You didn't say what kind of fixtures you bought so I'm assuming they're
for fluorescent tubes. If you have just (incandescent) lights in the
3000k - 3500k range you're missing an important part of the spectrum.

Look for "GroLux" tubes, which are designed for growing plants. I've seen
them at Home Depot and other hardware stores. Also stocked by many
nursery's. The configuration I've seen recommends a combination of the
GroLux tubes and some incandescent light bulbs. I've seen books about
growing plants under lights but I don't have any. Suggest you look at a
book store for one.

I'm not sure how color temperature applies to lighting for plants. My
experience with color temperature applies to photography and scientific
use. "Standard" color film is designed for "daylight" light, which is
about 6000k. (I don't remember the exact numbers so please don't beat me
up if I'm off a little). "Regular" tungsten light bulbs are in the 3000k
range. It's missing the blue light that's in daylight. That's why a
picture taken indoors without a flash has an orangish cast to it. All
bets are off with fluorescent lights because the light comes from the
glowing phosphor that coats the inside of the tube.

I'm planning to setup some lights so I'll post any info I find.

Hal Tess

Hal Tess AT Hot Mail DOT Com (Delete the spaces and fix the words in
caps)



Bette Noir wrote:

Hello, all,

I just got some light fixtures to supplement the light for my orchids
that are in a west window. At Home Depot I was sold some lights that
they said were wide spectrum. Well, the guy didn't seem to understand
what I wanted, after all. They are apparently considered intermediate
spectrum: the color temp is 3500k.

This seems to be pretty close to the temp for bulbs rated as warm. If
I mix two of the 3500k bulbs with bulbs that are rated cool, will I
have enough of the spectrum covered? Or do I need to ditch the 3500k
for 3000k? This seems to be a bit hard: there don't seem to be any
"warm" T8 bulbs on the shelves.