CFL's... Lumens, Kelvin... need explanation

use the search button this ? is asked a 1000 times a week by new posters. then ask a ? to the point and you will get lots of ansers . not trying to be rude its just if you seach for cfl you get like 90 pages about them

 

you want blue for veg that means 5000 to 6500k or cool white or daylight cfls.
for flowering you want the red 2700 to 3000k or warm white.
you need more than 2 cfls per plant each plant should have around 10000 lumes per plant or even more. my 1 plant i flowerd last had 8 cfls on it 4 bulbs in 2700k and 4 in 3000k each one put out 1750 lumes so i had 14000 lumes on the one plant.my grow i have going now i have 5 4ft shop lights each one holds 2 bulbs each bulb puts out 3200 lumes for 32000 lumes on 3 plants i have 3 lights above the plants and 1 on each side so they get light from all sides.pluse in a nother room i have 2 more plants with 8 cfls above the plants and 1 more on each wall for a total of 12 cfls and 21000 lumes. look at the cfl grows people have and fluro grows you will get the idea when you look at the plants if thares enuff light or not. look at my grow from the last girl i did pluse start to flower on my new batch pluse i have 6 clones going as well 3 of them are in flower already to. most of the seasond growers will look at your post and not even anser you if they know thare is 1000s of posts just like yours on cfls and fluro lights. ask more pin point ?s after you read a lot and search for hrs.the plant your trying to grow takes loads of time and loads of reading if not you will be asking ?s every day on why your plant is sick and need help with it. i read books this site and many others befor i even asked ?s or for any thing. im just trying to be helpfull and not rude we alll want the same thing in the end

 

from experience..... use the typical CFL's you find at walmart, the only time i've ever worried about the color output is with HID light bulbs

 

Lumens is a measure of light output or light intensity, regardless of the color of the light. Kelvin is the scale used to reflect "color temperature", which is a way to express the frequency (color) that a given light's spectrum is. 6500k is the typical color temperatue needed for MJ's veg stage, and 2700k is the typical color temperatue needed for MJ's flower stage.

Don't necessarily assume that a CFL labeled "full spectrum" is in fact giving off proper amounts of red and blue spectrum. Since CFLs are made and marketed primarily for replacement of regular household bulbs, not for growing, they can be a little loose with their terminology. Some CFLs claiming "full spectrum" only offer an average (4100k or so) of the spectrum, not truly an output across different color temperatures. So, I would recommend a mixture of red and blue CFLs to achieve full spectrum lighting.

 

the only way the frequency penetration would matter is with groups of bulbs, in your situation if you are using the SCROG technique i would understand the reasoning in the difference of bulbs. You must consider how much the light is actually being accepted by the plant. I.E. reference to a lost post about light penetration (Hero). So if you have 2 reds 1 blue it won't make much of a difference from having 3 reds 2 blues or even 1 red 2 blues.......if you really want to make use of the colored bulbs use the SCROG method to actually penetrate the buds so they actually become dense and not fluff.

 

I don't follow this at all.

 

Maybe read my link on lamp spectra.