CFL Grow Advice : easy ryder strain help.

[Purplera1n]

Hello everyone, this will be my first post to this forum!

I have ordered 3 easy ryder seeds. I am asking the question of how many cfl's bulbs will i need to have from seed to flower? (it has to be cfl's, dont ask why lol). I'm finding it so difficult to calculate this due to i've heard on a number of occaisions that easy ryder are different from 'origional weed strains' with the lighting, please correct me if i am wrong.

Help needed urgently!

[Purplera1n]

how many "soft white 26watt cfl's" for 3 plants?

[Weedguru Higher]

Welcome to the boards! Great to see all these new faces popping in!

To answer your questions..

Types: CFL's come in mainly two flavors, Soft White (color temperature 2700k) and Daylight (color temperature 6500k). For a complete grow, you should use both. Soft white mimics the spectrum of a HPS light, and is best suited for flowering. Daylight's color spectrum is like that of metal halide lights, and is excellent for the vegetative stage. (This applies to tubes too. Around 6500k for veg, around 2700k for flower.) There are also tubes labeled plant and aquarium. I haven't seen them in CFL form, but they have no real color temp, so I'm not sure on their efficiency, but I've used them and it's rather slow growth for the watts.

-There is a large difference in vegetative growth when going from soft white to daylight. Therefore I recommend you use daylight CFL's for vegging, even if you are flowering with a HPS light, because they do not stretch the plants. You don't need much light for good veg growth, especially when using 6500k CFL's. If power savings are a priority, 30w per plant can suffice to a decent size, but more is always better.

-Of course, use 2700k soft white for flowering. I have no results to back it up, but I like to use a single daylight bulb while flowering too, just to balance the spectrum. Whether it helps or not, it's more light nonetheless.

You can read more here

http://www.weedguru.com/forum/viewtopic ... 88&t=26831

[Weedguru Higher]

Easy Ryder is different from other strains because it is an autoflowering plant. Which means it will flower without turning the light cycle back to 12/12

This is an f1 cross between a Lowryder #2 and an automatic AK47 in which the two parents strongly exhibit their best genetic traits: high resin production, the fruity aroma (of a carefully selected Lowryder #2 phenotype), and the size and branching of the AK47 automatic. This poly-hybrid is fully autoflowering and matures in 70-75 days from germination, reaching optimal size if given enough light (intensity and time). The best conditions are 20 hours of light and 4 of dark during the entire cycle. Outdoors the best time is may-august, but it's easy to do multiple cycles per season, until November.

Genetics - Automatic AK47 x Lowryder #2
Variety - Ruderalis (autoflowering)
THC Content - Unknown
Flowering time - 6 weeks
Harvest month - 9 weeks from seed

[Purplera1n]

I read your topic higher, very useful! I just hope i read it well!

So for 3 plants... could i possibly use:

20w (not equivalent) cfl daylight spectrum x 2 for each plant. - for veg?

So my setup for veg would consist of 20w CFL daylight spectrum x 6 for 3 plants.

[Weedguru Higher]

I don't have much experience with CFL's really but it says this:

30w per plant can suffice to a decent size, but more is always better.

So that would mean for 3 plants you need a minimum of 90 watts of cfl

If your bulbs are 26 watt then you would want to have atleast 4 to give you the minimum 90 watts required (4 of those gives you 104 watts)

[Purplera1n]

Got ya! I have just researched another product that i thought looked more appealing in terms of cost and etc.

42 Watt - CFL - 150 W Equal - 6500K Full Spectrum Daylight - Min. Start Temp. -20 Deg. F - CRI 82 - 67 Lumens per Watt - 15 Month Warranty - TCP 28942-65



in theory, regarding your topic on CFL's... IF i understood correctly, I would ONLY NEED 3 of these bulbs to veg 3 plants? Due to a plant needs a minimum of 30w you said, these supply 42w a piece. So if i had 3 of these 42w it would ammount to 126w?

[Weedguru Higher]

Right on! Those would be better

A member here is currently growing a plant under CFL's forget how many and what wattage but the info is all there. Check it out

http://www.weedguru.com/forum/viewtopic ... 50&t=27776

[Weedguru Higher]

Wait a sec...you said you are growing an autoflowering strain right?

Well in that case, since an autoflower doesn't really have much veg time I think you would need Soft White bulbs (which are for flowering ) or maybe a combination of the 2, rather than daylight.

I'll check into what other auto strain cfl growers are using and get back to you on it

Edit: Auto flowering only veg for around 14-20 days...

Soft white mimics an HPS light which is better for flowering and Daylight mimcs a MH light which is better for vegging

So either you use the daylight bulbs during that short veg time and then switch them out for Soft White when it starts flowering. Or you use only Soft whites from the start (I use HPS lights and I use them all the way through the cycle) Or you can use Soft Whites from the start complimented by a Daylight Bulb

[Purplera1n]

Cool.

