to those of you who opt for floros...

[PUFF MONKEY]

if you use CFL's instead of tube type ,,, can you tell me why ???

 

[THCPezDispenser]

The main benefit I see to CFLs are they are just what the name says - compact. A floro tube has it's lumens spread out over 4 feet, a similarly lumen rated CFL has it in a concentrated ball so it is easier to target more of the lumens at the plant. And as well the fixtures are typically easier to come by/work with/fit in tighter spaces.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

fair enough.....about how many watts worth do you veg with???? i'm asking because i want to figure out if in fact cfl's are "better" than tube type. if you have ever seen my floro veg light(T12) and what it does to plants, you'll understand....btw , my veg light is about 480-500w...i can totally see where cfl's would be the choice of "micro growers" where space is really limited, but other than that, i feel the tube type is better..

 

[la9]

I went from tubes to CFL and back to tube.

I'm sticking with tubes from now on. I think you get better growth from the light being dispersed over a greater area.

I may still stick with my method of starting seeds in a Dixie cup in a 5 gallon bucket with a CFL inside the bucket, that setup works great.

I am amazed at how many well grown plants you can have with just 3 or 4 fluro tubes and I just wasn't getting the same number with CFL's because they concentrate the light too much in one direction.

 

[yimmy capone]

What about tubes over top and cfls on the side. Think that will do better with a combo like that.

 

[la9]

What about tubes over top and cfls on the side. Think that will do better with a combo like that.

What about tubes on all 4 sides standing straight up and down ?

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

look at my first grow ...the first link in my signature....no side lights at all..not to say it would'nt help(side lights)but man, they grew perfectly under 12 T12's...i don't see how 12 standard CFL's would even come close

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

btw, i made my fixture out of ply wood.

 

[84VW]

if you have the space i dont see any reason not to use tubes

i like my micro/small grows, its fun to do and im also limited on space so i cant use tubes

 

[slowmo77]

i veg with cfl's just to make you ask questions. jk i like floros over cfls for veg also.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

if you have the space i dont see any reason not to use tubes

i like my micro/small grows, its fun to do and im also limited on space so i cant use tubes

they do make 2ft tubes

 

[greenjerry]

i use them cuase they work the best and they are a cheaper way to grow...

 

[Kupunakane]

I like the 48 inch grow tubes,
I had them from when I was growing exotic plants. I arrange them in three groups of two tubes each, and for the vegging I do believe that they will blow away most other lighting results.
Hanging the lights on the side didn't work out to well as the plants wanted to keep leaning towards the lights.

smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

 

[84VW]

they do make 2ft tubes

i could only run those on the sides and i honestly dont think its needed for what i have going on

 

[THCPezDispenser]

fair enough.....about how many watts worth do you veg with???? i'm asking because i want to figure out if in fact cfl's are "better" than tube type. if you have ever seen my floro veg light(T12) and what it does to plants, you'll understand....btw , my veg light is about 480-500w...i can totally see where cfl's would be the choice of "micro growers" where space is really limited, but other than that, i feel the tube type is better..

I think this is a situation where the right light depends on the scenario. I only have a 2.25 sqft area to veg in, and I am running (13W x 8) = 104W of CFL's for 6400 lumens, roughly the minimum for veging that area at a benchmark of 3000 lumens per sqft (I will eventually get a larger wattage CFL bulb class to use, I just can't find the right spectrum right now ). I do have floros as well where I do "legit" growing and in that application I love them, they cover the whole shelf nicely. Those are T8's and run 32W per tube and put out 2700 lumens each. I have 6 of those, so around 16,200 lumens covering a 6 sqft area, only 2700 lumens per square foot. And that is really all the overhead floros I can get in that shelf. I could get more intense tubes, but nothing approaching what I could do with CFL's based on packing them into a finite space.

So while the floros are more efficent, for pure packing lumens in a space you can get much higher light density with CFL's. You can get a 40W CFL bulb putting out 2800 lumens that take up about say 4 inches square with a basic fixture and some fancy wiring, so in my 4 foot x 1.5 foot "legit" space using a piece of fire-proofed board I could probably make a light board and pack over 50 of those in there, a whopping 140,000 lumens total for the same space, or 24,000 lumens a sqft. That is getting to the realm of impractical with the heat and whatnot and it would make more sense to move to HID, (I'll say that before someone scanning the post jumps in and tells me my theoretical situation is stupid and I could use a HPS ) but physically possible.

 

[THCPezDispenser]

And just wanted to add with all that said to make clear I am not advocating creating a veg area with 14,000 lumes per sqft , from a pure simplicity sake of giving a larger veg area enough lumens to veg weed well, I would go with the floros everytime (edit: when only considering floro vs CFL, this post is not meant to be a HID vs floro/CFL rant ). For a small space like I have, I just wouldn't be able to get the right fixtures to get the same lumens I am capable of with CFL's. And hey remember they are basically the same technology, the CFL's are just "compact"