Have I been vegging with 2700k spectrum CFLs?

I have never been able to find CFLs with the spectrum marked at Lowes, CVS, or walmart. Just recently I found the real light bulb section (nowhere near the lighting section where I always looked, it had its own aisle in the middle of nowhere, I don't even remember seeing the spectrum's labeled on those bulbs either... but anyways I have about a dozen CFLs, 1 40w, and the rest are mostly 26watts.

So far the plants have not been growing terribly well, slow growth being a huge problem, and lower leaves constantly dieing, I had to literally put CFLs all the way around the plant, inches away to get that to stop happening as much, theres 6 CFLs on my main plant thats about 8" tall.

Now all the lights pretty much look the same color, but I just got the 4ft T12, with 6500k bulbs, and that light is BLUE as hell, the complete opposite color light that the CFLs are putting out, I even compared the lights side by side, huge difference.

I don't know if a CFL in the 6500k spectrum would output light as blue as the t12 did though, or if theres even a visible difference with the CFLs.

but one thing is sure, the CFLs are outputting light that is not blue at all, more yellowish.

I also noticed with the floros the ones in the 6500k spectrum were more expensive, and as the spectrum went down there were cheaper... I saw 2700k 2 pack of 4ft floros for $4, the 6500k was $10 for 2... if that applies with the CFLs I definitely have 2700k because I always got the cheapest ones.

the other way to tell is they will be labeled Warm (2700k) and Cool (6500k)

None of the old CFLs I have were labeled, literally all they had was the wattage rating. I don't have a lot of the old packaging, so I can't recheck, but I remember clearly at the time that the packages didn't indicate it anywhere, didn't even say like soft light, cool light, didn't say anything like that... basically just said how many watts it was and that was it.

Do CFLs in the 2700k and 6500k spectrum's have any visible differences to the color of the light?

Brokenhope420 said:

Do CFLs in the 2700k and 6500k spectrum's have any visible differences to the color of the light?

Click to expand...

yessum, they do.. you can easily distinguish between them, 65s are bluish, 27s are yellowish..

i have four 6500K and three 2700K in my seedling hotel.. the 6500 are obviously higher in blue spectra, but the 2700s were like 5 for twelve bucks, and i bought them without even considering the spectral output.. they're still good for photosynthesis, but the 6500s are much better for vegging..

Yeah I think that is why I have been having so much trouble... I am definitely going to buy some 6500k CFLs, I can't believe I actually got somewhat decent growth with the 2700k's, I mean besides the fact all my month old plants died but 1 which is growing excellent, and all my 3 1/2 week ones are extremely small.

u can veg. a plant with 40w cfl

picstures of your set up would be nice id like to check them out seeing what i can do to make mine better