The Autoflower Network uses CFLs to grow autoflowers300w mini fridge grow, DWC Hydro, Scrog Method.
Grow space for a garden is often limited when growing cannabis indoors.This is where the grow lights shine.If you have a small grow space, it may be a good idea to use CFLs.
I would like to share some extra tips and hints for growing cannabis with the super- cheap grow lights which also fit in extremely small spaces.
Even though the lights can be found at any hardware or grocery store, they give off a really great light spectrum for growing marijuana.
The inside of a cupboard, a small grow tent, or even a 5-gallon bucket are all suitable for very small or short grow spaces.
If you have at least 5 feet of height in your grow space, I recommend you upgrade to a more efficient grow light.
There are many ways to maximize your indoor grow space.We covered in the past how to train your cannabis plants to grow into a table shape that is more efficient under grow lights than letting the cannabis plant grow without interference.Cannabis training techniques can be used to grow cannabis with grow lights.
You don't want to hear it, but you need to know how to grow cannabis.Skipping this step will make you lose a lot of friends.
If you understand the life cycle of a cannabis plant, you will get more from this guide.98% of the most common cannabis growing questions will be answered by taking 20 minutes to read the basics.Having a primer will make the learning experience more enjoyable.
You need to understand that cannabis plants go from seedling to harvest.Just like any other plant, your job is to give the plant light, water and nutrition.While the plant gets bigger, it only grows stems and leaves.The plant stops growing new stems and leaves in the flowering stage.Male and female cannabis plants need to be thrown away immediately.It is time for harvest when buds are ripe.
If you're confused by a lot of that, you should take a few minutes to learn the basics of growing cannabis.
You will need light, a place to grow, and a few other supplies to get started growing cannabis.
There is a complete list of all the supplies you need.
You can put your plants in a closet.It is not the best setup, but I did it for my first grow.I can't believe I started growing on a carpet without putting down a tarp or blanket.It was a cheap and easy way to start.
I got a grow tent after I started growing.If you want to start out with a turn-key grow space, you might want a grow tent.A small grow tent is perfect for growing cannabis.You can grow a grow tent in the back of your closet.A bigger tent is a good starting size and can be upgraded with bigger grow lights later.
A lot of growers will build their own grow space, and it can be a good choice if you take time to make reflective walls and a way to exhaust heat.
Growers can either dedicate the whole box to one grow or include both a flowering and a vegetative section.
After your seeds have sprouted, cannabis plants grow like a houseplant.Give your plants basic care and watch them grow.Cannabis grows like a weed in the vegetative stage.There is more specific info below.
Once your plants reach this size, they should be moved into bigger containers before they start getting rootbound.
Your cannabis plant starts growing leaves as soon as possible.Your plant is only making stems and leaves at this point.The main job of the plant is to provide water, light and nutrition.
The "hand test" is a good way to check if a CFL is too close to the plant.If it is too hot for you, you need to move the CFL further away from your plants.Plants can grow a lot in a day, so make sure to give yourself some breathing room so your plants don't grow into the bulbs and burn themselves!
If you don't train your plants, keeping them close will increase your yields more than if you keep them further away.
The untrained plant has grown into a Christmas Tree shape of cannabis plants.That is not the best way to get bigger yields.
Training your plants to grow short and wide so they are best able to take advantage of the great light spectrum in the flowering stage is the best way to increase cannabis yields.Plant training will increase your yields.
If you want to get to harvest, plant training is very easy and will reward you a lot.
New stems are flexible and easy to bend, so it is a good idea to start training when the plant is young.You can train your plant to grow flat and wide under your grow lights if you start early.
Take tall stems away from the center of the plant.You want the buds to be an equal distance from the grow lights.Each bud gets access to a lot of light, and will grow bigger as a result.
A twisty tie is a good way to tie down stems after bending them, but you can use anything, except string, which can cut into the plant over time.
There are plant ties that can be used to hook around a cannabis stem.
Know the height of your plant as it grows.If the stems are taller than the rest, gently bend them down and away from the center of the plant until they are at the same level as the others.
