Cool White or Warm Flourescents?

[SeedKing72]

I have a closet that is around 5.5 * 2, I have a 400WATT switchable MH/HPS, I also have in there 5 4 foot 2*40Watt Flourescents(Another 400 Watts), I bought these originally, and then decided I want MH for VEG and HPS for Flowering.. I went to the harware store and the cool whites are cheaper, all the sites I read say get cool white, some say mix with warm.. I am just wondering what is best for VEG and what is best for Flowering,,, if you had to choose one, whiich one would it be...?I would think it would be best to have the best for flowering. Now I will go do a search. and find the answer... Does one have more lumens, is that what I want? MORE IS BETTER right?

[Marc Benson]

I believe, from everything I've read, that you need a specific spectrum for the best growth no matter what bulb you decide to use and of course dependent on what stage of growth you're at.

History has suggested that cool whites are the best for vegging, but there are a lot of people these days that are combining different spectrums with awesome results. Most of this though is done while in flowering with them suggesting that the added spectrums normally used for veg helps the secondary growth shoots (and all plant matter) continue to grow and get more robust during flowering.

But if I had to make a choice, I'd probably go with half warms and half cools. Put one warm and one cool in each fixture. That of course being if you have an MH and an HPS bulb to use throughout this process, them giving you the majority of the correct spectrum/light you require. The fluoros just helping out and adding that cool white to the flowering stage. The warm in veg isn't going to make much of a difference as the plant is looking for a different spectrum to grow massive amounts of plant matter.

[HARDDON]

Warm, hot, cold......

You can run all the cold bright white you want during flower cycle. There is little doubt as to what MB refers to with coold white being beneficial to flower stage as it does keep the greenery on the plants.

BUT...the plants still needs predominately warm or red waves for flower.

So, whatever amount you use in blue or cool watts, just make sure your red, warm or HPS light is sufficient to create a 2:1 WARM TO COOL ratio :)

[SeedKing72]

Cool, I think I will just mix to be safe... The Flors are really just an added bonus, they were my original lights.. and everyone kept telling me dont waste your time with flors ( I still hear wonderful things about flors though) and get a HPS, which I did and then the guy who sold me the HPS, said you have to have MH also and he sold me a converter bulb... Now I want to AUGMENT that with the 5 flors I originally bought.. Thanks for the advice, we should write a book called MJ for dummies on a budget.. I gurantee it will sale..sell it for $19.95 100 pages +, I would have bought it!

[Zandor]

The CFL are good just use warm bulbs the (2700k) are best for general growth and flowering. Cool bulbs (6500k) are best for seedling, cloning and vegetative growth.
There is a difference.