New Grower Getting ready for my Mephisto babies - light setup ?

[frogleg]

Hi AFN family !!

I just uploaded my first post on the live introductions section, and i figured its time to give my fellow growers' advice a try !

I have Mephisto Deep Blue C and Toofless Alien seeds on the way, and was wondering about my light setup.
I'm a bit (really) tight on money, and as this is just the beginning I'm sure you will understand I don't want to spend a lot of money all at once, and I would like to grow one or two plants at the same time. So here it goes :

- I already have a 130W 5500 lumens 6400K CFL light with a large reflector (I'd say 65x50). Is it any good ? Can I grow one (or two) decent autos with this ? And maybe only with this ?

- If this is not sufficient (in terms of light quantity), I was thinking about adding smaller CFLs (the ones you get for a few bucks in a hardware store) all around the plants. Will this be any better ? Or would I be better of buying a second fat bulb like the one I have ?

- If this is not the right spectrum to cover an auto's growth : Should I just buy another type of lamp ? Another solution I was thinking of would be to buy an HPS comparable to the CFL I have, so i could veg the one under the CFL while I bloom one under the HPS, and end up with the same rhythm as if growing two at the same time ?

Cheers !
frogleg

 

[fustipisti]

Hey, I have very little experience with CFLs, but there is a forum section you should deifnitely check out if you haven't already. There is a subforum dedicated to CFLs, I'm sure there are lots of wisdom there: https://www.autoflower.org/forums/cfl.224/

 

[frogleg]

Thanks a lot for the pointers fustipisti, I actually had figured that out in the meantime and have already posted in the CFL section

 

[Duggy]

Some more light would definitely help.. you can pick up a 150w or 250w hps or a similar powered Mars Hydro LED pretty cheap which would be effective for 2 plants. The extra yield will more than make up for the additional cost..
Good luck...

 

[Spanglish]

As Duggy said for more than one full sized plant you are going to need a bigger light setup, but for one plant for a few quid extra for 2-4 extra smaller cfls to give you some side lighting you would be able to pull off one plant no problem, i got half decent results on a couple of Deep Blue C just using CFL and LED bulbs for side lighting you can find the links to the grows in my signature.

Peace and happy growing

 

[frogleg]

Thanks for the great advice guys !!
I went for the led option, I bought two 300W Mars hydro old model ! Hope that'll make the ladies happy

You're right Spanglish, I had seen your grow already while looking for which seed to buy and it all just got blurred up in the amount of info from the internet i've been processing for the last few days... So yeah, your description of those buds is part of the reason why I bought these seeds !

 

[Fuggzy]

Howdy frog, and grats on the led. I love'em, and hope you do too! I just wanted to share a few ideas you may be able to also use for veg, or later. A cheap and effective way to make a cfl light is with a power strip, and a few cheap adapters. This is 1 I threw together, most of the supplies I already had.

The hood is just some sheet aluminum I have, and the edge is a plastic corner piece for drywall to smooth the metal edge. I took apart the strip (not altering the electronics) and screwed it to a piece of wood. On another piece of wood I counter sunk 2 eye bolts, and then bolted the 2 boards together with the sheet metal in the middle. It took me all of 35-45 min, and I spent ~ $15 on adapters. You could use something more reflective and get better performance I'd suppose, but in a 16"x16" tent it did great for 1 plant.

I vegged an amnesia photo for about a month and then i switched it to a 150w hps. Although I'd recommend more led before a hps, this lil' guy only ran me $60 inc shipping, and worked for my needs. It is a sun system 150w with an internal ballast, and just as easy to use as a floor lamp. The 150w is not all that efficient, exceptionally compared to a led fixture, but it was a good way to try out hps before I bought a 600w.

Being that your main light source is covered for now, might I suggest learning about making your own led fixtures. I started out this route, and in my opinion, had great results. There is a lot to learn, and it gets extremely redundant, but all the sudden it makes sense, and you have a light fixture more efficient than most prefabs, and at a fraction of the price. I do understand that electronics are not for everyone though. So whatever route you choose, just make sure to have fun at it.

Again grats on going with led, I am sure you will love it. Till later, take care.:smoking: