Christiandome
Member
Interesting observation made of late, regarding some persons' grow with their CFL lighting. Apparently lights that are within a couple to three inches from the plants may cause plants to be delayed in reaching full maturity to some degree. And the electric field produced by the bulbs and not the light seems to be the culprit. This has only been tested on and off with a few plants. But early indications are that plants appear healthier, if not happier, when growing surfaces are distanced at least five to seven inches or so from any of the light sources.
With CFL lighting, you can actually place the light source within touching distance of the plants themselves. However, with HPS or MH lighting this could never be done. Although there cannot be much argument about giving the plants all the light they can take it now seems that upon maturity plants can linger indefinitely if the CFLs are too close. This test has only been conducted on about 45 plants in the space of about a year or so and is in no way conclusive.
Any Fluores of any kind "directly" over any plant and within an inch or two of the main stem will almost certainly stop any upward growth in it's tracks until the light source is removed. Putting CFLs just on the sides of the plants, but again within an inch or two, would now allow proper growth upward without hindrance. However, upon maturity one-half to three-quarters of the plants with the lights right next to them would delay final maturity one to four weeks. The plants with the closest lights took the longest to mature.
Needless to say plants grown with the 150 and 200 (45 and 54) watt lights with at least seven inches or more space between them matured plants at the normal eight week period or before reached full maturity.
There is every indication that the plants with the closest lights may even continue to grown some or tighten somewhat given enough time. But it does seem to prevent them from reaching full maturity with a really close CFL light schedule.
We are sure there is much more testing that can be done with the folks here at RIU. So this is a kindly heads-up for you folks.
THANKS for all your kindness!!
With CFL lighting, you can actually place the light source within touching distance of the plants themselves. However, with HPS or MH lighting this could never be done. Although there cannot be much argument about giving the plants all the light they can take it now seems that upon maturity plants can linger indefinitely if the CFLs are too close. This test has only been conducted on about 45 plants in the space of about a year or so and is in no way conclusive.
Any Fluores of any kind "directly" over any plant and within an inch or two of the main stem will almost certainly stop any upward growth in it's tracks until the light source is removed. Putting CFLs just on the sides of the plants, but again within an inch or two, would now allow proper growth upward without hindrance. However, upon maturity one-half to three-quarters of the plants with the lights right next to them would delay final maturity one to four weeks. The plants with the closest lights took the longest to mature.
Needless to say plants grown with the 150 and 200 (45 and 54) watt lights with at least seven inches or more space between them matured plants at the normal eight week period or before reached full maturity.
There is every indication that the plants with the closest lights may even continue to grown some or tighten somewhat given enough time. But it does seem to prevent them from reaching full maturity with a really close CFL light schedule.
We are sure there is much more testing that can be done with the folks here at RIU. So this is a kindly heads-up for you folks.
THANKS for all your kindness!!
