zxcvbob wrote:
Ralph D. wrote:

So... as a carry over from the other thread...

Another thing the agent thought was that I had made a mistake in
swithching
to all grow lights. Says that they are not full spectrum and suggested
adding a few regular flourescent lights. I have 5 shelves with 4 'Grow
Stick' flourescent lights. If I were to place a small lamp on the top
shelf
and another on the middle shelf with those newer screw in type
flourexcent
bulbs meant to replace traditional bulbs at 26Watts each (maybe three
lamps?) would this add a sufficient amount of the missing light? I
have no
convenient way of getting them to a good window and start
waaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy
too many seeds for window sills (not to mention old aluminum frames
transmit
the cold at night and there would be a PIA ritual of taking everything
down
and putting it back up again in the AM).



Anybody know anything about light spectrums as it would relate to growing
seeds?




My seedlings love the spectrum from cheap triphosphor lamps. They also
like fluorescent grow lamps, but those are expensive and they fade --
and you will keep using them long after they are worn out because you
can't really see how bright they are because your eye doesn't like that
spectrum very much.

If you have room for 4-foot flixture, I recommend getting a cheap
commercial 3-lamp F32T8 fixure with electronic ballast. The kind used
for suspended ceilings are good. Use something like Philips ALTO 830 or
835 lamps, or GE SPX35's. The lamps are really cheap ($2 each), and
they maintain 90% of their luminence throughout their 20000+ hours life,
unlike old-fashioned F40T12 lamps that drop off much more quickly.

The ALTO lamps with the green endcaps are very low (but not 0) mercury,
for what it's worth.

Best regards,
Bob

Armed with a copy of this thread, I headed for Home Depot.

They had no three bulb fixtures, so I splurged and got a 4 bulb, but it
wasn't cheap.

I then headed for the bulb section. They had a lot of Phillips and a
few GE bulbs, but none of them was marked 830 or 835 or SPX35. The
clerk was typically clueless, so I got some Phillips ALTO 40 watt cool
white plus bulbs, 3200 lumens, 20,000 hours, 70 color rendering, and
4100K color temperature. Buried beside the dimension is the marking
T12. Since I had space for 4 bulbs, I installed two of the new ones
(very bright) and two grow lights I had from last year (they looked
almost dim next to the new bulbs).

I have no idea if these are the recommended bulbs, but its too late now,
the pansies and snaps have been sown.

Incidentally, some years ago we had a fluorescent light fixture in the
bathroom and I put a spare grow light in there, thinking I might grow
some hair. It didn't grow hair, but gave a much more pleasant light in
the room; colors seemed darker and brighter, at least to the naked eye.
--
SPAMBLOCK NOTICE! To reply to me, delete the h from apkh.net, if it is
there.