light manufacturers are no better

[flatcat_auz]

commercial growers are probably not operating in confined spaces so probably don't require (some of) the benefits.

 

Seems to me from searches that it is the prominent members of established groups that are getting on the wagon.

 

With all due respect baron I think the commercial sector would happily embrace a product which has a 50-70% reduction in operating costs (electricity). And heat regardless of any setting is an issue (humidity etc).

You guy's might be willing to spend money trialing new technology (and lets face it someone has to) but I'll stick to the tried and tested methods until proven categorically that CFL's can produce the same results. As I have stated in previous posts I have no doubt that CFL or LED will be the way to go in the future. You may have also read my earlier attempts of growing (about 8yrs now ) and some of the cheap and dodgy things I done, with limited success I might add.

 

Go forth and prosper my young technology fiends, and when success is found posts results and make fools of us who don't believe.

[BaronS]

dunno where the 50-70% saving comes from. eg. I'm using 3*48W CFL for an 850*550mm area (1000H) so if looking at HID would probably be looking at the less efficient low power HIDs, with their associated heat, of similar wattage. Heat extraction may be a significant percentage but not that much either.

 

I'm more 'for a similar or _possibly_ decreased cost' can you get a decent crop out of CFL (all the way through).

 

Some of the youtube vids appear to be plants guys are proud of, they musn't have seen coke bottle size buds others claim.

 

I think, and certainly hope, that very shortly better LED technology will replace current lighting. I have no idea of actual efficiency of such but when they come up with LED colours that only output the right (bands of) frequency.

 

30yrs ago I put a seed into a cowpat.

20yrs ago I had an NFT table under mixed HID.

Hopefully I'll soon have some decent result from CFL. In a few (3 maybe) weeks the 1st (small) girls should be ready to go 12/12. The space for this is same area but about 1400H, I could maybe put a 250 HPS cooltube in there but have asked and searched about CFLs meanwhile.

[Wrangler556]

CFL's can grow plants from seed to harvest. They are ideal for small plants, or for people with confined space to work with, as they dont put out much heat and you can keep them within inches of the plants to maximise said space.

 

For vegatative growth, they are absolutely fine, may take a bit longetr than HID, but they are fine.

 

Flowering, they simply lack the intensity and proper spectrum that cannabis likes, and you will end up with smaller fluffier buds. If your not concerned about quality and maximising your grow, CFL's are fine. Buds will still be quite smokable..

[Budman2012]

G'day,

I think everything has mostly been covered

Basically , if you have only a small space ... then Fluros are really the only option ... HPS lights for a larger space is better and more efficient. Pretty Simple.

There is nothing wrong with using cfls , I don't think anyone has said that ... in fact they seem to be pretty good for small vegetative growth .. Clones etc but as was mentioned they just don't have the penetration power or light intensity needed for larger plants or large Solid Budz ... sure you could buy a shitload of them or some high wattage ones but I doubt they would still come close to a decent HPS.

I get that you basically want the technical numbers in order to compare lumens mathematically and that's cool .. but purely matching up numbers of spectrums and Lumens and Wattage (oh My!) I don't think is going to be an accurate comparison as they are simply very different types of lighting

It's obvious that if CFL's were cheaper and more efficient for growing Cannabis Flowers then most everyone would be doing it ... there's simply no dispute that HPS work Better

 

As for MH's ... again , great for Veg it seems , but they are generally not preferred for Flowering as most of us know (never tried myself , but the practical experiments have been done).

In saying that ... My last Skunk grows (420 Crew) were done with a MH from clone to finish and I don't think anyone would debate that they grew fairly well considering BUT .. this was a Sylvania Lamp MH but with an "added" Red spectrum (don't ask me how I've no idea) ... SO these kind of Hybrids and others may become more common who knows ... If I had the choice to do a 1000w grow again I would purchase that exact same Lamp again and be happy with it

 

Not the best pic , but just as an example from one of those grows ... Pic Link - wouldn't let me put in a pic sorry.

Not Super , but kinda chunky budz ... with the simple feeding regime and simple setup I'd be surprised if a 1000w HPS did much better in the same room. (there would be a slight difference maybe , but probably negligable)

 

Anyhoo , just a few thoughts to further the discussion

Cheerz all and Happy Growing

 

Budman

 

P.s. yeh What wrangler said beat me to it heheh

[flatcat_auz]

Can I just take the opportunity to thank everyone who has commented on this issue about how civil it has been. It has been a well constructed argument for and against.I'm sick to death of people flaming others for ideas they don't like or support.

 

Now back to the topic..................oh thanks baron for starting this thread.

[BaronS]

I'll also thank people for not making it a war. Personally, I'm just bouncing ideas around looking for results.

[Wrangler556]

At the end of the day, no one is right or wrong about what type of light to use, if the end result =smokable bud, its a win-win situation