I was at Home Depot the other day and saw numerous 48 inch, 40 watt
flourescent bulbs with names like DAYLIGHT, SUNSHINE, COOL WHITE PLUS
and SOFTWHITE. I bought one each of NATURAL SUNSHINE and SOFTWHITE
Here are the specs on these
"NATURAL SUNSHINE"
LUMENS 2200
COLOR RENDERING 92
COLOR TEMPERATURE 5000K
"SOFTWHITE"
LUMENS 3300 (brigher)
COLOR RENDERING 85 (not as accurate on colors)
COLOR TEMPERATURE 3000K (a little more red?)
Help - did I do the right thing?

It doesn't matter what you buy when it comes to T12 or T8
fluorescent tubes. The differences exist, but they're slight. At work, we
grow plants under a 50/50 mix of T8 cool white and warm white bulbs
(Sylvania). At home, I use whatever fits the shop lights- T8, T12,
whatever- but I try to mix warm white and cool white.

The primary restriction created by fluorescent lights (regular
tubes, anyway) is intensity. You won't be able to grow plants that require
a lot of light. For that, you need much more expensive bulbs and ballasts.

I can never find the table when I want to, but there's a table of
PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) versus wattage and so forth- the
net upshot is that cool and warm white T12 tubes are very near the top of
the list in terms of bang for your buck. The ones above them are expensive
and more difficult to maintain. So- unless you need *more* light, stick
with the cheapo tubes and fixtures.

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-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