Quote Originally Posted by Opie Yutts
CFL's are wonderful, and according to the numbers they're just slightly less efficient than HID. I've seen many wonderful grows that used only fluorescent light. You just have to remember the correct colors for the stages of growth, and preferably have a mix. Plants like a spectrum. Sorry Zcomp. We usually see eye to eye, but I got to disagree about the green light thing. I realize I'm in the minority here, and I used to believe as you, but I've done a lot of reading lately about actual plant physiology rather than what stoners are saying. There is a reason for every color of the visible and invisible spectrum. Not all 16 billion or whatever, but they all work together like individuals in an ant farm or bee hive. Get rid of the ants that carry out a certain function, and the whole colony dies or at least suffers some. Green light has more uses than to bounce off plants.
I'm not disregarding you but, Could you point me in the direction of the info you speak of? I thought I was pretty thorough in researching exactly what my girls need. I say "My girls" because MJ is a diff. plant than most. Alot of info on plant physiology sounds great until I hit the end of the article to find that this info is based on say.. tomato's or lettuce. I've been forced to weed through this info and only accept the info that corresponds to MJ.
For instance, Tomatoes reflect red, Which means that green must be absorbed (and used) by the fruit. Whereas MJ is green in every corner. Since our beloved is illegal, We tend to be very short on studies.
And about the HPS, you know me, I had that huge CFL fixture worth 246W of CFL power. I replaced that with 2 150W HPS and watched the same exact room cool down an average of 10 degrees. Also look at dutchpimps pics. Imagine(or go find the chart) the CFL spectrum includes 3 sharp spikes in the 3 color zones. Not any good in PAR terms(which is the only term a horticulturist cares for), There is a term for the natural curve in light spectrum that "spark-type" bulbs emit. I will try to find the CFL spectrum pic I had on my Comp before the clean install.