if it is needed.

control gear is 1x Philips Proforma T5 24/39w high frequency ballast for the mom/clone cab, and a Philips HFII twin lamp 40w high freq. L tube ballast in flower.

got a Rhino filters 100/300 scrubber coming for connection to a beefy 120x38mm 230vAC axial fan on a variac. any extra needed fans will be pc fans on an old IDE hard drive caddy PSU.