I came across a "Plant Lamp" -- basically a CFL that has been designed to output the chlorophyll friendly spectrum. No Kelvin measurement, just a wavelength grapg on the box... It's a good idea, but producing this at just 14W, can they really be taking this seriously, or is this just a gimmick? What do you think?
Its exactly what it looks like, a CFL in the correct spectrum. That's nice and all but the light output is still way too low. Use a bunch of them and sure you can grow something. At the end of the day CFL still works better for a reading lamp than a grow light.
Be surprised what you can grow with a few cfls. But don't waste money of a cfl that says its for growing. Get the right spectrum and enough light and you can grow a couple plants. Won't be making a living off of it, but at least have some personal to smoke on. My grow journal http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1323166-another-noob-his-first-grow.html
Just hooked it up, and it's a nice violet colour -- just like the grow leds. I guess you can say it will now be more efficient at its job than equivalent CFLs, but I wonder how much more efficient?
Cfl is really only good for micro grows, space challenged folks who still want to grow some buds. If your going to invest anything more than $100-300 switch to hid or led growing even t5 is better than cfl. I feel like that light is more than likely a gimmick to take cash from folks looking to grow the cheap road. How much was that bulb? Anything that low watts over $4 your totally getting raped.
Also you do know that cfl bulbs only do you any good if they are really close to the plant right? I only ask because you have that hanging at what appears to be the top of the tent.
That's interesting. Do a test. A legit test, though. Like with two clones of the same strain. Even if it's ultimately just enough light to veg a clone for a week or so with the one bulb, it would be interesting to see if the plant grows faster under the violet CFL. Then you could go from there. Just make sure it's a controlled test though, same phenotypes and everything. Otherwise what you observe is meaningless.
I grow with cfls..plants don't get huge but its definately possible..tho i use 6500k daylight for veg and 2500k soft white for flower..anything under 23watts is pointless and i recommend using atleast 4 bulbs per plant my noob grow journal. check it out http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1339200-Lolos-pot-blunders