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How important are lumens when deciding on a grow light? I finally talked my wife into letting me have a small cab grow! Gonna experiment with some afs first. Only problem is, I hafta be cheap when putting this together. I'm thinking a 250w cfl, maybe 2 smaller cfls for side lighting. The ones I've looked at produce 0 lumens.. zat a problem?
Unless the light the lamps produce is 100% in the ultraviolet spectrum the lamp has to have some lumen output or it's not a light. The light plants use is only a concentrated part of the visual light spectrum but, it still is visible light.
I would recommend the 250w you plan on getting being in the 2700k range and the side lights being in the 6500k range. That way your main light will be in the proper spectrum for flowering plants and the side lights will add a more full spectrum to your plants.
congrads on the wife part! id go with a 400 watt hps ,thats good for a 2'x3' area!you dont want any less then 20 watts per sq' and gee 2'x 3' is a pretty small space ! but if you are bent on cfl,s the 40 watters put out 2600 lumens each !