Continue bending tall stems as the plant grows.You will end up with a flat shape as time goes on.
The shape of the cannabis plants after they start making buds helps them get the most energy from their grow lights, resulting in larger buds and bigger yields.This is why we train.
You can learn step-by-step how to make cannabis plants grow flat and wide using our LST tutorial, even though this was just a quick glimpse of marijuana plant training.
Basic plant training is important for getting good yields, so don't skip it!
You want to adjust your CFLs around your plants as they grow, so make it easier on yourself by setting them up so they can easily be adjusted in your grow space.You should keep in mind that it can be a daily task.
If it is not too hot, keep the bulbs close to the plants as long as you can.All parts of the plant should be within 10” of a CFL bulb.
If you see a shadow on the plant, it means you need another bulb there, or you have to use bending to rearrange the shape.
Try to avoid moving plants.If the plants move every day, it's difficult to train them to grow around the lights.Set up a grow space so you don't have to move the plants if you hand-water them.
Better results can be achieved with more light.You can't give your plant too much light when growing with a grow light.
If you want to switch to the flowering stage, you need to use a timer.The plants should get 12 hours of light each day.It is important that the plant does not get any light during the dark period.Light leaks can cause problems.In the flowering stage, your grow space needs to be completely light proof.
The plant will start making flowers about 2 weeks after the switch.If it is a male plant, it will start making sacs which growers don't want.It is important to remove male plants from the grow space immediately because they will pollinate your female plant and give you seedy buds.There are male and female cannabis plants.
When you see what happens to all the buds close to the grow lights in the flowering stage, you will thank yourself for training your cannabis plants.
Buds get direct access to intense light in the flowering stage if they are kept as close to buds as possible without burning them.Make sure the bulbs are not too close to each other in the flowering stage.
This plant has the same height as the rest of the plant, this helps increase yields and gives you a lot of large colas.
It is not possible to give your cannabis plant too much light.Even in cool temperatures, you can light-burn your plants with more powerful grow lights.It is almost impossible to give too much light without burning your plants from heat, so your main job is to get as many bulbs as you can as close to the plants as possible.
The 40 to 42 watt range is great for growing marijuana, as well as making great clone and/or supplemental lighting.
Many smaller CFLs are more effective than a few big ones because they can be spread around the plant.
Even though the smaller bulbs use less electricity in total, they will usually get bigger yields than a cannabis plant grown under 1 x 200W.
If you have small plants in a space bucket, you want 30 watt bulbs.If you plan to grow your plant up to a foot tall, you may want to use bigger bulbs since the smaller ones won't have enough penetration to reach the bottom of the plant.When it comes to growing cannabis with 40W-sized CFLs, they are a great combination of power and penetration.
It is recommended to get daylight (6500k) and soft white (2700k), both of which have different color spectrums, for the flowering stage of the cannabis plant.The color spectrum has a small impact on how the plant grows.
The truth is that total power is more important than the spectrum of grow lights.When it comes to your yields.They will do the job.If you want to get all of the color spectrum, you can get soft white or cheap ones and get the most watt for your money.The main message is that watt is more important than spectrum.
You need to remember to take this with a grain of salt, as this will help you estimate how much yields to expect from your CFL grow.If you use plant training and don't run into major plant problems, you should expect about 0.25g/ watt of CFL light.This is not counting the equivalent watt.As an upper limit for a first-time cannabis grower, 0.25g/ watt is what you should expect, even though some growers get bigger yields than that.
If you use 150W of CFLs, you can expect about 37.5 grams, or a little over 1 oz per plant.If you add more kilowatts to each plant, you will increase yields more than if you don't.
The size and shape of your plant is going to have the biggest effect on how much cannabis you have.Marijuana plant training makes a big difference on your final yields and it is impossible to know what a grower's skills will be, so no "formula" is going to be accurate all the time.That means any formula is just a rough estimate, but if you follow the steps in this guide you will produce great results every time so you get the cannabis you expect, or even more!
