Ed Rosenthal Say's CFL's May be Better than HPS for Micro Growing

[Tanuvan]

Knna,

On another forum you stated...

"I dont know why, but i believe full spectrum lights promote better the enzimatic activity that creates cannabinoids."

Since this topic also has a sort of quality over quantity aspect to it, can you perhaps expound on your comment in quotes? At the end of the day...for most people it is more about quality than quantity, so perhaps our aim should be at identifying which spectrum will yield the best quality...and why CFL may indeed be better (NOT QUANTITY WISE) than the HPS spectrum.

 

[urbanfunk]

Yes, I think, and if they are this may be where he found them:
http://advancedtechlighting.com/philipspricolor.htm
They have three colors: blue, red, and green (the green is useless to us obviously). Choose between 24 and 54 watt, both utilize T5HO ballasts and 46" long. I would love to try these but they're too big for my cab...and out of my price range for now.

In that case cjeck out my t5 rig.. its fantastic and only 2 ft long with 6 tubes... they do loads of spectrums but i chose red blues and purple (250000k) came with 4 of each..


My Grow: http://icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=112012

 

[theacidnevrlies]

anyone know a good place to get CFL's in the UK

 

[stink.whistler]

Cozy,

The size listed on the advance technology solutions website for the 24 Watt colored T5HO lamps is wrong. The following quote is from Simba in the CMH thread:

the Philips
Red, blue, green 24 Watt are T5 HO at 22.5" length
Red, blue, green 54 Watt are T5 HO at 46.5" length
(note all t5s are shorter than T8 or t12. They both rate the bulb size.. the t5 rates the fixture size (there are few reasons why im hearing shorter size..some outright bogus some make sense )
the Philips Pure color lamps are ONLY HO lamps not 14 or 28w.. only T5HO24Watt or T5HO54 Ballasts..(all the horti t5 fixtures are HO..well 99%)

 

[knna]

Hey, Tanuvan, i think when i said that i was refering to LED growing and about the need of balanced spectrum.

Im too after finding the best spectrum quality wise. Definitively, its more important for me than quantity.

Floros have in general a more balanced spectrum than HPSs and less continous than MHs. My personal experience says floros dont have anything to envy to HPS grown weed about quality. Personally, i believe they produce tastier weed and at least same potency (i would say slighty higher, too).

But i think all broad spectrum lamps, HPSs too still with a less balanced spectrum, are able to grow good weed. The problem is with severe lacking on some wavelenghts, as may happen when using LEDs.

But this topic has been so little studied that is difficult to say anything for sure about it. I want to perform some experiments on my next grow with different spectrums and compare cannabinoids profiles. Maybe that will throw some light to this obscure topic. All i know about it are just hypothesis and beliefs.

 

[Thundurkel]

The LED experiment High Times just did was interesting to say the least, UFO yielded 5% less than a 400w HPS and it produced much more resin for a more potent product...

 

[Tanuvan]

I know that some have noticed that CFL and CFL with UVb seem to produce slightly more resin when compared to HPS alone. I am not disagreeing that HPS does well too. I have both. The only thing I want to try now is CMH. I have a digital (lumatek) ballast, so I need to buy something that will fire a CMH bulb.

 

[Tanuvan]

The LED experiment High Times just did was interesting to say the least, UFO yielded 5% less than a 400w HPS and it produced much more resin for a more potent product...

Really? This must be the newer model? The older UFO seemed to yield somewhere around what maybe a 100 watt hps might yield.

 

[Jedi]

i like cfl too, it does make some very nice buds, better looking than hps imo, buttt theres not enough of it!

WORD..!!!!

I flowered some WW with 8 x15w clf's in a rubbermaid(actualy 2 , 1 for the res and 1 for the dome)
Here's a pic of the bud......Juicy...!!

anyways long story short...........Was some of the best smoke i ever grew.....!!!!
but the yield was not enough for the time and effort.......quality..Yes..!!
I call it a slow brew method......

