Color temperature question.

i just put a single plant into its first day of 12/12. i have two setups to choose from. i have four bulb sockets available should i use all 2700k with less total lumens or should i take out two 13w 2700k bulbs (1700 lumens) and put 2-27w-5000k bulbs(3500 lumens). i guess my question is will the added lumens make up for the wrong color temp.

heres setup. w all 27k.

4x13watts? 52watts total for a single plant? You should add 4 more bulbs or go with at least 100 (real) watts per 3 ft plant. too much plant per watt just makes smaller, lighter buds. 50% red spectrum 50% blue spectrum is ok, you wont get a bump over the higher lumens. I would think you would get a better bump being all red.

Not knowing the size of your plants makes it harder to advice.

thanx for advice man. i have two 13w, one 15w, one 23w all 27k. i also have two 27w 50k bulbs. only four applicable sockets. would you take out the two 13w and put the big 50k's even though they're "wrong" color temp? they are 3500 lum. total as opposed to 1600 for the two 13's. thought the 50ks would put out just as much red light because of the increased lumens. btw this is first grow and just brought in biggest plant to flower in dif. enclosure. plant is almost 1 month and has 7 nodes. i topped top two nodes in an effort to experiment w cloning. (big mistake) so now im gonna try my hand at flowering. plus i just really wanna try my own crop. lemme know watcha think bout lights.

The CFL's use three phosphors for the color temp, which is just a number for reference and has nothing at all to do with real color radiation.

The 2700K have less green/blue. This allows the red phosphor to give the tube a soft amber glow.

5000K have blue added to the red, this takes out the amber shade.

6500K has geen/blue added to the red, the green makes it crisp and bright for human eyes.

Go for the brightest is what I get from the info.

http://donklipstein.com/f-spec.html

This link goes into specific frequencies for the tech minded.

Go lumens!! If your bulbs were within 10% of each other it would be a race. But in your case, use the higher-yielding bulbs, then fill in remaining sockets. cn

i actually just replaced a bunch of my 23watt 2700k bulbs with 45w 6500k cfls because of higher wattage and mine are almost done flowering. you can check it out, link in my sig

thank you! lumens it is!

eliasson420 said:

thank you! lumens it is!

Click to expand...

All of you are wrong! Color temp is more important. What is the point of having alot of the wrong lumens. 2700k is what is needed for bud development. Buy more soft white bulbs and also buy some y splitters for 2 bulbs per socket. Just saying. That's what I would do.

Chlorophyll absorbs blue and red light

The green pigment, chlorophyll, plays a central role in photosynthesis. The fact that it is green means that it absorbs blue and red light and reflects green when it is illuminated by white (all wavelengths) light. The absorption spectrum you saw before for chlorophyll, is turned sideways below.
It shows two absorption maxima in the blue and red portions in the spectrum. Next to this, is an energy diagram that shows how an electron can be elevated to a higher energy level in the electron cloud of chlorophyll by absorbing a high energy photon. Blue is at the high-energy end of the spectrum, so light of this wavelength is responsible for this much excitation and explains the absorption peak in the blue. Red wavelengths are lower in energy and only boost the electron to a lower energy level than can blue light. This stable excitation state is responsible for the red absorption peak.













200 - 280 nm UVC ultraviolet range which is extremely harmful to plants because it is highly toxic. 280 - 315 nm Includes harmful UVB ultraviolet light which causes plants colors to fade. 315 - 380 nm Range of UVA ultraviolet light which is neither harmful nor beneficial to plant growth. 380 - 400 nm Start of visible light spectrum. Process of chlorophyll absorption begins. UV protected plastics ideally block out any light below this range. 400 - 520 nm This range includes violet, blue, and green bands. Peak absorption by chlorophyll occurs, and a strong influence on photosynthesis. (promotes vegetative growth) 520 - 610 nm This range includes the green, yellow, and orange bands and has less absorption by pigments. 610 - 720 nm This is the red band. Large amount of absorption by chlorophyll occurs, and most significant influence on photosynthesis. (promotes flowering and budding) 720 - 1000 nm There is little absorption by chlorophyll here. Flowering and germination is influenced. At the high end of the band is infrared, which is heat. 1000+ nm Totally infrared range. All energy absorbed at this point is converted to heat.

damn Bricktop, thats a badd ass collection of charts & info. Nice post.

im going with all 2700k. looks like im headed BACK to home depot. thanks for the support. really makes me happy that theres so many people out there to help we noobs. ill have new pics up today when camera charges. tausend dank my online cohorts!

how to i become a non "stranger". does it have something to do with how many posts i write? im a hippy, not a stranger.

yes keep posting, you will becoma a master toker