All 6500K CFL, or some 3000K for Veg?

I have about nine thousand lumens of cfl on three plants. They are young. I have 5 26 watt 6500K Daylight cfls and one 2700k 42 watt cfl I have another 6500k daylight bulb I am not using, should I take the 2700k 42 watt out and put the 26 watt daylight in? That would give me all 6 bulbs of daylight type. Am I wasting the 42 watts of power using that 2700k while they are in Veg? I hate the thought of that 42 watts being a waste of money, when I could give the plants an extra 26 watts of Daylight bulb. It would cost less, and the daylight would give off less heat as well, since it's only 26 watts.

Thanks

i wood ceep it the way it is. i have 2 or 3 2700k in veging

Actually, I like the fact you responded, but this really doesn't answer my question. All this does is tell me that we both might be making a mistake. here is the question reduced, because there has to be a proper answer.


The question is: Will a plant in veg get more light it can use from a 26 watt 6500k daylight cfl than it could from a 42 watt 2700k warm color cfl?

the 6500k cfl would be the best for veg the 2700k better for flowering

Use all 6500k for vegging and 3000k and lower. the lower the better for flowering cause 3000 -5000 is around the white light zone kinda in the middle. 6500k ideal for vegging lots of blue lighting. and 3000k -2500k is red lighting ideal for flowering. CFL god

Its good to have a few 2700k in there as plants still do need some red spectrum in vegging just not as much.

Guitarantula said:

I have about nine thousand lumens of cfl on three plants. They are young. I have 5 26 watt 6500K Daylight cfls and one 2700k 42 watt cfl I have another 6500k daylight bulb I am not using, should I take the 2700k 42 watt out and put the 26 watt daylight in? That would give me all 6 bulbs of daylight type. Am I wasting the 42 watts of power using that 2700k while they are in Veg? I hate the thought of that 42 watts being a waste of money, when I could give the plants an extra 26 watts of Daylight bulb. It would cost less, and the daylight would give off less heat as well, since it's only 26 watts.

Thanks

Click to expand...

for vegging you should only use 5500-6500K bulbs, since you veg with cfls you should only use 6500K.

those 2700K are for flowering suited but not for veg.

Use that color chart to your avatanage, remember veg u need lots of blue and flowering you need lots of red. so for CFL red spectrum u want the Kalvins to be the lowest number and for CFL blue psectrum u want the Kalvins to be the highest number (6500k for veg, 3000 - 2500K for flower)

Hey all

I recently did some research, consulted my botany texts, and found out about 'weins' law.

Check it out:


"there IS a relationship between a colour temperature and the peak wavelength in its spectrum. It's called Wien's law.

Wavelength (nanometers) = 3,000,000 / Col temp (Kelvin).

So at 4,500K, the peak wavelength is 666nm (red) at 6,000K the peak wavelength is 500nm (bluish green) and at 7,500K the peak wavelength is 400nm (deep blue)"



Ok, given 'weins law', and knowing the wavelengths that chlorophyll A and B function at, we can figure out the best color bulb to use

Chlorophyll A: absorption peaks at ~440 nanometers (blue) and ~660 (red)
440 nanometers = 3,000,000 / 6,818K
660 nanometers = 3,000,000 / 4,545K

Chlorophyll B: absortion peaks at ~470 nanometers (blue) and ~640 (red)
470 nanometers = 3,000,000 / 6,382K
640 nanometers = 3,000,000 / 4,687K



Now...I have supplied us with the most useful kelvin values for chlorophyll A and B, but as for what is needed in vegging vs flower I cannot yet attest to. I've always heard blue for veg red for flower, and it seems to work for everyone, so I dont doubt it.

The only place i'm seeing a departure from popular wisdom is the kelvin values for the red, flowering light. 2700 is way off from the red absorption peak, the best value we can look for is ~4,600K (or so these numbers are telling me).

I'm planning on 4 or 5 105watt CFL's @ 6500K for veg, then switch them all to 105watt CFL's @ 4100 (or possibly 5000K, i'm still deciding) for flowering.

Just get a 200 watter cfl like mine HPIM0809.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting instead of having 10 twerly lamps hanging around the damn place. Produces 10,000 lumens output of 600 watts and 5000k mogule base

I just bouht 4 2700K bulbs for my seedlings, did I buy the wrong ones?

lol they are stretching like a motherfucker.

