Blue + Red CFLs for flower?

Weedymcweedweed

Active Member
I was just wondering if it's BAD for my plants to get some blue spectrum light during their flowering?
I'm not near that part yet, but I have 4 80 watt floro tubes that I can't get different bulbs for. I was just wondering if supplementing my flowering light with an EXTRA 320 watts of blue spectrum light is technically bad, or if I'm better off just not using the lights when I start to flower?

-Thanks
 

k-town

Well-Known Member
perfectly fine to have both spectrums, I got 3 42watt 2700k CFL's and 4 26watt 6500k CFL's on my plant and she about 3 weeks in flower and just growing bud like crazy. I mean nothing like a HID light would do but it's just an experiment at the moment and I'm satisfied so far. ( can't wait to harvest )

Peace
K-town
 

Weedymcweedweed

Active Member
What's a good ratio of 2700k CFLs to 6500k CFLs lumens wise during flowering? I'll use whatever I can get, I just wanna know if there's been any definitive "optimum" studies on ratios of the 2 spectrums during flowering.

Also, what are optimum ratios for vegging (Or would 100% blue spectrum be best)? I imagine they would be different for the 2 stages since there's the usual "Blue for vegging, Red for flowering" rule.

Also, would supplementing an HPS setup with a few blue CFLs to get a good ratio be better than just using a higher wattage HPS?
i.e. (400 watt HPS + 200 watt CFL) > (600 watt HPS)?

sorry if there's too many questions for one post :P just trying to get as much knowledge as possible.
 

nataur

Member
I'm no expert, but I've heard that the red spectrum is good, and you can use all red or all blue for the vegetative stage. Supposedly all blue is better than red as far as speed of photosynthesis goes but red also works almost as well. If that's true, then it would make sense because green lights are used for providing work light during the dark stages, since the plants can't photosynthesize with the green spectrum. I've wondered about this myself though, just haven't had the time to confirm it. Then again, I'm also kinda learning not to "throw in my two cents" too much on this site anyways, as my last grow was a bit retarded.
 
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