I am basically on a budget grow atm, want to start a grow journal.

I am in the UK, so UK based websites would be helpful lol

I want to only use CFL, due to money issues and etc. but want to achieve as much yield as i can!

p.s i would like to use a combination of daylight, warm. For veg and flowering. Since it's an autoflowering, and apparently 'easy to grow' in fast time... as a beginner i'm totally blasted away at the difficulty i am currently having at calculating exactly what i need cfl lighting wise.

If it were a 'normal', non autoflowering like i have just researched, my calculations would be much simpler i THINK.

[Weedguru Higher]

If you're on a budget then you could just stick with Soft White all the way through if you like

[Purplera1n]

Soft white eh? how much yield do you think i could grab off of that sort of setup? Would that limit the veg growth of the Easy Ryder? I'm looking for the best yield as possible with CFL's. What would you personally recommend lighting setup wise with CFL's for 3 Easy Ryder plants if you was going to do it and achieve a nice yield?

I'm no expert, but i like to ask questions, just so i can gather a better understanding so please don't feel like i'm trying to p** you off lol

[Purplera1n]

I've found a product which is in my country/area.

It is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watt-Screw-Full ... 95&sr=8-17

"45 Watt Screw Full Spectrum Daylight Bulb" - (Technical Details:
Convenient source of full spectrum light at any time
Colour Temperature equivalent to Noon daylight (6,000 Kelvin)
Full rainbow colour spectrum with accurate natural colours
High contrast improves visibility and reading comfort
Uses up to 75% less energy than standard bulbs)

Would this be suitable do you think, 3 of them for 3 plants (one for each plant).

I'm going to ask a total noob question now, concerning this bulb. Full spectrum, is that a 'purple color' (blue/red mixed), would that promote BOTH veg and flowering?

[Weedguru Higher]

Soft white eh? how much yield do you think i could grab off of that sort of setup? Would that limit the veg growth of the Easy Ryder? I'm looking for the best yield as possible with CFL's. What would you personally recommend lighting setup wise with CFL's for 3 Easy Ryder plants if you was going to do it and achieve a nice yield?

I'm no expert, but i like to ask questions, just so i can gather a better understanding so please don't feel like i'm trying to p** you off lol

Well, I said you could do soft white only cause you mentionned having a budget. Soft white gives off the same type of light as an HPS light. Many growers (including me )use HPS lights from start to finish,and never bother using MH (metal halide) for vegging with wonderful results. Lotsa folks don't have the budget to buy both lights as they are rather expensive. So the same could be done with these CFL's.

I don't know exactly how much using HPS or soft white only limits growth as I've never done a comparison. I know there is a difference though..how great it is, I haven't a clue. I just know that very satisfactory results can still be obtained from HPS only

Optimal light conditions would definately be Daylight (or MH) for vegging and Soft White (HPS) for flowering..that's a fact.

Seeing as CFL's aren't too costly and if you want the best lighting possible, you would want to get both spectrums of light bulbs even though the auto flowering strains don't veg for too long. If you plan on doing another regular strain grow, then you would have them already for that

If I was in your shoes I would get both kinds of bulbs

Yield is a hard thing to guess ahead of time. Lotsa factors play into the whole yield thing. Autoflowering strains have a limited yield though as they don't grow very tall..somewhere around 12 inches at maturity give or take a bit. EasyRyder might grow a bit taller than the other ones though cause it's Lowryder crossed with AK47 which is a sativa plant and they grow taller...don't quote me on that though, it's just a guess

The 45 watt bulb looks fine. You can buy those at any hardware store or whatever.

Daylight bulbs give out the red/blue spectrum and they are for the vegging stage, not flowering.

Hope that helps

[Weedguru Higher]

i've heard on a number of occaisions that easy ryder are different from 'origional weed strains' with the lighting, please correct me if i am wrong.

Getting back to this question..

Yes Easy Ryder (or any other autoflowering strains) are different than normal strains when it comes to lighting. They require the same 'kinds' of light as normal strains, but not the same light cycles. Normal strains need to be kept on a 18/6 or 24/0 lighting cycle during vegetation, and then when you want to have them flower you must adjust the light cycle to 12/12 (12 on, 12 off)

Autoflowering strains flower automatically without switching back the light cycle to 12/12. You don't use a 12/12 cycle at all on autoflowering strains. An 18/6 or 24/0 light cycle is needed for auto flowering from start to finish.

Here's some info on autoflowering strains...even if it mentions LowRyder, the same still applies to EasyRyder

http://www.weedguru.com/forum/viewtopic ... 26#p356826

http://www.weedguru.com/forum/viewtopic ... 68&t=27813

And don't forget you have that after you've got this light thing all sorted out, you then need to consider soil type, pot size, and nutrients for your grow. Get everything researched and prepared before you get your grow underway is my advice to you. Knowledge is the key to a successful and plentiful yield