You bought the correct ones for flowering. Buy the 5500-6500K ones for Vegging

okay, here's a thought. cfl's that are closer to daylight temperatures (6000k, 6500k, etc.) tend to emit a white light. cfl's that are closer to 'autumn' (2500k/3000k, etc...) will emit a mostly red/yellow light.

now, remember that our daylight cfl's -do- emit red light, however since they're balanced by a more pronounced blue spectrum, the color of the light appears bright white. so, 'blue' or daylight cfl's are excellent to use during the veg cycle. since they also emit light thats red (or else it wouldnt appear as white light at all -- photoshop the red out of some pictures and see how that affects it), you can also use them for the flower cycle (however read my note below on color/watt disparity and efficiency)

there has been some discussion as to if and how UV light affects resin production, and ultra-violet light is well, far blue light. so if you wanted to do some 'experimentation', the daylight cfl's will definitely be more effective.

however, think about it this way. if you have a cfl that's say, 23 watts (standard 100watt incandescent equivalent), and its a daylight cfl, meaning a kelvin rating of 6500k or so, then that 23 watts is being distributed (not necessarily even uniformly distributed) across different spectrums of light, red and blue and in between. a 2500k cfl pulling 23 watts is going to be putting all of that energy into mostly red light. therefor, there might be some difference as to how much red light is produced by a daylight cfl versus how much red light is produced by a blue cfl. and these will vary between manufacturers too. i wonder if that is even a valid premise for investigation, as i'm not 100% sure of the science behind how cfl's distribute color and color/watt efficiency.

Grow4tho187 said:

Just get a 200 watter cfl like mine HPIM0809.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting instead of having 10 twerly lamps hanging around the damn place. Produces 10,000 lumens output of 600 watts and 5000k mogule base

Click to expand...

(question, is that cfl 5000k or 6500k? -- i know that 5000k is considered 'full spectrum, but 6500k is just a more broad spectrum, and blue light is very active on photosynthesis)

one light is definitely more easy to manage than multiple lights, however if your 200 watt cfl breaks or (through a variety of means) become damaged and ceases to work, then you're out $60, and that's a decent price i quoted from 1000bulbs.com. that's even the discounted price i gave you. they sell singles for $73. these are 5000k bulbs too. 'full spectrum', but not 6500k 'daylight'

in addition to that, if you have a single lamp and it defects (which isnt uncommon, especially considering lower-priced 200watt cfls.), then you have NO light at all.

consider this.
one 200watt cfl (600w incandescent equivalent) will give you 10,000 lumens, and will cost you $60 (wayyyy low-ball price, i'm being excruciatingly generous in that variable). it's a single light source so if it fails you either have to replace it, or give it windowlight or take the girl outside.

seven 30 watt cfls add up to 210 watts.
each 30watt bulb bulb produces 2000 lumens, and that times seven is 14,000 lumens. that's 4,000 more lumens that you'll get. so i kind of cheated by using seven lights -- lets use six.
six 30 watt cfl's will consume only 180 watts and yield 12,000 lumens. that's still 2,000 more lumens that the single 200 watt cfl.

also, the cost of six 30watt bulbs, when bought from 1000bulbs.com (they give discounts if you buy 6 or more lights), the total comes to $22.74.

so, a single 200watt cfl outputs 10,000 lumens for anywhere from $60-80.

and...

six 30 watt cfl's output 12,000 lumens for around $25-30. and have the benefit that if one light goes out, you'll still have multiple lights on your plant/s, and it will cost under $5 to replace it (unless you just buy a single replacement online, then tax and shipping will get you to double that. stock up. buy 10 bulbs = $37.90)

so, that's difference between single and multiple bulbs, which might help some of you out. i say scrap the high wattage cfl's... but then again i'm quite frugal. that and i believe the benefits outweigh the cons, unless you haven't set up your lighting assembly properly and it becomes a pain in the ass to adjust them (because you want them within inches).

one way to avoid that is to just think of a smart plan. proper planning prevents piss poor performance. that's something to keep in mind.

with more bulbs you could also disrtribute the light over more area, or hang them each differently to surround the plant(s) with light.

should the cfls for flowering be daylight or soft white

soft white for flowering
daylight for vegging

You forgot to caculate how many prongs with cords you will need to buy to plug your 7 cfl's in...You may need to buy another power surge etc.. plus whatever to dangle them..

Flowering plants need 10,000 fc, veg 2500,clones & seedlings 375 foot candles per square foot. You cannot flower properly without the sun, hid or a hell of a cfl. As far as spectrum, when the earth tilts on its axis the sunlight goes through more layers of atmosphere to get here, ergo more red in the fall with very little blue. And in the summer the blue comes through strong and still some reds. So when the plat sees red, its time to (flower, bud)seed and die.