full spectrum cfl?

macten

Active Member
I ran into some 100w (actual 23w i think) slyvania full spectrum cfls. I'm wondering if they will work well seeing that they provide a full spectrum. Or should I just stick to separate warm and daylight bulbs?
 

jmiller786

Active Member
I'm on my first CFL grow now. I use the daylight bulbs in conjunction with the 2700K bulbs. They're good for the vegging stage, but when you start to flower you'll want to limit those bulbs because they cause the plant to keep growing taller instead of growing buds. I had 4 42W 2700k bulbs with one daylight bulb in there too. Some people say you should have one daylight/full spectrum bulb for every three 2700K bulbs. I'm still learning but this is what I have gathered so far. I'm flowering now with that combo.
 

T.H.Cammo

Well-Known Member
Stick to 6,500 K (daylight) for vegging and 2,700 K (soft-white or warm-white) for flowering. Full spectrum bulbs waste too much of thier energy putting out "lumins for humans" instead of good PAR light for plants!!!

Our (human) eyes are more sensitive in the Green and Yellow bands of the color spectrum - so naturally, Green and Yellow light registers really high on a "Lumin Meter". The problem is that Green and Yellow light is just about as useless as tits on a Nun - as far as photosynthesis is concerned.


On the other hand - Blue and Red light produce a more modest amount of lumins, but the plants eat up Blue and Red light - Big Time!!!

The point is - don't waste your money on CFL's that look brighter; spend your money wisely on CFL's that produce more photosynthetically active radiation(PAR light). Good luck!

Like jmiller said - you can run one 2,700 K (warm) to every three 6,500 K (daylight) CFL's for veg, then switch to one 6,500 K to every three 2,700 K for flowering. All the research I've done shows that this is beneficial.
 
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