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Grow light

Sanarda

Sanarda

Why do most people use the CFL or the long fluorescent lights instead of a grow light like this one?

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CFLS are very cost effective! In other words they save you $$$. The tubes such as T8,T5 have a higher lumen output and cover a bigger sq ft area
 
Ok Thanks!! Got it! I started to buy this one because the Home Depot idiot told me what I was looking at wasn't a plant light and fkin confused me. ugh
 
Absolutely! "Happy wife equals a happy life"! My hubby just rolls with it now, no reason to question anything I "need" (want), I will always find a good excuse to get it! hahaha
 
About the best ones at HD instore are probably gonna be the 100w "equivalent" Daylight spectrum bulbs. At least those are the biggest I've seen. Really only comes out to 24 real watts or something. But one lights up my entire deck and backyard with a round pool table type hood. I have another hood too, think I may slap a 200x cfl (works out around 42 real watts I think) in there for some over wintering. Easy "almost free" grow lamp. T5 FTW though! Indeed...mmmm
 
My HD carries these 300watt equivalent CFL's, I will consider myself lucky then! :) I call them monster CFL's, ridiculously bright when attached to a metal hood! I love them, and seriously would have never bought a T5. My brother was just nice enough to give me one he doesn't use, score!
 
Just google T5 Grow light, lots of good deals on eBay, maybe even amazon. FTW = for the win :)

Amazon has both the 200watt equivalent and 300 watt equivalent cfl's. You can shop around there and read reviews, amazon is my go to source.
 
why do a bunch of numbers over 5 confuse me... smh.. I am a word girl spell it out

ok so how many are you growing under those saw. I dont think I need that much unless it doesnt matter whether you have one or have 20
 
From any light source the spectrum and Lumens is what matters.

For K it's between 5000-6500 in general.

I see people use as low as 3500K but it didn't work well for me.

My idea is to use as many lumens as possible in as many wave lengths as I can get in plant usable wave lengths.
I never used only 5000k,5500K,6000K or 6500k lights only.
I mix them up and get great growth with my starts and plants I'm growing just for a few isolated pods for seed.

T10 and T12's worked best for me.T 10's were the best for Lumen and K as far as selection went.

T8's put out too much heat and don't or didn't come in the K or Lumens I like to use-worked best for me.

Bigger,mature plants wouldn't get enough light from just a couple fluoros.

My shelves are 18in. X 48in. X 20 in.
6 , 4ft fluoros worked fine per shelf.

Lumens of the wrong spectrum does you no good.

Bright isn't always better.
I play with LEDs now.430nm - 475nm blue and 615nm to 680nm red.
The more Lumens and wave lengths in plant usable colour ranges the better most of the time.
The idea is to replicate as many wave lengths as you can of what the sun puts out ,that is plant usable ,in as many Lumens as you can without taking your electric meter for a giant,expensive spin.
 
OHHH I think I am understanding.. the sun apparently has 96 units (color spectrums??) in its energy or light source. and plants use approximately 25 % of this energy in the red blue. most of our artificial lights are in this area of green yellow so our lights don't need to be extra... because most of what they emit is being used??? am I right.. with the right type of light that iswhat I mean is that we need to use them longer than the sun shines but not to the extent that we light up a block like the sun

That Link was priceless. easy to understand and right in perspective!! Thanks Smoke!!! I was gonna do some other shit for my overwinter and seedlings.. you saved me a mint.... Priceless
 
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