how many watts per plant to veg with cfls?

[jak397]

i have 4 plants veging and 5 more seeds germinating will have 9 total all autos how many watts of cfl will i need per plant

[ellz]

Hi jak397. The more the better in my opinion. Ideally, you want about 40,000 lux during the vegetative state for good results, 15,000 lux at a minimum. Lumens are total output of a light and lux is the amount of light concentrated over a given area. If you keep the bulbs close, the lumen output will almost match the lux but the further away you go from the bulb the lower the lux will fall. The typical 23W CFL bulb puts out around 1600 lumens so 10 of them would put out 16,000 lumens combined. So to answer your question in my best estimate, I would say at least 10 bulbs at 23W each so 230W minimum.

More info on lux can be found here: http://www.growweedeasy.com/lux-meter
More info on CFL grows can be found here: http://www.growweedeasy.com/cfls

Best of luck with everything!

[jak397]

thanks how many wats of hps will they need when they go to flower

[ellz]

Flower you want to have about double that so a 600W HPS would do good probably.

[Canyon Grower]

I agree with Ellz. You should shoot for 200-300 watts. You will have significant heat issues if you dont ventilate REALLY well. You can use cfl's right through to harvest. They have their quirks but do grow nice bud.

[jak397]

using cfl right through would be a lot cheeper on power right? but is it hard to get a good yield useing cfl for flowering? though i wouldent have heat a issues using all cfl i know for hps you need good ventilation for i have 6 flowering under a 600hps at the min and doing really good had to take them out of the tent cause it was far to warm

[Canyon Grower]

CFL's arent as hot as you hps, but there is quite a bit of heat. That heat is wasted energy that you are still paying for. An LED is less expensive and looses less energy through heat. Really, all three grow nice bud, but have their quirks. I use cfl's to veg and an leded to flower. You may want to experiment some to see what you like. Good luck.

[jak397]

can you send me a link to thet type of led light your using i hear there is good led lights on the market and some really bad ones does led use the least amout of power something i want to keeep from running to high cause that is how a lot people get caught from using a suspicious amout of power

[Canyon Grower]

I dont have link, but go to the GWE site and look through the section on lighting. Im kind of a cheapskate so bought the lower end Galaxy hydro 300w unit. It seams to work well. Good luck !