So confused

Everyone is always saying for CFLs you need blue and red light.. well i just wnat to clarify which those are,

.. Please clarfiy the difference between soft white, daylight, and bright white and which is red and blue, sorry if the answer is out there, but i got tired of looking and just wanted to get it answered so i make sure i got the right light for my plants before its to late.. :D thanks guys.

I am using right now 8400lumens of soft white
1300 lumens of daylight
and 2000 lumens of bright white....

the more lumens you have the better the plant will grow, remember you are trying to emulate the sun outside

for veg/growing stage you need the blue looking light with a kelvin range of about 5000-6500
for flower/budding stage you need the reddish/orangish looking light with a kelvin range of about 2700-3100

you can usually find the kelvin rating on the back of the box near the lumens rating

Read the first sticky in this section.

Remember that the output of light is not added together, So don't add the lumen together.

Say you have 4 2100Lumen CFL's .. The distribution would cover more area but you would only ever have 2100 luminous output..

Ya dig?

2100lumen + 2100lumen doesn't = 4200lumen. It only means you have better distribution of 2100lumen.

Cheers,
Bob.:stoned:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobBong

Remember that the output of light is not added together, So don't add the lumen together.

Say you have 4 2100Lumen CFL's .. The distribution would cover more area but you would only ever have 2100 luminous output..

Ya dig?

2100lumen + 2100lumen doesn't = 4200lumen. It only means you have better distribution of 2100lumen.

Cheers,
Bob.:stoned:

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Depending on how it's done there will be some overlap between bulbs.

For example take this picture of my herb garden I started. You can see on the right there are 2 power strips with lights facing sideways toward each other. Now ignore the fact that I haven't made a hood. Taking this situation as plainly as you see it shows you can see there is going to be overlap between bulbs.

Light simply doesn't stop when it meets another instance of light.

So while if you had 2 2100lumen lights side by side it probably wouldn't make 4200 lumens, but I think it's safe to say it would make at least 3k-3500 lumens; if set up similarly to my cfl's on the right that is.

So I agree and disagree with you. Yes it's better distribution of light and you aren't doubling up your lumen output with each additional light, but at the same time you aren't simply outputting 2100 lumens as stated in your example?

I hope that made sense. I'm a little stoned myself. lol :jointsmile:

edit: If anyone is interested.

The 4 pots off to the right but in front are basil.
The 2 pots behind those are Cilantro
The pot kind of in the middle front is Rosemary (it broke soil you just can't see it in the pic).

The clear container are dwarf okra soaking before I stick them in a paper towel to germinate.

The 2 paper bowls on top of each other have the following germinating in paper towels inside ziplock bags:

Tiny Tim Tomato seeds
Hot Banana Peppers (wax Peppers)
Cilantro
Rosemary (rosemary is a pain to germinate. Started 30 seeds and only got 1 sprout).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by texas grass

for veg/growing stage you need the blue looking light with a kelvin range of about 5000-6500
for flower/budding stage you need the reddish/orangish looking light with a kelvin range of about 2700-3100

you can usually find the kelvin rating on the back of the box near the lumens rating

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Okay thanks for all the info guys, basically i got the wrong lights up right now, i guess i read some info wrong when setting up my lights, guess thats what ya get when you do the research high ,THe blue box, or "daylight" color is the one ranging in 5000-6500k. (or the one i want for veg) The soft white, or 1 of the red lights is about 2700k. The other, bright white, is about 3100k .. So basically i need to go out and buy a bunch of "daylight" or bluish light lol.... thanks again for clearing this out for me before i fucked my shit up... also do my plants look like there leaves are droopy?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by h3llrazor

Okay thanks for all the info guys, basically i got the wrong lights up right now, i guess i read some info wrong when setting up my lights, guess thats what ya get when you do the research high ,THe blue box, or "daylight" color is the one ranging in 5000-6500k. (or the one i want for veg) The soft white, or 1 of the red lights is about 2700k. The other, bright white, is about 3100k .. So basically i need to go out and buy a bunch of "daylight" or bluish light lol.... thanks again for clearing this out for me before i fucked my shit up... also do my plants look like there leaves are droopy?

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yep. They do look a bit droopy. Also your soil looks pretty dry. Underwatering will cause the same type of droop as over watering.

If you haven't watered them in a day or so you may want to do that now.

Seedlings like moist soil, but not wet soil. Keep it fairly moist but not saturated or anywhere near it.

Don't let the soil dry out for too long either. Once the plants are bigger you can go to a normal watering schedule.

would it also cause that because i'm using the redish lights, or the ones for flowering? cause i need to go get the right ones..

you can actually grow with those lights from start to finish and you would get some yield out of it. The lights aren't causing the droop. It's something else and to me at a first glance the soil looks really dry.

Give them some Water ph'd between 6.3-6.8 if that is a soil grow.

bluish lights are great for creating compact vegetative growth. Red lights I believe make plants stretch slightly and is ideal for flowering.

but either light can actually be used for either stage of growth. It's just one is more ideal than the other.

Hope that made sense.. still stoned. LOL

Ya, i'm pretty much on the same page now... and also, i went to try to buy some blue cfls... but the highest wattage i found at home depot was like 23 watts/ 1300 lumens... where can i get more wattage lights?