 

[Thundurkel]

Really? This must be the newer model? The older UFO seemed to yield somewhere around what maybe a 100 watt hps might yield.

If youre going off that test where dude has the light way too far from the plant IMO that is why, I will post a thread about this later cuz it was a really interesting test..

 

[Tanuvan]

Not that test, but others who were comparing the UFO to the Procyon. I had heard they made a newer UFO.

 

[Thundurkel]

Hmmm could be, all I know is it did really good and they are saying we aren't far from replacing HIDs

 

[magiccannabus]

High Times cannot be trusted

 

[early4surely]

Great thread Thunderkel. Thanks to you and all others for the precious insights. This seems to be quite a reference topic for CFL.

There is still one thing about CFL's I have been seeking to understand for the longest while, hope someone can clarify: HOW MUCH LIGHT IS NEEDED PER SQUARE FOOT? I did read somewhere that 6-8'000 lumens per square foot is the benchmark. Any thoughts on this?

Now I intend to use CFL for VEGGING ONLY (mothers). I also understand that veg requires less light intensity than flower. So actually, what I hope to find out is:
HOW MUCH LIGHT PER SQUARE FOOT FOR VEG ONLY?

I must admit I am somewhat confused by the fact that people seem to be using crazy CFL wattage for small grows (like 250W for 2 square feet), whereas others use less (like 120W for same surface 2sqf).

One 125W 6400K Envirolite is what I got and I am hoping to make the most of it. It has similar dimensions to HPS lights, so I will use standard rectangular reflector as for HPS, such as displayed here: http://www.growsafe.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=500. Plan is to use Envirolite to light 50x40cm space (about 20"x16"). I'm hesitating to extend the space to 50x50cm (20"x20"). Any thoughts, suggestions? Beneficial to add more lights?

Guess I'll just keep tagging along for more knowledge. Please keep it flowing.

Peace out

 

[early4surely]

...forgot to specify that 125W Envirolite puts out about 12'500 lumens.. Aah, feel a whole lot better now.
Peace

 

[stink.whistler]

If you are just keeping mothers alive, and rooting clones (but not vegging clones), you could stretch that 125 out to about 4 square feet, IMO. If you want to veg clones, you would prob want 50W per square foot or so.

 

[theratings]

I hate when people knock CFL's, because in reality they have their own applications where they're needed. Generally for flowering I'd prefer an HPS but after doing a micro grow one time I was impressed with the CFL's. It seems to me that there's just a bunch of homos spreading CFL hate, but don't knock them until you try them.

 

[early4surely]

If you are just keeping mothers alive, and rooting clones (but not vegging clones), you could stretch that 125 out to about 4 square feet, IMO. If you want to veg clones, you would prob want 50W per square foot or so.

50W per sqf would mean I can light 2.5 sqf with 125W.
Given dimensions of my reflector (45x35cm or 18"x14"), I guess my choice of surface for vegging moms will be 55x42cm (21.5"x16.5" = 2.5sqf).

I was pondering whether would be better to place the lamp vertically between 4 mothers, without reflector.This could work as the light has same dimensions as HPS bulbs, rather than horizontally and using reflector. Perhaps this would avoid some loss of light caused by the CFL shape which emits light not only downwards but also upwards towards reflector. Any takes on vert vs. horizontal setups?

More weed indeed,
Earl

 

[bagseed77]

my cfl chop the other day

 

[stink.whistler]

I was pondering whether would be better to place the lamp vertically between 4 mothers, without reflector.

You could put the light in a vertical reflector, there are big chrome reflectors made for heat lamps that would work nicely. CFLs are made to be screwed into a normal light socket, which is a vertical orientation.

Probably any pet store that sells reptile products would have one, or a farm supply shop would have them (people use them to keep baby chicks warm). I'm not sure how big that 125 is, you might take it with you to make sure it fits. I would also come up with some type of cover story for why you need it (people don't use 125 watt cfl's to warm baby chicks or reptiles, they use incandescent light bulbs)