Re: Re: Shop lights for grow lights

**Duane Campbell d*@juno.com**

On Fri, 10 Jan 2003 10:20:23 -0500 Melanie <melaniev@optonline.net>
writes:

> I've been growing daylily seedlings in my basement furnace room 
> under lights
> for years. After listening to a number of lighting specialists, I 
> went out
> and bought basic shop lights from Home Depot. I did not replace the
> flourescent bulbs with grow lights. 

Grow lights are a waste of money. Yes, it is true that they are just a
teeny bit better, and that might be important for someone who is, say,
growing African violets for competition. But the average gardener is
foolish to pay two or three times the price for maybe a five percent edge
that they'll never notice anyway.

On the other hand, shop lights have their problems. I do indeed harrangue
my readers to buy shop lights and start light gardening, but it is done
with the same motivation as a school yard drug dealer, just offering
something cheap to get them hooked.

The quality of light has some significance, but the really important part
is the QUANTITY  of light. Most shop light tubes come with a 25 watt
tube, as opposed to regular tubes which are 40 watts. The dollar specials
are also usually the 25 watt. This is a big difference.

Second, to make the bulbs cheap, they skimp on the phosphors that coat
the tube. That means first that they burn out faster. But even more
important, their half life is much shorter. Fluorescent tubes lose power
the older they are, and though the eye can't see it, an old tube may be
putting out only half the light of a new tube. So with the cheap ones,
that means you aren't even getting the 25 watts, you may be getting only
fifteen.

My suggestion for anyone but the greenest neophyte is to spend the extra
money and buy regular 40 watt tubes to put in your shop light. Since they
last longer, it really isn't any more expensive, maybe even less. And it
is a difference that can make a real difference.

I'll go one step further. The old recommendation is to use one cool white
and one warm white, but warm white per se are increasingly hard to fine.
Unless you know what to look for. The "Kitchen and Bath" tubes in the
megamart are warm white.

D

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