First Time Grow - Cold Cathode

Hey Guys,

Its my first grow, and though I am taking it seriously I am not to bothered if I fail, I am germinating my plant in room during the night because its warm and in the porch during the day. I have a blue "cold cathode" light and I was wondering if it could be used as a grow light. I am only growing one plant here is the link to the light Akasa AK-178-BL 12" Cold Cathode - Blue

Thanks Guys

Harriscat

I doubt it, but they make neat nightlights for fishtanks.

i had green cathodes in my old computer... no growing will not be good with it.

Nevermind - Thanks anyway guys

I am planning my second grow around a ccfl (cold cathode) light that I am constructing. They just have to put off the right wavelengths with the penetrating intensity to drive effective photosynthesis. That means predominantly red, as close to the clorophyll peak at 660nm as possible, with around ten percent blue light, 430-470nm. Accompanied perhaps by a regular cfl or two, or maybe a white ccfl, these could a legitimate option for supplying the wavelengths that critics complain are lacking in normal LED grows. But these grows have shown that isolated bands of light wavelengths are effective in growing, at least in the vegetative stage, a healthy and enviable plant that removes the heat factor with the added benefit of extreme effiency.

I don't know if it will work, but I already have a 400W HPS to kick it up a bit if the results don't pay off. But let's think it through:

Led's put off a maximum of 500,000 mcd or so at 630nm, and maybe are wired up to a board of 500. 250,000,000 mcd is 250,000 cd. I recently purchased 36 red ccfl's with 18,000-36,000 cd/m2 depending on where you look online. I think I prefer my setup.

give it a shot maybe, or just check my grow out if it comes to fruition. check out maybe some led grows first, as you will be overcoming the same challenges

Linear lumens (4ft flourescent tubes) are amazing. (I pay $8 after tax for the workshop light fixture, and $7 after tax for a two-pack of warm white T12 40w bulbs..) ($15 for your first efficient grow light)(will get you started) Low lumen output (1 fixture puts out 6,800lmns w/warm white... I have used cool white independently and in conjunction with warm white and the plants hate it... use warm white imo), but use it for vegetative stage only... It will promote longer stems, leaves and broader leaves. After they about a foot tall, kick em to a 400w HPS system. I got a 400w w/30% enhanced blue spectrum light setup for $119 at HTGSupply, pay in cash, it tells no tales

read the sticky "Things to know about lights"

yo platinum,
unfortunately, ccfl lights are not covered in that faq!

I would not say that it's impossible. The vegetative stage is a sure deal as led grows with less light intensity have shown; the question is whether or not these lights have to potential to be used in the the flowering stage.

The FAQ does give one some important data to consider:
it says that a healthy plant, simulating the outside conditions of a blazing sun, is 10,000 lumen/sq. ft. A lumen is the measurement of candellas per m2 at a distance of 1m, but it is weighted based on light wavelength, as it is founded on the human eyes who are more sensitive to some wavelengths over others. To say that a plant simply needs this many lumens per sq. ft. is really overlooking a lot of factors, i.e. light quality, and simply a good rule of thumb when using the technology that everyone else uses. But the measure of lumens per sq. meter is the lux. The FAQ claims one needs a lux of 10K lumen/sq. ft. For my purposes, I'll use meters. To change over, divide by 10.76: 926 lm/m2.

926 lm/m2 is the density of light on a surface of one sq. meter. That means that the cold cathode lights, rated to 30,000 cd/m2, are converted into 30,000 lumen/m2/sr (steradian is a measurement for projecting a 2d measurement like m2 onto a 3d plane, like a circle on the surface of a sphere). And 30,000 lm/m2/sr (which doesn't mathematically affect the result) equals 30,000 lux. I recently purchased several red cold cathode kits, and a couple blue ones, 20 total. As both kits come with two lights, that makes 40. 40 x 30,000 equals 1,200,000 lux. My grow space is 1m. I think that should be sufficient.

I would love someone to correct my math and explain this better than I have. I am by no means an expert, but I am curious why no one has tried these lights! Have none of you seen the japanese plant chambers that you can buy for research!?! Guess what powers them... led's or ccfl's. But ccfl's have way more power. They are not as efficient, but much better than HPS when you consider that most of the power for a 400W system is put off in heat, maybe 25% light, and the plants are only using portions of that heavily. We'll see what happens...

no comments? ha ha lol

They sell these cathodes in red and blue on ebay in 4 foot lengths for growing.i never used one for growing but have seen small ones in compuer cases and my brother has them in ashow car he shows off for display.

are you sure they weren't 4 inches? I looked again, shocked that something so big could be found on ebay--and for growing--and couldn't find anything i hadn't seen before. I actually found a much better deal from a dutch web site for these. I will be doing a grow log to document the possibilities of these lights. As i posted before, japanese companies are already offering grow chambers for professional research using cold cathodes or led's as the basic lighting. Seeing as I don't know shit about electronics, I thought there would be less hassle, more light and less of a cost with the cold cathodes.

But if you did find something that long on ebay filthy, post a link.
peace

filthy fletch nice pic disney slut!