CFLs 27w 5500k or 42w 3500k?

[Dr.Hashman]

[edit] messed up on the title, should say "How important is spectrum for CFLs?"

I am going to be growing 4 lowryders under fluorescents the whole way and I am wondering how important color temperature (spectrum) is.

I can go to home depot and buy 4 42w cfls that have 2600 lumens each and 3500k color temp for $40 or I can go online and buy 4 42w cfls that have 2600 lumens and 5000k or 6500k color temp for $55-70. Is it worth the extra money to get full spectrum lighting since I am using the bulbs from start to finish?

Does anyone have any alternatives? (heat is a big issue, no HPS or MH)

[Dr.Hashman]

I found out some answers.

Warm bulbs are around 3500k and below, cool bulbs are around 4500K+.

Warm bulbs have more red light (flowering) and cool bulbs have more blue light (vegatative). So I am going to use 5 warm 42w CFLs which put out 2600 lumens each. 13,000 lumens is going to be enough to keep my small lowryders healthy, and my grow space is 5.75 square feet. 2260 lumens per foot is low, but then again, it is my first grow and I am on a budget with money and heat. I hope this solves some questions for other people too.

[exhashsmoker]

I was gonna use a bunch of small cfls but I didnt have a clue about the wiring and didnt wanna have seperate plugs for 6 lights..not practicle

I found a shop that sells 125w CFL grow lights with connections and all for 40 each and they are like 8000+ lumens each so im gonna buy two. The guy in the store advised me to buy two red spectrum rather than one blue and one red, He said I would get a bigger yield this way is that right?

[Dr.Hashman]

I would think so because blue spectrum is used for vegging, and red is used for flowering. You can easily go from seed to bud with a HPS (red), but it is difficult to go from seed to bud with a MH (blue).

I would go with 2 red over 1 red 1 blue. Right now I am using 4 23w CFLs that are around 5500k (blue, 2000 lumens), and then I am using 2 14w CFLS that are 3500k (red, 900 lumens each). I have seedlings and they are about 3" tall right now.

[ballastman]

You will find with a few exceptions the warm or soft white are 3000K the cool whites are 4100K and daylight are 6500K.Some manufacturers tweak these a bit but its pretty accurate