How many watts per plant for bonsai moms with CFL?

[filtr0w]

hello everyone

i have a small cabinet 100x80x60cm

i plan to use this to keep some small bonsai moms in 1 L pots and also some rooting and rooted clones for veg state in smaller pots.

i was wondering what calculation could i do to have enough light witch CFLS. i wonder if someone could say how much watts would i need for each month and each clone

my idea would be to have at least like 5 moms and around 20 clones in this space...

thanks a lot!

n

 

[SmokinErb]

Depends on how fast you want them to grow. Only advice I can suggest is that you put MOST of the lights over the mums and just a bulb or two over your clones.

Put a couple hundred watts over your moms and 50 watts over the clones?

Edit: Help me figure out your dimensions - What's the footprint of the cab? I'm not sure if you're using LxWxH or not. How tall it is doesn't matter, what's the LxW?

 

[cody2white]

I use two 42w cfls and they work great for my moms.

 

[SmokinErb]

I think a lot of it has to do with how often you need to provide clones. A single 42w would work if it was just a few clones and not very often. The low amount of light would create growth that comes at a crawl.

However if you need to be pumping out a clone factory, then you'll need more light to keep up with the demands. Cannabis doesn't require much light to survive, but for optimal growth rates you need a lot.

 

[Iron_Lion]

I can keep 8 moms in 4x4 pots or 15 clones in 8oz cups in this thing. I use a bulb splitter so to keep plants just alive I use 1 26w cfl and if I want to get them ready for cuts I add another 26w cfl for a total of 50w psf.

 

[someotherguy]

hello everyone

i have a small cabinet 100x80x60cm

i plan to use this to keep some small bonsai moms in 1 L pots and also some rooting and rooted clones for veg state in smaller pots.

i was wondering what calculation could i do to have enough light witch CFLS. i wonder if someone could say how much watts would i need for each month and each clone

my idea would be to have at least like 5 moms and around 20 clones in this space...

thanks a lot!

n

sorry i can't help you with your calculations but i keep 21 mothers in cut down 2liter coke bottles in my mother box under a 2foot 4bulb T5HO, ...96watts total.

anyway, that's just me.

peace, and stay safe, SOG

 

[SmokinErb]

Foil tape?

 

[StealthDragon]

I use about 30w a square foot on my mothers and clones.


just make sure to use it efficiently. I prefer pll lights.

 

[SmokinErb]

Word on the PLL's. I'll be AT LEAST using those for mothers/clones. May even do a small perpetual SOG under them as well.

 

[designer]

I have kept mothers and clones alive with 50 watts of cfl (2) 13 watters and a 23 watter. I had to cut the mother back so she would not grow into the light weekly. Clones rooted in the same enclosure in about two weeks in a homemade bubble cloner.

 

[filtr0w]

hello everyone!

thanks so much for the answers, this is very helpful. specially the info on light for survival and light for growth.

my small cabinet is 100cm long and 80cm wide, its 60m tall.

i dont want my moms to grow so fast, because i dont have so much space in my flowering room, so i cant really take a lot of cuttings. id like the moms to stay happy and grow at a steady but slow rate, and id like to have the clones going faster so i dont have any downtime between harvests...

would be ok to put around 150w for 10 moms? and like 100w for 20 clones?

oh also please give me more info on PLL lights, if anyone is using this id live to see it

thanks a lot!

 

[SmokinErb]

If you want them to grow slow, that's too much light.

150w for the whole box, sure. 100 over the mums, and another 50 over the clones.

 

[filtr0w]

@cody2white
how big is your cab? and how many moms or clones?

@Iron lion
amazing design, very nice work . this is a good inspiration, i can actually i could use the space i have much more efficiently. No temperature problems?

@some other guy
very nice work as well bro, this one again helps me realize not so many watts are needed. what kind of lights are you using? is this PLL? its around 24w each right?

@designer how many plants you kept alive with that setup?

also about PLLs, i found out what they are. but this brings me to my next question

here in argentina the only PLLs i can find that would actually fit inside my cab are 18w. So this means i would need a shitload of them to really cover the lights needs. I guess i will just use normal CFLs for now until i can find a better solution.

thanks a lot!

n

 

[SmokinErb]

Why can you fit only 18w?

100cmX80cmX60cm = 39"x31.5"x23.5" The 55w ones are about 22" I believe?

 

[someotherguy]

@some other guy
very nice work as well bro, this one again helps me realize not so many watts are needed. what kind of lights are you using? is this PLL? its around 24w each right?

also about PLLs, i found out what they are. but this brings me to my next question

here in argentina the only PLLs i can find that would actually fit inside my cab are 18w. So this means i would need a shitload of them to really cover the lights needs. I guess i will just use normal CFLs for now until i can find a better solution.

thanks a lot!

n

thanks man and no, that is a T5 light and yeah, the bulbs are each 24watts.

the downside to using T5's or most especially regular CFL's is that the ballasts will be within your grow space, with PL-L's you have the option to remote the ballast outside the cab thereby removing most of the residual heat which will make your cooling and ventilation much easier to handle.

here's a couple pics of someone else's PL-L's because they illustrate very clearly what PL-L's really look like. (these are 55watters)

and here are a couple shots of my own clone factory where i'm running 3x 55watters above newly rooted clones and below the actual cloners, that way i'm able to passively recapture heat to warm my cloner reservoirs.

here's a shot with nothing vegging to show the inside more clearly.

anyway, if you're interested, check out my 'cloner factory' thread linked in my sig where i've documented the build.

peace, and stay safe, SOG

 

[filtr0w]

hello everyone

@smokingerb

today i went to a couple more stores and i was able to find pll that are 36w and are around 60cm long, so this i can fit for sure. unfortunately here the T5 and PPLs over 36w are like one meter long, so its a little bit difficult to fit them inside.

ill keep on looking until i find a good solution, for now i will just stay with the normal CFL.

@SOG

thanks a lot for the pictures, amazing work , helps me a lot to figure out what to do. also very useful info about the ballast/residual heat of the cfls. i think ill definitly switch to PPls when i find the right lenght/watts.

ok so i have a lot of info, lets go to work now

thanks everyone

n

 

[Iron_Lion]

@Iron lion
amazing design, very nice work . this is a good inspiration, i can actually i could use the space i have much more efficiently. No temperature problems?

nope no temp problems, and I run it all year long. That little fan in the corner really does a good job cooling the bulb(s). Best thing is about this little box, all the parts can be easily sourced, I think it cost about 60$ to build start to finish.

 

[RomulusUSA]

someotherguy - How much room do you put between the clones and the lamps? I was thinking of running 3x55w for my mothers/small clones, and 6x55w for veg.