250w plus+ what type of CFL should go with it?

I have a 250W hps and i wanna get some cfls to get light to the lower levels. So what type of cfl should i go with and how many?

You would need to give us info like how big your grow area is, how many plants you have, how large your plants are, if your flowering or still vegging....etc

2 ft by 3 ft area, its a flowering cabinet. And im growing 3, 1 ft tall plants in 3 gallon buckets.

egt some 42 watt cfls for side lighting... they pretty damn bright and stay relatively cool

Thanks man ill look into that but what does the numbers like 6500k mean on cfls? Is there a certain one for the flower spectrum?

Your correct thats the kelvin spectrum, 2700k is red and mostly used for flowering, 6500k is blue and mostly used for vegging. Heres the thing though, I've found a mixed spectrum outperforms a single spectrum like some will say to use. The plant gets some of each everyday outdoors from the sun, mostly blue w/some red in spring and the opposite later in the year. Your 250w hps has the red spectrum covered for you, now its time to add some blue. i'd get 4-6 26w 6500k per plant for side lighting.

darkdestruction420 said:

Your correct thats the kelvin spectrum, 2700k is red and mostly used for flowering, 6500k is blue and mostly used for vegging. Heres the thing though, I've found a mixed spectrum outperforms a single spectrum like some will say to use. The plant gets some of each everyday outdoors from the sun, mostly blue w/some red in spring and the opposite later in the year. Your 250w hps has the red spectrum covered for you, now its time to add some blue. i'd get 4-6 26w 6500k per plant for side lighting.

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You took the words right outta my mouth, get the cool white bulbs and your laughing!

how hot will 4 26w 6500k get? And can this go in a clamp light?if not, what?

the clamp lights should be fine, but consider not using the reflectors and hanging them in y splitters on the sides and inbetween plants where you can so that 2 plants are both getting hit by the lighting hanging between them. The cfls will produce some heat, but not that bad if youve got a good ventilation setup. If you have trouble locating places to position them dont be afraid to get some string and tape and tie the plants to make it work. it oesnt have to be the whole plant btw, thats not what i mean, i mean like tie specific branches and leaves so you can perfectly optimize your lighting so little to no light is wasted, traveling across the room and bouncing off the reflective lining material in your grow area does have an influence on its effectiveness, especially with cfls, after a few inches their light becomes almost worthless. thats why they should always be as close as possible to the plant.