I’m now using two leds in my 3ft box they are like 1500 lumens each it’s super bright in there. I was thinking that the cfls might provide better lighting but she’s looking decent maybe a little stretching. The cfls are 800 lumens though so one led is like 2 cfls, you think I should switch them? @dbrn32
I judged stretch by node spacing, not the plant height. But if you were targeting a plant that tall I understand.
Using those led’s the way you currently are, it’s going to happen again too. If you’re going to use the led bulbs in that way, you’ll want to make sure you have a colder white. Like 5000k to 6500k, and then remove the diffuser and turn them so that they face directly on your plant. Adding a couple more once she’s past seedling stage is probably a good idea too. You’ll have to play with the height to limit stretch. But these bulbs aren’t that powerful, so be diligent.
If you decide to go with cfl, keep them sideways like in the picture you have above. Run 6500k for veg, add 1 or 2 more, and keep them low as well.
Once you get either to flower, switch to warm white 2700k-3000k. She will stretch when you flip her, so keep them close but you’ll probably have to move daily for a little bit. If you keep it short and bushy in veg you should be fine. Otherwise you won’t have enough light to flower a plant that gets that big.
If you do a good job vegging her out, you’ll probably even have enough room to go back to your led panel for flower.
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So I decided to switch them out. This is just my seed starting box so it isn’t a big deal really. The middle one is a auto. Once they are doing well they will move into my grow tent under a 4 bulb t5 which I can have super close to them. I might keep the auto in here though. Once I start flowering I switch to the 600 watt led in the tent. I currently have my pineapple express in the tent under the led.
Hoping she’s done by the time these are ready.
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It could be a bigger deal if start to stretch since your in hydro. If it was a soil grow, you can transplant and bury stem in soil. You really want to keep them short from the very beginning, it makes everything after so much easier.
As long as you’re comfortable with it, go with it.
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Yeah that’s true. The box came with the cfls to plug in like that basically how they designed it to work though. A lot of people have been successful i guess. Just stinks if I keep one in the box it’s going to be hard to get a stronger light/lights for flower. Maybe i could velcro another power strip into it because there is nothing to hang a light from. Does it look like it stretched a lot already? Thanks for making me realize this too @dbrn32 
Sure they mounted the cfl’s that way because of the increase in par when they’re ran horizontally.
You can’t use wire ties or anything to mount that strip to the top? I’m thinking the nerd in me could definitely fab some sort of mount or stand to make it happen. But if that’s more than you wanna do I completely understand
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Naw I can’t remove that strip its like screwed in. @dbrn32
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Can you unplug it and just leave it in place, then put another strip at the top?
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Yes I could do that actually.
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Or I could run lights on both spots but it might get to warm
If you wanna stay with the led bulbs, that’s what I would do. If you want to stay with the strip on the side, go with 3 6500k 23 watt cfl bulbs. Not the mini ones, the regular size will give you better footprint.
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If you get the right bulb oriented in the right position you shouldn’t need both.
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I think I’ll put the strip in. The leds are strong and I don’t really have the cash right now for more stuff. Might as well use what i already have. I’m going to do it in a few I’ll post it when done. 
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I’m not so much worried about the auto it’s not from ilgm but the other two are regs og kush and strawberry kush. They are both from here so i want those for sure.
These cfls are 5000k
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The 5000k will work
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Dang the leds are 5k as well they just have more lumens. I’m just going to leave it as is and see how the auto goes. It will probably be a little bit before the others come up.
I’ll predict they’re gonna stretch, but it’s your grow. You can already see them getting kinda leggy. If you had a par meter you would see what I meant. You’re putting too much value into the lumen rating of your bulbs. The only time lumen rating cones into play for us is when we’re comparing the same type of light for efficiency ratings or something.
Look at it this way, using the led in the way you are, you have zero direct lighting going to your plants. What little bit that is going, is reduced and reflected by the diffuser. At least with the cfl you would have about 30% going directly toward your plants and not being blocked by diffuser.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Google search led bulbs for grow lights and look at the journals of other people doing it.
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I got the cfls in, replaced the leds
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So I’m gonna say I’m not using the leds because they are basically the same so should I hang the cfls up top?
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