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carols_gardener

What light color is best if using CFLs?

carols_gardener
13 years ago

Hi, folks,

I've been reading the recent discussions of growing AVs under CFLs such as a 27 watt bulb with great interest. May I ask some related questions that I don't think I've seen any answers for yet?

What color (e.g. 3000K, 4200K, 5000K, 6500K) of the bulbs would you think is best to use in different situations? E.g., if you are trying to light a 2-ft area with one bulb, which color would be best? If you have a 3-ft shelf, and can hang clamp lights above it (with 8-inch aluminum reflectors), how many would you use? If using multiple lamps, would you use bulbs of different colors, e.g. 3000 and 6500K, to try to get both blue and red light? I know that for shop light use, one warm and one cool is recommended, but in this situation, the bulbs would obviously not be running alongside each other the length of the shelf as fluorescent tubes would. So would using multiple bulbs in different colors just divide the shelf into "cool" and "warm" halves, or would there be enough overlap to do some good? And lastly, do you use the same spacing between the plants and the bulbs as you would with shoplight tubes?

Many thanks for any help!

Carol

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