Does anybody use these fluorescent grow lights?

And do you think there worth there wieght in Gold for the price you pay for them??
Or do you think the bulb companys pulling the wool over our
eyes!

Here's a pic of the same thing,except this is what it really looks like in the day time,had to darken the pic so you could see the lights in the other pic.

a couple of people were just discussing those grow lights on a thread and I don't remember where. Perhaps if you do a search you can find it. :)

edited to add: put "grow lights" in the search box and when it comes up go to No. 17. I'm new to DG and haven't yet learned how to do that hyper thing or whatever it is called.

This message was edited Jan 2, 2004 6:40 PM

The cost is really too much for me. I use 2 cool lights for each shop light set-up.

But, if I was illuminating house plants it could be a consideration. In this case, it would be year round, and not just for seed starting.

Thanks kooger

I use 1 warm, 1 cool as 'grow lights'.

I have used all cool, cool and warm, and cool and grow lights. For my seedlings there was negligible difference, so now I just use the cool shop lights for 14-16 hrs per day.

Lilyfan; I agree wholeheartedly with you. That's what I use in the greenhouse. Why pay the difference when the shop lights work so well.

So I can conclued eveyone thinks the bulb makers,are trying to get the hands in the pockets,by buying grow bulbs!!Not only those bulbs but the 24 inch bulbs are half the size of the 48 inch bulbs and 3 times the price!!!!Grrr!I still have one room the, wifes craft room that has 3 of those fixtures to change out,when we bought this home the kitchen ,dining room and the craft room had these 24 inch fixtures,and it always upset me when buying these bulbs!!!

OKay, now you're making me think. I buy a spotlight size plant bulb that I put over the kitchen sink and sunless window. Costs me almost 10 bucks and you are saying it's a waste? In a screw in fixture, what would I use instead for those plants on the sill? Incandescent? I won't waste anymore of my money on bulbs....I'll spend it on plants!!!
Molly

That is my question MollyMc, over the long haul, will the house plants survive on just a cool or warm light? Or do they need a broader spectrum?

Okay Duh, I don't know. I have a lucky bamboo plant, a purple passion plant (the furry one), some orchids that will soon go outside,and a couple different hindu ropes. The passion plant will have to go outside soon too. (I like to enjoy them up close and personal for a while before they go into the garden.) Sorry I'm such a dummy


What do you think Golddog?

Molly

In my garden room above all the windows I use just regular track lighting with the 50watt spotlight bulbs and that seems to work great.

I do all my seed starting under cool whites, and they seem to do fine. Of course, the new seedlings have the lights inches above them. I'm skeptical that regular household bulbs would offer the right kind of light. It looks like your garden room gets considerable window light, as well, Tropicman. Of course, the absolute best is the big halide lights. They are expensive to buy, need a special transformer, and pull a lot of current, but plants flourish under them. I guess it depends on what you are trying to do... just keep things alive indoors until spring set-out or keep them indoors.

I'm like Wheez. I just want to keep them alive until they can go outside. I have shop light fixtures in the basement with "sun" bulbs in them and in this room where I have my seedlings and some cuttings, just the regular shop lights, don't ask me what bulbs they have in them because I have no idea. They are working just fine for what I'm using them for. In another room I have a Halide bulb for outside lighting that is keeping a bunch of brug cuttings going. Nothing special here, just need a fat checkbook to keep all the lights on. I doubt that I'm using as much juice as a big MH light would though and have much more coverage, I think.

Yep,me too just want to keep them fresh looking and a live,don't have the room for them to grow.
Yes theres a lot of light,but the window faces west,and in the winter its on its way down,and the garage blocks most of the sun from them,they get about an hour of good sunlight
and with the track lighting they do just fine.
The bulb they call the natural bulb,is it somewhat of a mixture of the cool and warm bulbs or what,anybody up on these bulbs?

Since we're talking light bulbs, I must say those spiral flourescent bulbs to replace the traditional 40-60 watt ones, are more than worth the extra price.

We get a lot of surges, and I was blowing these 60 watts about 4 times per year. I've replaced almost all of the ones in the house, and the oldest one has been there about 6 years.

Regarding the grow light vs shop light, I've visited hundreds of commercial growers, and trust me, they're buying the cheap ones.

Chris

Thanks Chris,I've seen them and wondered about them,only thing most of them are longer than the average bulbs,and all are rooms have ceiling fans with school house light covers,so I could only use them in a couple of lamps we have,but I think I will try them.
Your right this brug is blooming under cheap lights

I have heard that aquarium lights are cheaper than grow-lights and have the same full spectrum.

darius,I saw them today at wally world,and they $5.98 for the 48 inch florescent bulbs.

We just bought some of the spiral lights to use in our basement, so I'm glad to hear they work well. Our bulbs seem to blow out easily down there. I think it may be the vibration from the floor above. We're hoping these last longer.

You're going to be thrilled. It took me years to try one, and now whenever a regular one blows, it's replaced with the spiral ones. We've yet to replace a spiral, and have them ranging from a couple of months to 6 years or so.

Oh, good! I'm tired of replacing lights and filling the landfill!

Weez, I started switching to the compact fluorescents about 2 years ago, esp. in the basement, using those bulbs that are either spiral or u-shaped. I love them!

Like you, we used to go through many replacement bulbs annually in the basement and haven't lost a compact fluorescent bulb yet.

Besides that, they are supposed to consume something like 1/10th of the electricity.

I think you get a full light spectrum if you use one cool and one warm bulb (one blueish-white and one pinkish-white). But one trick is to rig the light so they can be suspended just above the plants and raised as the plants grow up near the fixture. That's my ideal; now if I just had it somewhere. Right now my brug cuttings are growing hidden in the basement of a county building and it's only a matter of time before the jig is up and I can't do that anymore. Of course, some of the brugs are for the county building so maybe they'll understand....

We use a ton of the cheapest coolwhites we can find. They work for our seedlings, but I think they lack things for flowering plants. All our house plants are in or close to windows.(Most of the windows are on south side).
African violets in our new south bay window are doing great this winter. Short sunny days must be what they like, also the windows are the low-e type so maybe just the right amount of filtering.
Bernie

Oh, by the way the window is finished now & looks much better than this pic.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2004 8:40 AM

Bernie,looks great,sun going down or coming up?
We put one of those bay windows in also,but the cats like laying there,looking up watching the birds and the squirrels
up in the trees.

what are cearest clearwhites?

OOp's, typing to fast! Editted out the mistake.
Sunrise & cats stay outside. Haven't had a cat in the house since 1973 when I caught one eating out of the butter dish on the counter. Our house is no cats, no dogs, no smoking,
tons of plants, no allergies, & very little colds!
Bernie

Bernie sorry to hear about your cats eating your butter,everybody has to draw a line somewhere and sometime.

My experience with the curly florescent bulbs hasn't all been that good, we used them in schoolhouse type fixtures and I think in a closed environment they get too hot and it shortens their life. In lamps with air circulation they seem to do fine. When first turned on they take a couple of minutes to get to their full brightness. Haven't used them for plants. For starting plants that were only going to be under lights for a few weeks I use shop lights with cool tubes, I have bought a few of those grow lights but couldn't justify the price when I couldn't see any advantage. Like somebody else said, better to spend the extra money on plants.

I don't like them. They don't put out the light that a comparable regular bulb does.

Well, I guess the jury is still out on these bulbs. I have to agree that they don't put out the light that the regular bulbs do, but if they last longer in the basement, I can live with it.