6500 or 4100???

[TryComb]

Right now my veg chamber has four 24 in. 20w daylight bulbs (6500). Would it be better to change them to the cool white (4100). I picked up 2 today and was thinking of taking 2 daylight out and putting in 2 cool white. I have read some stuff about (4100) being for veg but the daylight is full spectrum. I'm not totally sure what to do. Anyone out there wanna help. Thoughts. What do you use for veg. By the way these are fluro tubes. Sorry for all the questions im a noob.

Thanks in advance

trycomb

 

[pontiac]

Either versions you have now should be fine for veg. Instead of changing the spectrum, you should consider adding more light, which will have a better influence on growth.

 

[magiccannabus]

Mix in a couple 2700K bulbs if you really want to broaden the spectrum, but 6500K is generally a great type of light for vegging. I even think they flower well, but not all bulbs labeled a certain color-temperature are actually the same in terms of light. Color temperature is determined by correlation of multiple phosphor outputs. These together are averaged, and guestimated, and given a label. Generally the higher the rating, the more blue it appears and the lower the rating, the more red it appears, but some blue lamps have better red spectrums than some red lamps. The human eye just can't understand and differentiate such things. It's really a limit of our eyeballs. The plants know.

 

[TryComb]

Thanks guys!!

pontic- Right now I only have room for four bulbs. Although I could put a single on each side.

Magiccannabus- Can you still use those bulbs for veg. I thought the red spectum was for flowering. I feel like my plants are growing so slow in there now. I thought adding some more blue light would help.

 

[magiccannabus]

Wait a sec, are these T-12 fluoro tubes? The fat ones? You said 20W at 24", but T8 lamps are typically 17W at that same size. A 17W T8 will put out more light than a 20W T-12. It's newer technology and there's a whole mess of other reasons why it's better, especially for plants.

I use 4 T8 lamps that are 24" long in my veg chamber, and am not happy with it yet. I plan to add at least one more. If you're that pressed for space, maybe try CFLs instead, or maybe try adding those extra lamps on the sides. More blue light does help, but if you had to choose between the "right" spectrum, and enough light, choose enough light every time. Pot is a very light-hungry plant. If those are T-12 lamps then they aren't very intense either, making their already inferior output even worse at any sort of distance. Even the more intense T8 lamps aren't meant to illuminate canopy more than a foot or two deep at most.

If you can afford a bit of money on it, get some 55W PL-L linear compacts like inefectualize used in his "High Pod"(see the micro forum). The costs upfront are more, but they're very good lamps.