ok so i have a 3 way bulb that on the label says 12/23/29 watt, 600/1600/2150 lumens. is it a
5000k full spectrum?
6500k daylight?
2700k warm white?
3000k soft white?
what does 3 way mean?
what are lumens?

can anyone help me out, is this bulb useful to me?

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everything i say is completely false.

i think it means it has different brightness settings, so it will use a little bit more or less power to increase or decrease the brightness. with the power increasing and decreasing so will the overall lumens output.. so use it on full power

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Not sure if your either young or not from usa but 3 way bulbs have been around way before cfl. sometimes you need a special lamp to allow you to change between the modes. Do they not have 3 way bulbs in UK or other places? I am guessing not

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Dont Drink and Park, Accidents Cause People Cant we all just get a Bong?

sorry I meant to agree with previous poster when he said just go for the max, I stay away from cfl as I have never had anything but bright green plants with no growth under them, but others swear by them. I prefer the HID but see others having good results in veg stage especially in stealth grows

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Dont Drink and Park, Accidents Cause People Cant we all just get a Bong?

i just started using a 150w cfl in my stealth grow, ask me in about another 2 months and ill tell u how they worked for me

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sorry no offense..but why are you here in the cfl forum then? To spread the good word of our lord and savior HIDs?

try looking for a model number on the base of the bulb somewhere and try to google it..or look up the company that makes them and see what K rating their 3way bulbs have..I would guess there's a good chance that they're all "warm white" or "soft white". btw 3way bulbs are much more pricey then regular cfls, and don't really see an advantage to being able to lower the wattage if you're using them to grow with...I highly doubt their ballasts are as efficient in lumens per watt as a normal cfl ballast is. No matter what the K rating is though, you can veg and bud under it for sure..if it's all you have, use it.

lumens are a measurement of light that humans can see, plant don't actually use lumens exactally, but it's a good rough estimate of how much light you're getting from a bulb. In a cfl grow I'd recommend about 5000 lumens per square foot for veg and 7000-9000 lumens per sq foot for flowering (minimum 5000 for flowering)

but in short..hell yeh grow some weed under that lil fucker.

should i put it on low for flowering and high for veg?

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everything i say is completely false.

I have been using CFL on my bathtub grow and so far so good. The pics tell the tale..

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Just because your paranoid

Doesn't mean they aren't out to get you