jus starting my first grow, keep seing people on here talking bout changing bulbs when flowering and that. is that realy neccessary? can i just use the same light through the whole grow cycle? any info will help greatly, thanx
From what I've read the plants prefer ~2700k when flowering and ~6500k when vegging. It seems like many still veg at 2700 and have no issues but I'm using CFL's for veg (5000k) and HPS for bloom. I figure that if I'm going to do it I might as well do it right...
you will get best results my changing the light spectrum. If your using cfl's for veg go with 6500k and when you begin to flower switch to 2700k...do some research and read up about the different light spectrums. the plant uses different color lights depending on what stage its in
I am an outdoor grower. I find that the one light is perfectly satisfactory in all respects. And costs me nothing.
Whether or not you have to change bulbs depends on what you are running now. True that most beneficial spectrum for veg is around 6500k and for flowering is around 2700k. But you can veg with 2700k as others have mentioned. You cannot effectively flower with 6500k, though. So, if you are already using 2700k then no need to change, but if you have been using a MH or daylight CFLs (which are in the 6500k range) then you definitely will want to switch for flowering.
Then I'm assuming that in my case (8 - 23watt 5000k CFL's, 2 - 46 watt 'soft white') is ok? It sounds a bit redder than most would want for veg but others are using 2700k HPS and doing fine..