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Light question

I bought a duel flourescent light at canadian tire..They had plant/aquarium flourescents there to promote growth with plants and aquarium plants etc.I bought 2 of thouse flourescent bulbs to fit my new light.....any one familliar could tell me if these flourescent bulbs are any good??
 
After the brain overload from the other thread about lighting, I think you need to ask the light's manufacturer how many PAR photons does it provide per square foot. :idea:

Seriously, and to me at least, easier to understand, the amount of PAR watts a light provides is very important (that's generally the red and blue spectrum). But a plant needs some white light also, just not as much.

I'm leaning toward the theory of using two 2700K fluorescent lights for every one 6500K one. In my opinion, and I have a lot more research to do and then understand, but a CFL light is going to provide more growing strength per penny of energy cost than any other light. Or, another school of thought is one can use the 6500K lights and line the room with red plastic that will reflect the red light back to the plant.

Another school of thought is to use the Bright White lights for germination and early growing, then switch to the Cool White when it is time for the plant to flower and produce fruit.

I'll let you know - I'm hoping to have my first fruit from band new plants by the time Santa arrives. I may even leave him a couple. I can just see Rudolph's nose if he bites into a Jolokia!
 
Plant/aquarium flourescents are good and will work fine.
Using cool white would give you the same results but less expensive.
If you see the peppers need more light, just add some more and try to find some cool white to save a few $$.

If you don't care about spending a few extra $$ you can use the Grow Lux.
They won't work any better but they have a nice pink color.
 
well guess I spent the money for the pretty pink for my temporary lighting system...I bought them before I posted but for my room I know know better and thx
 
I found a place that sells Philips GreenPower HPS 600w lights for really cheap, also some Gavita IR 600w for reasonable price.
The question is, do I really need 90,000 Lumens?
If I buy this one light, I will be using it alone (no dual set or something like that), just that single light for all the plants.
 
Canuk, If all you are going to use the lights for are to get the plants to keep growing until you can put them outside get the cheapest bulbs you can they will work fine. I put mine as close as I possibly can to the plants even touching the bulbs most of the time.




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Dale
 
You can get a 150 watt high pressure sodium security flood light pretty cheap at www.elights.com. Like $40. You would have to take it apart and build a reflector, then it would cover a 2x2' area no problem.
 
Someone told me that Metal Halide are great for young seedlings, is that correct?
If so, should I use a Metal Halide light for the green stage, and HPS for fruits?
If also so, is 150W enough for a tray of young seedlings?
 
I don't know much about lights, but I do know that the 55 or so seedlings I have under x2 18watt Grolux lights have grown between 3 and 8 cms since first sowing in 5 weeks. I'm pretty happy with that!
 
hey thepodpiper, how old are the largest seedlings in your pic? are they just plain fluoros you are using? what wattage are you running? do you continue to grow them indoors or do you plant out?

great set up you've got there!!!
 
My set-up is very similar to thepodpiper's, and I use regular shop lights that come from big box stores. That works fine for all the flowers, herbs, tomatoes, as well as the peppers.
 
chilliman64, I believe the plants in the upper left hand side in the bottom pic are about 6 or 7 weeks. I planted around 10 plants much earlier than the rest of the plants because I could not wait any longer. I am using the cheapest 40 watt bulbs that I can find it doesnt matter to me what type of bulb they are as long as they are the cheapest all I am doing is getting a head start to put them outside. the pic below shows the size of the plants that I put out, the cheap bulbs do a pretty good job

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