When vegging with flo's,what's more critical,spectrum or lumens?

[Guest]

It never ceases to amaze me the results you can get from a simple 4 ft 2 lamp shoplight when used correctly,I wouldnt start a new clone any other way.I normally go with cool white 4100K about 1/4 inch above the plants at all times until they're 5 inches high or so,I never used daylight 6500K but I imagine it would do a good job as well.If lumens play a part in adolescent growth and I dont know that it does,thus the thread,then warm white at 3000K would be the way to go.I know a lot of us start with flo's and use a warm and cool white,but I'm just interested in straight spectrums here.Which do you prefer?Do you think it makes any difference?Whats more important,the lumens or the spectrum?

 

[Dan42nepa]

I use two 4 foot shop lights for side lighting for my 400w MH. I have been using the daylight bulbs and it seemed to help with side vegetation.

 

[JJScorpio]

The wattage is most important.....

 

[NiteTiger]

The wattage is most important.....

 

[Deft]

I mix a few cool in with mostly warm and use it to flower with too, heres my plant at day 10 or so of flower under 6x23w, 1x22w, 1x18w

 

[Guest]

The wattage is most important.....

Well thats silly...

For example....

I have these 80 watt shop lights.... they take 40 watt bulbs....

for those 80 watts I can get shit cool wihites that last forever....

dim and pretty useless for plants....

or bulbs that kick out the light....

all for that same 80 watts.....

Watts only describes how much electricity you are using....

 

[Guest]

I thought it was pretty clear I wasnt refering to wattage at all,of course higher wattage flo's are going to give better results.I was just talking about spectrum and lumens.Lumens are much higher for a warm white lamp of the same wattage as a cool white or daylight.thats why choosing between spectrum is a stumper to me although I just stick with cool whites

 

[Verite]

No offense to the flo growers but if you arent using hids at some point after a week or two then you are watching plants try their best to grow under the given conditions.

So in answer to the question.. since lumens is a factor of brightness then lumens it is. When you can get a flo to = the lumens and penetration depth of a hid you got it made.. on another planet.. where the physics of light are totally different.

Spectrum only really makes a difference when its bright enough for the plants to respond to it. Cool whites and warm whites dont mean anything to a plant when the lights lost most impact after traveling a few inches from the bulb.

Theres one other factor you need to calculate when deciding a bulbs impact on a plant and thats its efficiency rating. How many watts does it take bulb 'x' to put 'X' amount of lumens 'N' distance from the light source. In a nutshell flo's will never get close to the efficiency level of any hid.

 

[JJScorpio]

Increased wattage normally equals increased lumens. Spectrum is the color of light emitted by the bulb.

As Verite stated you get a lot more lumens per watt with a HID light. I think a 400 watt HID gives off 53,000 lumens......If I recall the blue spectrum is for vegging and red for flowering.....

 

[Guest]

You get more lumens per watt from a warm white than a comaparable wattage cool white,where did HID's come into the pic lol?I guess my question was too un understandable lol

 

[Guest]

Some time ago I read a study done at a couple universities....

They compared grow bulbs... you know the really purple ones....

versus cool white....

What they found was that cool white did at least as good as plant bulbs....

They explained that the reason that cool white performed as well as grow bulbs was ....

In spite of the fact that more light from the grow bulbs was in the plants use spectrum and less for cool white....


light intensity accounted for why cool whites did as well.....

I use kitchen and bath cause they have the highest lumen output....

and have more red than cool white....

 

[Guest]

Just had to raise the shoplight 1 link,they were touching the lamps which is what I like to see in reality thats how close I like them.Now they're about 1/4 inch up,5 inches high with mutitudes of nodes time for a 2 galoon and hid's.I was thinking of switching to warm whites since they are higher in lumens than comparable cool whites,but the cw's at 4100K just seem to do such a good job.I think I'll sacrifice lumens for spectrum