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lighting [ARTICLE] Light 101

I am looking at making a bigger grow box this year and plan on using shoplights. The only holder they have will hold 32 watt lights and the lights they have are T8s. Would this be ok to have over the plants for just a 2-3 month period?
 
http://www.totalgrowlight.com/technology.html
 
Bad wording on the original post. No, I doubt it's the wave of the future, or will wipe out HID (also decades old...). The key word was "interesting".
 
How different this exchange would have went if you weren't a pissant troll.
 
And you still wonder why someone wouldn't talk to you in chat.....
 
I had asked for opinions on using actinic fluorescent lamps in a previous post in this thread, but received no response.
 
Doing a little searching on the InterWebz, I found a thread on another (canna) forum where one grower said they had very good vegetative growth results using actinics.
 
So, I bought two and put them in one of my six-lamp fixtures, along with four 6500K lamps, for my seedlings.
 
I have another six-lamp fixture with only 6500K lamps to compare with, although, if I notice better growth with the actinics, I will be getting more to replace the 6500k lamps.
 
These actinics have peak output around 420 nm, which I believe is the primary wavelength used by chloropyll a.
 
I will update in a month or so.
 
Wow exactly what I was looking for!!!!!! :) so glad you posted this new to growing indoors and this just answered my first question!!
Thank you Omri!! :)
Cheers
 
I've just read the entire thread and now have no idea whatsoever what form of lighting is currently best for
 
A/ starting seedlings
B/ growing plants indoors.
 
Is there a latest concensus? 

Since different countries may not have specific brand names and codes, if there any chance of a few pics to assist?
 
;)
 
"Best" is a very vague term...but I'd personally swear by LED lights and would not use anything else.
 
I started my growing hobby with two "blurple" MarsHydro "300W" lights, each was €95 shipped. These are affordable starter lights and while they're likely very "meh" for plants with very high light requirement (say: "medicinal plants") they may be well sufficient for hot peppers, vegetables etc. and especially for seedlings.
 
I however switched now to LED fixtures based on CREE CXB3590s, the 3500K color temperature LEDs which are currently used by many growers as allround lights, suitable for vegging AND flowering. For seedlings those are likely overkill. The CXB3590 LEDs are still unbeaten in terms of efficiency, especially when they're driven at low amperages. They output as much as 200lms/Watt. My entire greenhouse lighting (now 6x CREE CXB3590s) for my 4x4' provides about 390-ish PPFD (which is the ideal amount of light for hot peppers) and it draws only 230 Watts from the wall, this is less than what my two Marshydro lights draw.
 
I grew some other types of plants previously with the MarsHydros, and I always ran into problems with yellowing of leaves etc. but then this was when I was also growing organically in soil and was relatively inexperienced. In the meantime I not only switched to the CREE lights, but also to a "Hempy Bucket" hydro setup. (I grow in perlite/vermiculite). Whatever I grow now becomes MONSTROUS. Growth is incredibly fast and plants are very healthy. Sometimes they grow as much that I need to up my light a few cms every single day.
 
As for the "China lights", MarsHydro, GalaxyHydro etc... IN PRINCIPLE all those lights are the same. MarsHydro is probably one of the better China vendors.
 
For starting seedlings etc....even a simple low wattage CFL or T5 might do.
 
That sounds ideal, flexy123 - 
 
The one caveat I have to spending any real loot indoors, is that I live in a really hot part of the world, so will only use artificial lighting for the first 6-8 weeks of the pre-season, after which I will move everything outside... Would you still recommend these?

Oh, and I plan to start inside a converted refrigerator if that makes any difference?
 
Hey guys,
 
I was looking for some lights to start my seedlings. I went to the hardware/garden store but couldn't find any specific grow lamps. What I did find were T8 tubes and terrarium lights. The terrarium lights looked fantastic, but were kinda expensive. There were 100w and 28w full-spectrum terrarium lights, but they cost around 25, and with fixture 50 euros. Would this be worth buying?
 
I didn't have the money for it at the time so went with an (yes one, they were out of stock) 18w T8 tube, around 50 cm long. How many of these do I need to start up seedlings in a 30x50 cm tray?
 
 
Hello, I have a question about ratio between red and blue color temperatures when the plants are ready to flower indoors. Right now I have a 300w LED light with mostly red leds and some blue and a few white. It is supposed to cover the whole spectrum. Then I also have a 70w CFL with 5500 Kelvin (blue color temperature). Could the blue CFL interupt or hinder the plant from flowering or will the red in the LED light be enough to induce flowering?
/ Christian
 
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