Need CFL help for my first grow

Hey yall, I have a few questions about CFL's before I get started on my grow...

Do lumens matter or does color temperature what I'm shootin for?

I know 2700k color temp is what I want for flowering, and 6500k for vegging
but can I use 5500k for vegging instead? I'm having trouble finding many 6500k CFL's.

Thanks, I appreciate whatever input anyone has.

also, I just noticed CFL's have a CRI rating. Is high better?

another question, should i use less CFL's while its still sprouting?

5500k is apparently ideal for light absorption so go wild,

Here is my reference, Right hurrr

Cfl's while sprouting are fine and are what most people use before switching to higher powers, just don't keep them too close. A lot of their growth comes from the energy stored inside of the seed so keep them around for when they need it.

less while sprouting, more while vegging, even more in flower.
lumens relate to human vision. watts and color. lotsa watts...........blue then red.

6500 K is the perfered spectrum for vegging & as for 2700 is for blooming but both would work fine during any stage tbh it's not something that needs to be followed as tedious as they make it sound. I perfer full spectrum all the way ya know why not work with both & experiment see what you like man. Good Luck!

i like to mix it up too. more blue than red in veg, and then opposite

thanks guy for all the input so far

keep postin away !

i need t3h infoz

for CFL's I find 100-150 watts per plant is a safe bet, usually. For seedling stage, honestly 2 weeks at a bright windowsill works well, but if you start out with sunshine only, they may get shocked with the heat, and moreso the intensity of ~5-12 CFL's! What you CAN do is once it germinates, put it next to a windowsill or under 1 CFL until it comes out, then slowly add lights up to 100-150 watts of CFL. Then when you switch to flowering keep the same # of lights and swap the 6500k for 2700k and vice versa

veg = 3:1 ratio of 6500:2700 lights (3 6500's, 1 2700)
flowering = 3:1 ratio of 2700:6500 lights


hope I helped!

thanks m8 i know a lot of these things but it always helps to get input.

Does anyone know much about Color Rendering Index (CRI)? i would like to know the importance of this if any.

EDIT: The higher CRI won't have much of an impact. Higher CRI usually means that it looks brighter to the human eye, not to plants. There is some speculation that a higher CRI = higher output of lumens, but it shouldn't correlate.