Hi Penelope- I do one warm and one cool when I run tubes. Its a Howard question though... Look up back posts by Howard_A. He is the authority on orchid light :-)

Clara

I've grown and bloomed many plants (orchids and non-orchids) under cool white bulbs. Cool whites usually provide slightly more lumens than a warm/cool mix plus the light makes the orchids look better than having a reddish glow surrounding them.

Fluorescents should be replaced about every six months because of the drop off in output of the bulbs.

Brooke

Thanks much for checking out archives before posting your question.

I agree w/ Clara - look at Howard A.'s posts in particular. If you search for "Howard," rather than including the "A," you may get the most info.

Hang in there. Whitecat8

Hello,

Thanks for the tips. I'll relook at the posts and see if I can glean more from Howard's posts.

Brooke, I KNEW I'd seen it somewhere that instead of mixing warm/cool that just cool white could be used.

Penelope

Most people growing under any other kind of light (CFL, HID, sunlight...) use the light they have. There are 'cool' and 'warm' CFL as well as cool (MH) and warm (HPS) HID lamps but most people pick one or the other and call it good. I think it is getting harder to find the traditional warm tubes but in no case should they cost more than a buck or two per tube. 32 tubes is a lot of tubes and everything I've read says you do not want to replace all your tubes at once. Personally, I don't think tubes are that powerful that replacing them all will 'burn' anything but with all that wattage going into lighting, aren't you a good candidate for a decent HID setup?

H

Howard it would depend on just where the set up is. I had light tables in various places, not all grouped together. I did have a HID set up on a moving track but I could squeeze in racks around the edges where the HID wouldn't touch the plants. I also had light racks in a different room. One 1000 watt HID on a moving track will only light an area 4 x 16'. I couldn't fit enough orchids in that space!

Brooke

H
Warm tubes are abundant at HD. They have about 4 or 5 different degrees of cool to warm.

I just shutter at the thought of cranking up the tubes. Since you turned on on to the bigger cfl's, I can't stand to deal with the tubes. They are so dull and way more expensive to use. Those cfl's I call "Angel lights". There is such a difference in growth rate. I have them in the window. 85's on the ends and 42's in the middle every 10-12". Going to ramp that up and alternate 85 and 42. My windows are abut 6' long

I also think the cfl's will help heat some of the plants in winter. 72¢ per kilowatt hour is a lot! I never get heat from tubes. The tubes take up so much space and are so unattractive. I found some nice brushed metal ones last year, but still, UGLY!

Clara

SIX FOOT WINDOWS!!!! I would think I had died and gone to heaven if I had windows that long. I have one room with two windows butted together giving me a total of 5' but it does face ESE. When my house was built in 1929, they weren't too worried about big windows, they were more concerned about heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

Tubes will raise the temp 5 degrees immediately and 8 degree temp rise if three sides of the plant stand are enclosed. The room with the HID and tubes was a 10 degree temp rise. My display area in the house in front of those windows had 3 CFL's lighting the area and I never measured the temp there but they did run hotter than a tube because they will burn foliage of a plant.

Does anyone know what the drop off in a CFL is over a period of time? They are a fluorescent so does the fc diminish on those too?

Brooke