New Grower How to grow autoflowers from start to finish ?

[redevil]

Have a look at these 300w 9u cfls. they are huge and give great coverage http://www.basementlighting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?page=1/prod/elc250

they are good to use early on in veg as you can get them close to the plants, but be aware though they are cool lamps the built in ballasts ( the ends) get quite hot. For my 4 plant grow i used 2 of these see my sig. I should have aligned them better, one lamp between 2 plants with the ballast at the left and right, that way the heat would have bee kept to the side of the tent

For later veg and flowering i would suggest MH and HPS lights, these get hot but if you use a cool tube the overall heat is the same even less than cfl, these lamps have better penetration than cfls, the spectrum is better and they are cheaper ( aside from the one off ballast cost). Also MH blue gives of UVW which is supposed to help THC creation and the red HPS gives denser tighter buds than a cfl you can get the lamps quite close with cooltubes. Also the ballast for these is seperate, it get very very hot but i keep mine outside the tent

 

[Duck Commander]

If your short on cash then either get yourself a dual Spectrum CFLs like a 300w I used and still use the 8u as i know the 9u is slightly bigger and trust me mine is big enougth :bone: On a serious note you carnt go wrong with getting a CFL from the place that Redevil posted there quite good and ived used them a few times go for a CFL with reflector works out slightly cheaper.. Its all about positioning with CFLs so make sure you rotate the plants regular to get an even coverage.. You could buy a cheap HPS for around the same money but then you got the heat issue to sort out to extract the hot air.. If you go with CFLs hit me up if you have a problem or fellow member Noods is fab with CFLs Si

 

[redevil]

When using MH and HPS i think a cooltube reflector is a must, they are very cheap and you get a good deal here : http://www.grotec.co.uk/Lighting

Note these people do free shipping when ordering over £50 this makes a big difference to their already low prices

The whole point of a cooltube is to drag air across the lamp to cool it and thus you need a decent vent system, i would suggest a 150 mm fan (6 inch) as i am using that and the results are perfect for temp control, you would also want a fan controller and i got a cheapo manual one from the same people for a few quid and it is fine ( i can run the 600w hps + 2 x 300w cfls at the same time and keep temps at 80 F, if i need to cool more i just open my window a touch) When running just the hps in a cool tube i can have the fan on a very low setting and i get airflow and cooling that is just right

Even with cfls especially the 300w ones you need heat extraction as there ballasts get very hot and must be inside the tent

 

[g.ward1]

so if i have 4 plants in my 1.2m x 1.2m tent, i would need 2 300w CFL ? would dual ones be okay or just seperate red and blue spectrum ?

 

[redevil]

Well i use, in a 1.2 x 1.2 x 2.0 tent, 2 300w 9u cfls blue ( 6400k) for early veging, i can get them very close and it seems to give a very compact bushy plant with loads of nodes for future flowering though this is my first grow so i am not to sure about other strains. many people use dual lights for veg and flowering but i think, from my research that blue 6400k is best for veg so i do not see the need for red here, thus all my lumens are for the veg stage

getting close to flowering and just after when there is a huge burst in growth i stick with blue but use a MH for it's better lighting and this powers the growth spurt, towards the end i add some red 2700 k cfls at night when elec is cheap, though many would go with a HPS that has been adjusted to give some blue ( most HPS lights now are pseudo dual in that they have some blue)

When i got to full flowering i just use red hps with some blue CFL's at night and then i switch to full red ( hps and cfl)

At the final stage ( last 1 week) i plan to go back to Blue MH as i have read from various sources that this will boost the THC, i will still use the red CFL's as a xtra

Again i am a newbie at this but i have done a fair bit of research and i am happy to try out this light regime, so far so good. My strain, trans siberian, is known for being short and stocky and if i get 2oz a plant i will be very happy

edit... many have said that the glass in a cooltube stops the uvw light, so i may use a simple reflector for the last week if i use the mh, heat may not be as big an issue as you would think since with just the HID ( HPS or MH) in the cooltube i run my fan at about 25 % so without the cooltube i am sure 100 % fan should cool OK, if not i can always open my window a tad

 

[g.ward1]

Could i just use 2 300w dual spectrum bulbs all the way through veg and flowering ?

 

[redevil]

Yes, however CFL's are said to produce light airy buds whereas HPS is said to produce dense heavy buds

 

[g.ward1]

okay, when do you introduce nutrients to your plants

 

[The Squid]

Yes, however CFL's are said to produce light airy buds whereas HPS is said to produce dense heavy buds

We have a lot of growers here using cfl and with great dense results. Just for the record. IMO it juat seems 'easier' with HPS because they're just more powerful.

 

[Mr Piggy]

My buds from cfls are not light and airy.