27 W daylight CFL vs. 40 W soft white CFL
 

I've read through many of the posts on artificial lighting for orchids here and on other orchid forums trying to figure out which CFL will work the best. Unfortunately, the more I read the more confused I get.....

So here's my idiot question. Which CFL spiral bulb will work best to provide supplemental lighting for one phal.

1) 27 watt (100w incand. equiv.) daylight 6500K

2) 40 watt (200w incand. equiv.) soft white w/ no "K" specified

Any info would be appreciated.

For one plant I would go for the 27W daylight, but nobody has just one orchid or not for long, you'll see. Jim.

spiralflorescents
 

hi
iuse 24 watt florscnt mogul srewin bulbs in my 20 gallon fishtanks, and my plant do well
so i would think that 27 watts would be plenty for 1 lowlight phal:nod:

27W will put out enough lumens for one phal and the colour temperature is great! for the purpose.

Antti

Thanks for the quick, clear answers orchid experts! Jim, you're right, I just bought a new phal earlier today for $20. To the orchid gurus, it's just another boring orchid. To me, it's purple loveliness and appropriate for the conditions in my home. After all, it would be wrong to adopt a "chid" I could not properly care for, right?

So I do need to get another 27W daylight spiral CFL. Would it be necessary to add on a 2700K CFL along with the 2 6500K's. I've read some stuff on using the 6500K + the 2700K together to more closely mimic sunlight or something like that.....

this is exactly how I got started with orchids.
one lead to two, two lead to three...
You might as well go to Home Depot and get a couple 48 inch fluorescent fixtures. They're about $8 bucks each

I've had good luck splittin'm right down the middle. I have 6 bulbs. 3 of 2700k, and 3 of 6400k.

If I had an uneven number of bulbs, I install, 6400k, 6400k, 2700k.

I'd stick with the 6500K bulbs.
2700K is mainly used for indoor house lighting because of the warm white light it puts out. it has a lot of yellow in its spectrum which might please our eye but doesn't really benefit the plants.
it provides some red but still a lot of lumens "go to waste"

One orchid, 2 orchids, 5 orchids, 10 orchids......

i hear you Grandma! :biggrin:

I'm a 6500'ker too!
LOL Grandma, yes I know the feeling ;) :biggrin: