WTF Guys..Is all lumens talk BS or not!!!!

lumens ARE relevent.. the more lumens you can get the more plant you will have. what type of lighting are you considering?

this is from another thread i wrote.

Lumens account for all amount of light that can be seen by the human eye. This is more light than a plant can use. For example, you could have a bright green bulb rated at 50,000 lumens. The human eye can see green, so all of that green light has a lumen rating. However, since plants use very little green light, only a small portion of those 50,000 lumens would be used by the plant. Now, if a light was a red light or a blue light, two spectrums that plants use very much, than that 50,000 lumens would mean a lot more because the plants is using more of those lumens. If you have two bulbs with identical spectrums (spectrums being the different wavelengths of light, blue, red, yellow, etc) than the one with the highest lumens is going to be the best choice. However, if one bulbs is rated at 50,000 lumens with more green and yellow light than red and blue, than you would be better off getting a bulb rated at 25,000 lumens that had more red and blue spectrum.

I was considering purchasing six 2' 6500K T5 High Output Flouros that my local hydro store owner said would put out a total of aprox 20,000 lumens total. Grow space: 18" x 3' x 5'tall

I want to grow 2 plants in this area

The way I am beginning to understand it is that you dont really need to be concerned with lumens. Since that measurement is based on how "we" see light, not plants. Its fine to use that term provided it is just used as a reference point. From my understanding, you should be more concerned with what spectrum the light is. Watts could play a factor as well, the more watts the light is, the deeper it will penetrate. I may be wrong, but I am trying to get a grasp on the lighting thing as well.

watts are literally nothing but the amount of electricity used. More efficient lights will be brighter and use less watts.

Lighting Duration, etc.

read that, it will answer every question you have, and a lot you didn't know you had.

for a 2 plant closet grow get urself a 400 watt hps in a air cooled shade... a fan blowing through the shade and a above the plants. use the hps for a veg and harvest and try to maintin right temps and humidity.... dont stress on bs of lumens output as it doesnt matter for such a small grow....just get the girls going ull leanr alot more acutlay doing it then thikning about it

I just don't get why there isnt some other term used to rate bulbs....If lumens is based on human eyesight...even if the bulb has a certain light spectrum..when they use lumens to gauge it's usefulness it, once again it's based on how well i can see the light...and once again I question that!!!!!

xbravoz said:

I just don't get why there isnt some other term used to rate bulbs....If lumens is based on human eyesight...even if the bulb has a certain light spectrum..when they use lumens to gauge it's usefulness it, once again it's based on how well i can see the light...and once again I question that!!!!!

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I feel your pain. There is CRI rating that could be of some use, but I have not got that far yet. I will eventually get it figured out.

buddy u will do alot more questioning as u grow more and more.. thats the fun of it.... there is not 1 perfect way for all.. some1 may do something 1 way and they get great results another person folows there methods and gets poor results.... just grow ull see what works for u personally

rkm said:

I feel your pain. There is CRI rating that could be of some use, but I have not got that far yet. I will eventually get it figured out.

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A cri rating is used purely for multimedia purposes, for projector bulbs and such. It just describes how well a bulb renders color. A PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) rating is really the only measure of usable light by plants. But even that can be a bit misleading because it includes the yellow and green spectrum as well.

I get that just getting a 400 watter would produce results...however the only way I could vent the heat and maintain a stealth grow would be to cut vent hole to outside via the wall or ceiling of my RV....So alternative lighting (cool running) is the rout i need to explore....I am trying to pick out alternative lighting based on true...logical thinking...It is not logical to apply lumens as the gauge for picking out lighting if is not relevant what plants need for proper growth.

xbravoz said:

I get that just getting a 400 watter would produce results...however the only way I could vent the heat and maintain a stealth grow would be to cut vent hole to outside via the wall or ceiling of my RV....So alternative lighting (cool running) is the rout i need to explore....I am trying to pick out alternative lighting based on true...logical thinking...It is not logical to apply lumens as the gauge for picking out lighting if is not relevant what plants need for proper growth.

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go with the t-5's then, mix spectrum

The thing is....bulbs seem to be priced based on lumens...not logical!!! Higher lumens more $...(sure glad I bought those high lumen bulbs...I can see my plants so much better now)

haha i see what u mean now.. but dont concern urself with that like needybuds said get urself some t-5 and start her up.cheers and goodluck

MacGuyver said:

haha i see what u mean now.. but dont concern urself with that like needybuds said get urself some t-5 and start her up.cheers and goodluck

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I think it is something that is quite feasible to be concerned with if he is trying to get the proper lighting. Yes, for all intents and purposes anything will work, but he is looking to achieve the most effective and productive light setup. I am right next to him and trying to figure the same thing out. There is not much of a need to buy bulbs that are dominately green when the plants dont use much at all of that spectrum.

hey xbravoz
i have a grow area of similar size and grow 4 plants all i did was go to wal-mart and bought 5 flourecent grow lights for 12$ each about 2' long and my plants grow just fine im sure all that stuff about lumans is important somehow, somewhere, but what i do works better than i could never have hoped