Specifically, a 120cm x 120cm x200cm. tent. Would 2x85W CFL’s be enough light? I have two for veg (blue) and two for bloom (red). Thanks for any help @Countryboyjvd1971 @bob31 @daz49 @Willd @North_East_Newbie @Donaldj @Nug-bug
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Probably not. They may do a reasonable job of vegging a few small plants, but you wouldn’t be happy with the outcome of using them for more than a few weeks.
Ok. Don’t think I would grow more than three, maximum 4 plants at a time. What if I was to use all 4 lamps together for the whole grow, like a “full spectrum” system? Trying to keep expenses down a bit. Thanks for your help.
It’s really not about the plant count, the cfl’s just have very low par levels. When they’re used for flowering, they have very little to no penetration and are even weak at top of canopy. Will result in small fluffy buds even if you load up on the wattage per square foot.
Both of the color temps will already be full spectrum, it’s the general benefit of growing with white light. The cold white will just provide more intensity in blue wavelengths while the warm white will provide more intensity in the red is all. You don’t really want to introduce the warm whites until you switch to flowering to avoid early stretch. Once you switch to flowering using both will be fine.
Do you already have the cfl’s? And are we talking lights with reflectors, or you just have the bulbs? And they are 85 watt actual not 85 watt equivalent correct?
That’s the same size tent I use and I have a 600w high power sodium bulb, I think ideal for 2 plant’s scrogging or 3 would be fine, 4 is a little tight as that’s what I have in mine now
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Yeah, I’ve got the 2 blue CFL’s vegging and 2 red CFL’s blooming. I thought of expanding my operations a bit thus the larger grow tent. I used to have a 400w HP in a 50cm x 50cm x 200cm cabinet which got good results, but I switched to the CFL’s after we moved. No reflectors, one cabinet is painted white inside, the other is covered with foil. The 85w is stamped on the bulbs themselves so I’m not sure if that’s real wattage or not.
@daz49
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Looks good I’ll tag you in mine, if I was you I’d use what you have for vegging and use the bigger one with a hps for flowering
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You mean the tent, right? Thanks for the tag, I’d like to see how your grow goes.
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Those are more than likely 85 watt actual. To get the most of them you want to mount them horizontally. The way you are using them all of the light goes out to side and you rely on reflection to hit your canopy.
Since you already have them, here is what I would suggest. 4 of those cfl’s would fit a 32”x32” the best or you could probably go to 3x3. Either way, they’re not going to perform like you hps did. And you can go with a larger tent to expand later but you’ll only be using about a 2’x2 area of it, so make the best decision for your plans with that in mind.
Then I would find a way to get those bulbs horizontal and get some sort of a hood or reflector over the top of them. Having reflective walls is good, but doesn’t help as much when you want to get your bulbs down close to the canopy. There are several ideas for diy reflector if you try a google search.
Like I said earlier, you won’t get the same results as hps. But it’s probably as good as you can make what you have on the cheap.
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Thanks for your help, I’ll talk to my wife (Minister of Finance) about the hps. In the meantime I’ll see what I can do about a reflector. Thanks again!
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You’re welcome! You may be able to get into a fairly solid led panel for less than an hps. Probably not big enough to do a 4x4 alone, but you could add the cfl’s to that and get some pretty good results too.
Led is my preference, I was using the hps as comparison because you have experience with it. Either would be a much better alternative to the cfl.
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Thanks for the tag @DieHigh55 I think these guys got you covered!
MOF. Love it! 
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What size LED would you suggest for my tent size 1m x 1m X 2m, and where to get them? That way I can compare prices a bit before buying.
I like the cobs and quantum boards, but they are not exactly tight budget types of lights. You can check out horticulture lighting group or timber grow lights for some ideas. Tasty led has a decent option for up to 3x3, probably wouldn’t be a bad option for your tent comparatively. Rapid led has reasonable price on kits as well if you’re up for some assembly.
Otherwise, I did some fairly extensive work going through some amazon lights a few weeks ago. I came up with Mars 600 as pretty good bang for the buck. Had good spectrum for seed to harvest type of light and advertised par levels were pretty good for the $140. That being said, I’ve never used one personally. Reviews were good and the couple of members here that have them seem pretty happy. Same could be said about the viparspectra and meizhi, pretty good lights as it seems. I just thought the mars 600 had a little better balance in performance.
If you went with the mars, you would probably want 2 of them for good wall to wall coverage. But I think you’d be happy with the performance of one in the meantime. I would expect 2-3 times the yield potential buying one over the cfl.
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You think a 400w HPS lamp would be enough for a 2 meter square tent? Ordered the tent on Ebay but having one hell of a time finding affordable lamps that don’t tear a hole in your pocket with shipping charges, especially from the US. Gonna call a smartshop in Holland where I got my old HPS setup, like, 12 years ago. Hopefully they still have them.
Yeah, now if they would only cover me in money so I could buy all this stuff!
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Your grow looks great! I saw a post that said you are using foil that’s a bad idea it can cause hot spots.If you get reflectors on those bulbs they will be great for veg.Cfl’s are great for veg I used to use them a lot when I grew with hid lights, just to save a little money,after they got about 12-18” tall I would hit them with the hps light until flower.Good luck and happy growing!
Thanks!, just trying to grow some weed. I ordered a 2 meter square grow tent, I plan on using the CFL’s for the veg and HPS together with the red CFL’s for the bloom. Although quality has been good, yields have been pretty pathetic, hopefully this will solve the problem.
@dbrn32 Revised grow box…horizontal lamps and reflector, all adjustable. The other cabinet is the same. Who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks?
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I think you’re going to like the results that way a lot better. Looks pretty good too! When you’re adjusting just try to keep them as flat as possible. It will be hard to get perfect; but you want as much of the light you can get coming off bulb to go directly to canopy.
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