Which cfls to grow with

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Since it only has 5 watts, the amount of heat it can emit is not enough to cause damages to a plant. Due to its low wattage, it is best to place the light bulb 2 inches away from the plants to attain the best results.

The grow light is compatible with most standard light fixtures and can up to hrs. The SunBlaster CFL Propagation lamp uses only 26 watts of power to provide a full spectrum lighting that is needed by plants to grow and thrive. The lamps are affordable and can fit in almost any light fixture without any problems. The compact propagation lamp is set to replace incandescent bulbs of watts. It produces a K light spectrum. The light bulb is for use during the later stages of cannabis plant growth.

It creates a cool natural light that you can compare to natural daylight with a brightness of lumens. The bulbs do not flicker while in use to provide a high output.

The CFL grow light produces a warm white light with the perfect intensity to help the cannabis plant achieve its best results. The bulb uses 40 watts and provides a light output that is close to an incandescent bulb of watts. It has a bright color temperature of K and has a color rendering index of The grow light comes with an E26 medium base socket that can fit in all the standard light fixtures. The bulbs have an electronic ballast for the instant-on feature.

It does not flicker during operation and can last for up to hours. The lamp has an energy star and is UL listed. If you are looking for a grow light to use on small plants or to add as supplemental lighting in your cannabis grow room , you should consider getting the Hydrofarm Agrobrite CFL Fluorowing System. The system comprises a compact reflector hood, a dew-guard and a bulb that uses W. The reflector hood is responsible for increasing the coverage of light through the plant canopy.

The lamp produces a bright white light that can effectively power a complete plant cycle from vegetative to flowering. It comes with a one year guarantee. When buying a CFL light, you should consider getting one with the highest wattage possible W. The higher the wattage, the more power the bulb will produce leading to more light for your cannabis plants.

You should understand how much lumens a bulb can produce to determine if it is suitable for use. A cannabis plant requires 10, lumens to grow. Therefore, if a bulb produces lumens, you would need four of them to attain the necessary levels.

Even so, there are larger models that exist. As I earlier indicated, different plant growth stages require different spectrums of light. By using the Kelvin scale, you can measure the color temperature that CFL bulbs emit and know which one you need depending on the growth stage of the marijuana.

Here is a quick breakdown of the type of CFL grow light you need to get. Bulbs that lie in between this stage have a warm light that resembles the sun. It is best suited for the flowering phase of the plant. During this stage of growth, the seed starts to spread in preparation for another set of new plants. The bulbs that lie in this range are quite often not very optimal for use in the vegetative or the flowering stages of a plants life cycle.

You can use only or two bulbs from this range as a supplement to the vegetative and flowering range. The bulbs from this range are the best to use in the vegetative phase of the plants. In this phase, plants start forming leaves and grow very fast to get to the flowering stage. Daylight CFL bulbs are the best types to begin a plant growing life cycle. Weed plants grow upward into a Christmas tree shape naturally, but that is not good for us.

This results in one large bud at the top and several smaller buds below. You want to force your plant to grow short and fat. That way they are more flat on top and can grow multiple large buds. You can get them to grow this way by bending and tying down various stems to get them to grow outward. If you force the main stem to grow horizontally from the beginning, other stems will grow upward from it, creating a shorter and fatter plant naturally.

If you have a short and fat plant, there is no need to hang bulbs below the canopy. Hang them all above, with some off to the side and a bit lower, so that they are next to the top of the plant. Anywhere you see a shadow area, put a bulb there. If you do not have enough bulbs to fill all the shadows, that means you need more bulbs. CFL bulbs can generally hang fairly close to your plants, but this does depend on their wattage. A 20 to 30 watt bulb can hang within a few inches.

Hold you hand where the plant is, with the back of your hand facing the bulb. Keep it there for 30 seconds. If your hand gets too hot, then it will also be too hot for the plant. Back the bulb off a bit. If you have a plant that is growing tall, you may want to get some light on it from beneath as well, or at least from the sides.

