how tall for closet grow?

WhammyBoy

Hey all,
First off, I would like to apologize for not posting recently but work has been devouring my life....I work in a law firm and we are getting ready to go to trial, so life has been more than nuts lately.

Anyway, I started growing about a month ago, I using a closet....its about 11 ft wide x 3 ft deep x 8 (maybe 10) ft tall. The closet at the moment is split into 3 sections...only one is in use and growing at the moment but going to start Ice and Blue Mystic seeds in the next few days.

The current grow is just bag seeds, and is my first grow. Its soil and I am using CFL's. One of my friends gave me a nice hood for a CFL (I cant remember the watts atm but its the biggest one he could buy at the hydro store near us). So I am using that and 4 smaller (26 watt) for seven plants - 4 of the seeds that made it are Thai and 3 are some Cali bud. All the plants are growing nicely about 6 inches at the moment, and it seems they get bigger everytime I look at them...

Here is were my questions come in. How high do I want the lights from the plants - from all that I have read with CFL's they need to be within a few inches because the light they give off is just not as strong as lets say a MH. However, my friend who gave me the light said to keep it a few feet above the tops of the plants to encourage growth. So I dont know what to do...lights close? or far? Currently I have the 4 smaller CFL's about 4 inches above my plants and the the hood is hanging about 3 1/2 ft above the plants. All the walls of my grow area are covered in mylar.

And my next question was, How tall do I want the plants to get before I send them into flowering? I have heard that I should start to flower when the plants reach about a foot tall because they will add 2-3 times as much height during flower. Because I am limited in space I cannot let the plants get too big before flowering or I risk running out of room. I want to get the plants big and strong enough so they produce some nice buds.

The ladies are currently under 24/7 light.

Any help would be much appritiated and thank you in advance.

Hope all is Well.

__________________
WhammyBoy
"...if you knew what life is worth, you would look for yours on Earth..."


http://www.greenpassion.org/f24/my-first-grows-7334/

justanotherbozo

hi Wham, good to meet 'cha.

i figured i'd take a stab at answering your question seeing as i'm
growing in my closet using CFL's, lol.

with CFL's you want the lights as close to the plants as possible because
they aren't strong enough to penetrate very deeply into the canopy.
that hood you have probably has a 125wt bulb in it and the hood is an
attempt to get some spread. the problem is, even a 125watter loses
intensity, dramatically, within just a few inchs.

something else you need to consider is the color or spectrum of the light
you use.

personally, i no longer use those powerful CFL's, because they are too
expensive, not always easy to find and, most important of all, the light
is concentrated at only one point. they get damned hot too


with smaller bulbs you can spread the light, and the heat, more evenly
around your grow and in a much more cost effective way.
if i'm right about the bulb in your hood then you can expect to spend
about $50.00 to replace it and with smaller bulbs you'd use, let's say,
5 x 23 watt bulbs for a total of 115 watts and at a cost of approx.
$10.00 (you can often find the 23'sand 26's in 4 packs for as little as $5.99)


as a rule of thumb, you want CFL's as close as you can without burning
the leaves so move the back of your hand toward the bulb, when it starts
to feel hot, that's about the roght distance for your plants.

come take a look at my imaginary garden and check out my home-made
fixtures. if you read the discussion on light i think you'll find some useful
info.

anyway, good to meet you and i hope this helped in some small way

__________________
bozo
peace, love, dope

'it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice'
Those that give up Liberty to have temporary Security deserve Neither......Benjamin Franklin.
be advised, these are the meanderings of a mad man, completely imaginary and should in no way be taken seriously, especially Leo
my imaginary garden
http://www.greenpassion.org/f22/newbie-cfl-hydro-experiment-5525/
http://www.greenpassion.org/f15/chea...-results-5593/
http://boards.cannabis.com/

4everhydro

the more higher a light is the more the plant will reach for the light causing it to get longer i usaully keep my lights about a foot away from my plants and the lower you can get them without burning the plants better use your hand as a guide if you put it under the light dose it burn the back of it? if it does you know its to close to the plants if not lower it little by little until you feel is good for the plants also if you dont want to much upward growth but rather nice thick heathy plants this is the way to go just make sure you raise the light as the plants get closer to it and then when you have only 2-3 times of space left for the plants to grow bloom em.you should give them 18 hours on and 6 off,i find plants grow more with rest.

WhammyBoy

Thanks for the advice. I am at work at the moment but I will go lower hood when I get home. Bozo, I was looking through the posts linked in you sig, alot of great info in there, thanks man. I really liked your set up, I am going to start doing hydro aswell, I think I am going to keep growing soil where my ladies are now and on the other side grow hydro. Your cloning method was one of the best I have seen and sounds very inexpensive (which is key for me at the moment). I think that I am going to try it for my clones. I also want to start my hydro set up asap, but I am new to it and have no idea what im doing. I have everything that I need....pump, lights, buckets, etc... I just dont know how to put it all together. If you or anyone knows of a good "how-to" thread for setting up a hydro system I would be much appritiated.

__________________
WhammyBoy
"...if you knew what life is worth, you would look for yours on Earth..."


http://www.greenpassion.org/f24/my-first-grows-7334/

justanotherbozo

lol, if you read through my log i think you'll find a lot of the answers you're
looking for, not the thread on the cloner but my main log, the link is in my
sig. it's called 'newbie cfl\hydro experiment'.

if you don't find what you need there, i'm sure we can find you what
you need

oh yeah, you're welcome man, i'm just freely giving back what was freely
given to me

__________________
bozo
peace, love, dope

'it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice'
Those that give up Liberty to have temporary Security deserve Neither......Benjamin Franklin.
be advised, these are the meanderings of a mad man, completely imaginary and should in no way be taken seriously, especially Leo
my imaginary garden
http://www.greenpassion.org/showthread.php?t=5525
http://www.greenpassion.org/f15/chea...-results-5593/
http://boards.cannabis.com/

s33ds209

yeah be careful with the CFLs.dont put them too close!! ive burnt many leaves thinking that they didnt produce enough heat to burn my babies but they DID!! damn!! id say go no closer then 2 1/2, maybe 3 inches all the way around the plant.just to be safe!

CoNtRoVeRsIaL

Great lighting advice and pics helped alot!thanks