That light just look too small and under powered like scorpio_bafh mentioned. There are good lead grow lights out there but they are fairly pricy. A shop light might work but even with that you will need to keep the light fairly close to the tops of the plants if these plants require high intensity light. If you want to put a stronger CFL in your existing fixture you are probably still going to need one fixture per plant.

Thanks for both of you. I didn't know how much wattage was needed. I also read somewhere that plants need just red and blue parts of light to grow so I thought these lights were specifically made for plants.

Abid it is not the color that is the issue it is the overall brightness. Brightness decreases rapidly as you move away from the bulb. It looks like you are trying to light too many plants with just 2 bulbs. The bulb you show in the picture might be good if it was set up just to light the two smaller plants. Perhaps position the light so it just concentrates on one or two plants. Hang the bulb directly over the plant. Maybe start with 8-10" above the top leaves. You are going to have to play with the bulb location to see far above the plant it needs to be.

I agree with everyone.

Get a 4' T8 shop light with 5000k or 6500k tubes, or get a couple clamp on work lights with 23w 5000k or 6500k CFL's.

Lack of light for sure.

The fungus gnats are due to over watering. That may also be part of the issue why some are dying.

for instance, here is a simple set up with just two 5000k 23w CFL's. You can see how much brighter it is.

I replaced the old bulbs with two 23 watt CFL (spiral bulbs). It is much brigter now. I know what is w but i don't know what is 5000 k or 6500 k. thanks

5000k and 6500k are color temperatures on the Kelvin scale.

5000-6500k are on the blue end of the spectrum whereas 2300-3000k would be more on the red end of spectrum.

If you have only foliage plants that do not flower, you want lights more on the blue end of the spectrum.

If you have plants that flower, you'd want some light in the red spectrum as well.

and white light from CFL bulb would have both blue and red?

Depends. But I wouldn't rely on that.

Id get 5000k or 6500k for foliage and one of those and a 2300k for flowering.

I have another light bought from newfrog.com Full Spectrum 28W E14 LED Grow Light AC85-265V LED Growing Lamp Plant Light whose specifications are as under. Features:
Hydroponics Systems equipment
Spectral range effects on plant physiology:
280nm ~ 315nm influence on morphological and physiological processes is minimal
315nm ~ 420nm chlorophyll absorbs less impact photoperiod effect, prevent stem elongation
420nm ~ 500nm (blue) chlorophyll and carotenoids absorbed the largest proportion, the greatest impact on photosynthesis
500nm ~ 620nm dye absorption rate is not high
620nm ~ 750nm (red) chlorophyll absorption rate "high", has a significant influence on photosynthesis and photoperiod effect
750nm ~ 1000nm absorption rate, stimulate cell elongation, impact of flowering and seed germination > 1000nm converted into calorie.

I am using this light and a 23 w CFL bulb for my plants. should this combination work. thanks

Abid,

It depends on how many plants you are trying to cover and how big are they? Does the vendor have a recommended height above foliage? I am sure both LEDs be ok if used properly. It might take some experimenting to figure that out. Given the bulb side and wattage I would think it would only cover 1- 2 square feet of foliage at 10- 14 inches.

Mike

At only 500 lumen and being a $6 dollar light, you'd probably need quite a few of them.

Youre better off with 23w cfls then that bulb to be honest.

Here is an interesting article on lumens and PAR (both ways or rating a lights performance). Both have problems.

http://www.compareledgrowlights.com/par_and_lumens/

Now given this light is fairly small I would not expect that it puts out enough light for lots of plants but concentrated over one plant (like the one in the first picture on the left) it might work (I'd say start 12" above the foliage and see what happens. Since you already have the lights it can't hurt to try. The larger plants in the picture are going to have more trouble because their growth is not compact.

I have one of these LED's and was very surprised on how well it does with my Spider plants.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWZVBIC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now i am using Full Spectrum 28W E14 LED Grow Light as shown in photo and one 23 watt led light (spiral). If you recommend something else, please give advice from where to buy a good light (give me specifications too please) relatively cheap. thanks

Abid please show us how these lights are configured and what plants you are trying to cover with these lights.

Apologies if someone has already spoken specifically about these light bulbs but if not, can someone tell me if the GE Plant and Aquarium light F15T8 (15W 3100 K) is sufficient for starting seedlings indoors? I have 2.