This will depend on the plant, however. If you are growing cannabis, you will get a much better yield by not growing tall plants, so I highly recommend keeping them short and fat. In fact, I would encourage you not to buy special CFL grow bulbs. They are generally much more powerful, so you would only have one or two above the plant, ideally in a reflector.

The problem is that fluorescent bulbs do not have great penetration. That is why you hang them so close to the pants. With fewer powerful bulbs, you have to hang them further away and are more likely to get shadows. More bulbs that are less powerful allow you to hang them close and to completely bathe your plant in light.

In addition, bulbs that are specifically labeled as grow lights are almost always overpriced. Regular old fluorescent bulbs are every bit as good and do exactly the same thing, but they cost far less. The main thing to look out for is the color temperature. The cool bulbs with a higher color temperature are better for vegging, since they contain more blue light in their spectrum and the warmer bulbs are better for flowering, since they contain more red.

You best bet would be to have a ratio of 2 cool to 1 warm for vegging, then add a few more warm ones for flowering. That way you also add more wattage for flowering and plants need more wattage then than they do during vegging anyway. You can buy CFL bulbs pretty much anywhere.

If you want to get them online, Amazon has some good options. Their value packs are especially good deals. You can get all the bulbs you need in one pack. Here is a good value pack for warm white bulbs flowering. And here is one for cool white bulbs vegging. They are extremely flexible and let you mount the lamps anywhere you like and in any position you like. Alternatively, you could put them in a reflector or just rig up your own , to direct more of the light in the direction you want, i.

This is by far the BEST information page out there! Forget all of those bloody youtubers being paid to say 1 thing is better than the other. Here are straight facts that tell me what lights I need, how many of them and why they work.

This has been the most helpful website for me personally after info searching for several months. Thank you so much. The good news is that this bulb comes with a day money-back guarantee, so you can return a defective bulb and buy a different one. The greatest thing about this Hydroponic Full Spectrum CFL light bulb is that it is a bright light with that daylight spectrum, making this a great choice for all sorts of plants.

Part of the reason for that is that fluorescent light has a hard time penetrating to the bottom of the plant, and so your plant reaches upward. Like most CFLs, this grow light should last about 10, hours over its lifetime, which equates to about a year or more of continuous use. However, some people who reviewed this bulb said it lasted only days, weeks, or months. The actual wattage is 60W, which means it burns as bright as a W incandescent light bulb, but only uses 60 watts.

Although fluorescent is supposed to burn cooler and not emit much heat, some users said it got too warm for their plants. Perhaps the best thing about this bulb is that it comes in a four-pack and is more affordable than similar light bulbs.

It promises the equivalence of a W incandescent bulb, but at only 23 actual watts. Also, these are small bulbs at about 4 inches long and only a couple of inches in diameter. This makes it easy to place several of them on splitters and spread them out among your plants — from top to bottom. While these are like the other CFL bulbs out there — energy-efficient and long-lasting — these bulbs burn a little hotter than your indoor garden may tolerate.

Of course, an easy fix is to move your lights up or your plants down or provide your plants some cooling air conditioning or a fan to circulate the air. Each CFL bulb in this pack is supposed to give you up to 10, hours of life, but it may be shorter for those of you who need to keep this light on for 16 hours per day. This value pack of EcoSmart 9W CFL light bulbs could be a good deal if you consider getting four tiny light bulbs for less the cost of one higher-wattage similar style CFL bulb.

You are compromising in a few ways, though. One, this type of light is a soft white, which can be good for flowering some plants, but not so much for the vegetative stage. Also, the wattage is extremely low for this bulb, so you may need to use several bulbs for efficacy in your indoor garden.

The energy use of these bulbs is excellent, as each one only uses 9 watts, but it gives you the equivalent light of a 40W bulb. EcoSmart claims the longevity of each bulb is about 10, hours, but many customers have noted that bulbs died out after a fraction of that time.

This is a whole compact lighting system that could be ideal for your indoor garden. The incandescent equivalent is off the charts on some readers somewhere around W, but probably higher. The daylight spectrum is what plants typically crave, and this lighting system offers enough coverage for a medium-sized garden think small to medium potted plants.