Do you not want to think about it?Here are examples of how to setup a setup for each marijuana plant.Getting many bulbs tends to work well, but getting all those light sockets and arranging all the lights in an easy to adjust way can be difficult.Larger bulb setups let you use fewer bulbs in total to deal with, and have slightly increased penetration, but as they continue to get bigger they become more unwieldy and start generating a lot of heat.
A grower can expect a little over 1oz/plant if they take great care of their plants and train them to grow short and wide with many colas, as outlined in the step-by-step instructions above.
3 x 23W bright white and 26 x soft white are equivalent to 100 watt equivalents.
You can mix and match.If you can, aim for 150W of bulbs in total per plant to start.If you want them to screw into regular light bulb sockets, use ones with a medium base.
Light can be used for seedlings and young plants.Supplemental lighting can be made from CFLs.Here is a list of products that work well for growing cannabis.
Recommended is a great balance of size and brightness (150W equivalent).
Some are orange/yellow, some are almost blue, and others are bright white on a sunny day.
The truth is that all CFLs work for growing, though some can help encourage your plants to grow a certain way by imitating the light of the sun during different seasons.
The bulbs are best suited to the vegetation stage.
If you use the 65k colored bulbs during the vegetative stage, you will be giving your plants more blue light, which can help a plant grow more short and bushy.
Even if you don't want your plant to grow long or bushy, you can still use training and bending to make it grow.
The white bulbs have reds and yellows that help your plant get in the mood for making buds.
Is 5000k or 5500k photography bulbs good for growing weed?I know you are supposed to get 6500k colored bulbs in the vegetative stage.
I have a 150w 5500k photography bulb that looks similar to other bulbs that are specifically sold as grow bulbs, so could it be used for growing marijuana?
Marijuana can be grown with any CFL.It is more important to get a high wattage than it is to have the right color spectrum.Wattage is the amount of light.I have used 5000k bulbs in the past and they worked well.
As far as spectrum is concerned, blue encourages shorter growth, red encourages taller growth and yellow encourages flowering and bud development.The bulbs are in between.I have found they can be used successfully in all stages of growth.
The amount of light in total has a bigger effect on your results.It is better to have more light/wattage.I would rather have 150W of bulbs than 100W for flowering.The more light intensity you have, the better your yields will be.
The more wattage you get, the more return you will get on your yields.
It's important to get a light sockets for each bulb.The light comes from the wall.
If you want to fit more bulbs into a light sockets without the extender, you should use a 2-way or 4-way splitter.
Setting up more than one bulb per sockets can be cheaper than buying individual light sockets for each light, especially if you buy online.It's convenient for arranging the bulbs around the plant.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of creative solutions for setting up CFLs above cannabis plants.improvising ways to get them in a proper position is a large part of using them.
There are ways to get more CFLs in a smaller place.Less total light sockets can save you money.
Light loss in your marijuana grow space can be minimized by using the power of reflection.Flat white latex paint has an 85% reflectivity and can be used to cover your walls.
To get more light to your plants, make the walls reflective.A cheap but effective way to add a lot of reflectivity is to paint your walls with flat white latex paint.
If you don't have a good growing space, you can easily buy one that's perfect for growing cannabis with great reflectivity.When growing cannabis in a grow tent, it's great for small spaces.If you have more space, a larger grow tent model will allow you to arrange your lights and access your plants more easily.The grow tents are designed to be as reflective as possible, which increases your yields with the same grow lights.
This grow tent is a good starting size that can be upgraded with bigger grow lights later.The inside walls of a grow tent are made to reflect the light from the grow lights.
Dyna-Gro Grow is great for growing marijuana.For the flowering stage, use half strength compared to what it says on the bottle, and for the vegetative stage use 50% strength.The two-part system is great for growing cannabis in any grow medium.
There is a full album with a write-up by Wasabi Mayo.
You may be interested in learning more about the pros and cons of grow lights for a small space.
I want to see the real thing grow.Show me a bunch of pictures of a micro grow.
If you want to learn how to grow weed with CFLs in coco, click here to view my step-by-step guide.