Subject: [permaculture] Grow lights & fluorescent lighting information
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:57:42 -0500
And there are LED grow lights.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Grow lights
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:08:12 -0800
From: Misha Gale-Sinex <mgs2369@COMCAST.NET>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Howdy, all--
Tim asked about "grow lights" and Kathryn replied regarding
"fluorescent lights."
Remember that "fluorescent" isn't a term that tells us much about the
light spectrum the bulb emits.
It means a tube filled with gas that glows by having the tube's
cathodes energized by a ballast. That is, fluorescing. Technically,
neon (and argon, etc.) lighting is fluorescent.
You wouldn't expect your plants to thrive on a black light, and it'd
be cruel to expose your tropical fish to, say, a regular office
ceiling fixture bulb. They all fluoresce--like full-spectrum lights
and proper fish-tank lights--but differently.
And different quality fluorescent lighting has different effects on
plant growth, because plants like light in the infrared and UV bands
of the natural light spectrum. Conventional fluorescent bulbs' light
is shifted to the blue end of the spectrum.
Be careful with those things, by the way--ballasts, I mean. Be
careful where you locate them. They generate powerful electromagnetic
fields. Just today my telcom engineer husband was "fixing" a phone
problem by convincing the caller to move their fluorescent desk lamp
away from their handset...and their head.