from what i've heard... NO ... CFL's should be inches from the plants and you should cut down your grow space as much as possible because it goes by lumens per sq foot... not cubed feet because the lgihts should be directly above them.. I have a 42 + 2 26's soft white and one 17 ott light that has full spectrum. my space is only 2-3 square feet..(had to add space for fan) thats 6875 lumens thats about perf for 2 feet and barely adequate for 3 (3000 per sq foot recomended). this is my first grow so im no expert but ive done some research on cfls's. im anxious about this ott light (22 bucks) but im pretty sure i needed the rest of the spectrum. I'll let u know how my 2 lil guys turn out and hopefully ill be able to help u from real experiance not just heresay. But get more Cfls's .. u can get a power strip and buy some y adaptors that plug right in and 26ers are cheap like 3 bucks.. in fact il prob get another y adaptor and 2 more 26's for flowering because it will only be another 10 bucks for 3500 more lumens