New Grower Highest yield with CFL only?

[supernaan]

I will start my first grow in a couple of days. Germing Think Different. Using a 300w dual spectrum CFL and growing in soil. Has anyone achieved respectable yields using CFL lights and grown in soil for this strain?? Most of the high yield grows I've seen either use HPS or LED lights and some in conjunction with hydro.

 

[Blissmesome]

Would also like to get some info 'bout maximizing yield with cfl.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

Well Ive grown TD and with the set up I have I could easily get a couple ounces off one plant.thats a killer preformer if ya hook her up juust a lil bit..oh man,yer gonna love her man.and Ive grown with 125,250W and T-5 HO lighting only.Im familiar with others just not experienced.

You could easily get a cpl oscars from that soil CFL TD set up man.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

Dernit..lol..Well I Grow with a T-5 HO CFL type self ballasted n all that fun stuff and I get harvests in the 8-12 ounces range if I grew one strain and picked a decent one.I just got 4 ounces EASY of two tangelo rapidos in #5 pots under a T-5 light.that help?Truer cfl's are a bit different.

 

[n00b]

Here's an excerpt from a post I made in my journal today that might help...

"Lighting tip from a n00b: Don't waste your money buying big CFLs. Their efficiency drops exponentially and even with a reflector you're going to lose most of the light that isn't facing the plant. There's also significant variance between brands. Do the math when shopping for bulbs. The way to figure this out is by dividing the bulb's wattage into its lumen rating to get the lumens per watt.

Check it out:


250W 11050 Lumens, 4,000hr life, $39.75 per bulb
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticu.../dp/B00HG1J2PK


65W 3900 Lumens, 6,000hr life, $17.40 per bulb
http://www.lowes.com/pd_46931-75774-...ductId=3197521


23W 1640 Lumens, 12,000hr life, $3.50 per bulb
http://www.lowes.com/pd_302275-3-269...ductId=3201759




So we take 11050/250=44 lumens per watt, 3900/65=60 lumens per watt, and 1640/23=71 lumens per watt. That's a huge difference in efficiency, and we won't even get into cost savings Watt for watt, the 23w bulbs would give you over 4600 lumens vs the big guy's 3900, and 17825 vs the big guy's 11050. Don't forget to knock off a good 30-40% to account for efficiency loss when figuring the total lumens that you want to hit the plant."

 

[supernaan]

Dernit..lol..Well I Grow with a T-5 HO CFL type self ballasted n all that fun stuff and I get harvests in the 8-12 ounces range if I grew one strain and picked a decent one.I just got 4 ounces EASY of two tangelo rapidos in #5 pots under a T-5 light.that help?Truer cfl's are a bit different.

Had my eye on Tangelo Rapidos but opted for Think Different in the end just for the yields. Just came across a grow journal guys on THCTalk by some guy called Mickey in England and he managed to pull over 2 oz dry using only 125w CFL's in soil. Very impressive. I'll be using his grow as a guide.

 

[supernaan]

Here's an excerpt from a post I made in my journal today that might help...

"Lighting tip from a n00b: Don't waste your money buying big CFLs. Their efficiency drops exponentially and even with a reflector you're going to lose most of the light that isn't facing the plant. There's also significant variance between brands. Do the math when shopping for bulbs. The way to figure this out is by dividing the bulb's wattage into its lumen rating to get the lumens per watt.

Check it out:


250W 11050 Lumens, 4,000hr life, $39.75 per bulb
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticu.../dp/B00HG1J2PK


65W 3900 Lumens, 6,000hr life, $17.40 per bulb
http://www.lowes.com/pd_46931-75774-...ductId=3197521


23W 1640 Lumens, 12,000hr life, $3.50 per bulb
http://www.lowes.com/pd_302275-3-269...ductId=3201759




So we take 11050/250=44 lumens per watt, 3900/65=60 lumens per watt, and 1640/23=71 lumens per watt. That's a huge difference in efficiency, and we won't even get into cost savings Watt for watt, the 23w bulbs would give you over 4600 lumens vs the big guy's 3900, and 17825 vs the big guy's 11050. Don't forget to knock off a good 30-40% to account for efficiency loss when figuring the total lumens that you want to hit the plant."

That's nice but I got the 300w CFL for free. Paid next to nothing for a reflector as well. So I'm yet to actually waste any money really lol.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

good deal.Ive done bout an ounce and a half under my first grow with a 125W CFL.good luck bro."AFN smoke out"

 

[Grateful Zach]

Hey man you can definitely grow big buds under cfl.. Before I got my HPS I ran two 4-ft strips of t5's with some t8's also, and used small cfl's around the edges. I also hung more powerful cfls from above, between plants, with just the bulb pointing down and between the 4-ft strips. This allowed the hanging bulbs to use the reflectors off the strips if that makes sense! Anyway, I got great harvests from them they just aren't that efficient with power usage. When I switched to HPS I tripled the light output using fewer watts and my buds got much more dense. Cfl works, you can get big harvests you just won't have the rock hard buds like with LED or HPS because you don't have that intense light required. Good luck man, you will do great with the help of this site! Learn now and upgrade later when you have the chance..

:Sharing One:

 

[Eyes on Fire]

Im prolly too stoned But,The rock hard nug thing under T-5 aint 100% accurate.I got Jars and a C vault full of dense as heck nugs under pure T-5.Theyre solid.:Sharing One: