fluros, which bulb is better?

[Miroku12]

i understand about cfls, and hps/mh bulbs being better, but i'm going down the cheap route to headsmoke.
right now i'm growing 3 plants, just for future personal use ideally. they're only a week in, so still veg.
i have them in a very small white closet with 2 4ft fluros above, and just for giggles a "spot-gro" bulb hanging above that, sending off a bit of bluish light to add to the fun.
i found a mass of bulbs out in my fathers workshop i can use, but i'm not sure what the best combinations are.

here's what i have available for use (all 40watt 4ft):

2 plant/aquarium wide spectrums
about 8 residentials
2 "home and bath" (i'm told is a little better during flowering stages, as it's more orange)
1 cool white

currently i have 1 wide spectrum and 1 residential combined, but i wasn't sure if it would be better to switch to the cool white, or if it doesn't really make much of a difference.
any thoughts?

Miroku12 Reviewed by Miroku12 on 11-17-2009. fluros, which bulb is better? i understand about cfls, and hps/mh bulbs being better, but i'm going down the cheap route to headsmoke. right now i'm growing 3 plants, just for future personal use ideally. they're only a week in, so still veg. i have them in a very small white closet with 2 4ft fluros above, and just for giggles a "spot-gro" bulb hanging above that, sending off a bit of bluish light to add to the fun. i found a mass of bulbs out in my fathers workshop i can use, but i'm not sure what the best combinations Rating: 5

[Miroku12]

whoops, meant KITCHEN and bath. my b.

[DreadedHermie]

4' fluoros work great for veg, if you have enough of them.

There should be some "make and model" type coding on the tubes. Google that info and see if you can't get the manufacturer's specs on the bulb to learn the actual color temp and/or spectral distribution.

"Blue" looking bulbs will work better for veg. 6400K seems to be "standard," but I've had good results with 5500K, as well as mixtures.

You can't really go by designations like "Kitchen and Bath" or "Brothel and Boudoir." (Or "residential" ) Go by the kelvin rating, which is the color.

As long as you don't have too high a percentage of "reddish" tubes (causes spindlier plants) it's hard to go too far wrong. Mostly 6400K is gonna be the popular answer here, though. Grows a nice stocky little bush, if there's enough light.

[Miroku12]

alright, thanks that does help.. i think, provided i just found the right specs.
i found the GE site that has the color temps, but all the product codes are slightly different than what i see listed on the bulbs (ex. my cool white is just called F40CW whereas the closest on the site is F40CW/ECO/CVG), so i'm still a little skeptical.

this is the spec site:
89714 - Lighting System Specifications - GE Commercial Lighting Products

and these are the printing on the bulbs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ku12/bulbs.jpg

:wtf:

oh and probably a dumb question but:
are the colors one sees emitted by the bulb the color the plant absorbs, i.e if you have a red bulb is it gonna send out more red wavelengths?
for instance wide spectrum is purple-ish, so does it send a lot of red/blue?
kitchen/bath is orange, and the residential/cool white are about the same

[DreadedHermie]

Yes, those are correct. They've added some suffixes to be politically correct.

ECO = Ecolux. Their own designation. Less mercury, probably better efficiency, too.
CVR = shatterproof (CoVeR). Filters UV, too.

F40KB = 3000K Best for flower, but not powerful enough to do a good job flowering cannabis. These can cause stretching in veg if there's not enough blue to offset them.

F40CW = 4100K These are the best tubes you have for veg. Probably work fine. If in doubt just buy some F40D's @ 6500K. (probably stands for "daylight." But why that's bluer than "cool white" is beyond me --that's why I go by the color temps)

Those plant/aquarium bulbs are for looking at a plant under, not growing (unfortunately). They're 3100K, which'd be okay for flower, but they only have half the lumen output of the KB's. Flowers look real purty under them, tho'... :wtf:

oh and probably a dumb question but:

Nope, not dumb, and not a simple answer.

Conventional light sources emit combinations of different wavelengths.

To learn what they are, seek out the "Spectral Distribution graph" for each.

Ignore the "color rendering index" (CRI) that's just how "natural" the light supposedly looks to our eyes, compared to sunlight. Whose eyes, and what time of day in what part of the planet they're talking about is a mystery to me, however. :what:

Our eyes are most sensitive in the green / yellow wavelengths. Plants reject (reflect) those wavelengths, to a large degree, and that's why they appear green to our eyes.

HTH, Hermie

[Miroku12]

many thanks to you :thumbsup:

i noticed that the plant one was low on that list, which surprised me, as it claims on the box to be "rich in reds and blues", and i've read online of people using them in combination with residentials and having good effects. i guess ill stick to the cool whites for now though.

[DreadedHermie]

I would lose the "spot-grow light" and cram as many 6400K lights in there as space and heat allow. They're like $3 a tube.

I've compared those expensive "Grow-and-show" tubes side-by-side with ugly-ass 6400K workshop-blue fluoros, and for growing pot, the "plant" tubes suck. (That's why nobody serious uses them...) Check the data sheets; compare lumen output. All will become clear.

Those "plant" tubes are for keeping the low-light decoratives at the mall looking good, and not growing large and thus requiring maintenance, transplanting, frequent watering, etc., etc.

Indoor cannabis growing has different requirements. Keeping a plant attractive, while in a state of suspended animation, is not among them.

[Miroku12]

very good i will give this a try.
mind you i'm not expecting the dankest of the dank or anything, just decent tree to keep me satisfied so i won't have to spend tons of cash all the time. we get some pretty good buds up here, but due to our area and the 5-0 bustin growers, there will be times of drought more often than i would like, and being unemployed currently doesn't help much as you can imagine :stoned: