Hi Doris,

5000 Kelvin sounds like Cool White, which is a good basic color for plants. You might want to also get s few Warm White bulbs, which would have a lower Kelvin figure. Plants need both blue and red light and Warm White bulbs supply some red light. Just out of curiosity, how long are your fluorescent bulbs?

ZM

way back when.. i used just plain old shop lights ....

and kept the light 3 to 4 inches from the plants ..

and do note.. duration of lighting is as important as closeness ... i ran mine 16 hours a day ....

you are probably just going to have to experiment ... to get an answer ... just dont experiment on all of them at once ...

ken