Top Page          Air
 Beans
Bubblers
 Budding
 Cloning
CO2
Curing
 Flushing
 Forums
 Galleries
Germ
Harvest
Lighting
Home-site
Mites
Next
Nutes
O-View
 Repot
Sexing
Soil
 Tools
Vegging
Watering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compact Fluorescent Lighting Grow-Drobe
    The Latest in lighting is the Compact Fluorescent or CFL light "bulb" which spirals the lamp tube up to squeeze light intensity out of a low wattage fixture. It fits in a regular socket, and comes in powers of 12(40w output) to 42 watts(150W output).

   This holds a distinct advantage over halide and sodium lamps, because the several of the cool burning lights can be packed in to a small space for maximum intensity. With Halide/Sodium, the heat output from the light alone easily overheats the cabinet, and the additional heat from the ballast makes it dangerous.

     Conditions inside the Drobe must be kept constant. Start with a couple of lights as long as the space you are using in the cabinet remains small. These lights can be very close to the plants without burning them, and normally the lower leaves will be smaller. Start on the upper  position, and lower the shelf accommodate the height of your plants.

     As your plants grow, you may add more lights, above to increase growth and mid/lower lights to plump up the lower buds. The standard sized wardrobe will be able to have 4 of the 150w output models, for 600W of light, and 168W of power usage.
    Use a strong fan whenever the lights are on to encourage growth and strength. The space is enclosed, and will need the air to be moving rapidly, especially during the seedling phase to blow them around and increase stem strength the fan pictured right is fairly strong at its lowest setting, and provided enough air movement for the whole grow.

    If possible, have a vent fan pulling hot air out from the top of the cabinet, and install intake vents at the lowest end of the Drobe. Heat rises, naturally, and must be vented to prevent the Drobe temperature from reaching much above 85 degrees fahrenheight.

    The moisture in the cups shown will last a day, and need to be watered. The next sized pot will last a little longer, due to the greater soil volume.

   These seedlings have had the fan blowing them around for the first week of their lives, and quickly stiffened against the breeze, when tiny micro-fractures were formed in the stems. Note the short inter-stem distances and strong leaf growth.

   With a lot of air moving around them, the seedlings will tend to dry out quickly. Observe and prepare for evaporation, but also be careful not to over-water, or the seedlings may drown.

 
   As the plants grow, you can drop the shelf to provide more room in the space for your growing plants. Each time you increase the space, note the difference in the temperature. You'll notice a larger space is cooler, and each time you increase the space you have an opportunity to increase the lighting intensity with another CFL.

  The top canopy of the plants may be within 2 to 3 inches of the lights for maximum growth and light absorption, and this works well, but puts the balance of the buds at the top of the plants.
   Additional side lighting may be installed on the side of the cabinet, near the lower half of the plants. This underside lighting will help the lower branches along and boost the out put of every plant you grow in the Drobe.

     This is the point where heat will become a challenge, if you don't have a fan drawing heat out the top, you will likely need to leave the door open during light cycles. The heat in the cabinet shouldn't be allowed to reach over 85 degrees, or stress occurs on the plants.

    As you can see below, with 4 of the largest CFL's there is now 600 watts in the cabinet, and the lower buds are doing fine.