I'm a budget gardener apart from wanting to save energy.
I'm curious, has anyone seen these bulbs available without the white softener pasted in them?
If we could get the manufacturers to produce these without the softener, they'd produce easily 2-3 times the light and at full spectrum.
From there you can just gel filter them for whichever bandwidth you want focused.
There is just a huge loss of light/energy because of the softener and for a garden light, it's completely unwanted.
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BlackDynamite
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I don't think it's a softener but the phosphor coating. Instead of having a filament whioch light's up the bulb, the phosphor coating is what lights up. The use of three to four different phosphor coating's is what give's the bulb a full UV spectrum. As well, "the luminous efficacy of CFL sources is typically 60 to 72 lumens per watt, versus 8 to 17 lm/W for incandescent lamps." So they still provide much better light than a standard bulb, just not as much as a full size flourescent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp
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BlackDynamite
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Ah yeah you're right in a sense, my head was thinking in terms of filament softener. In fluorescent, it's a softener and really, a filter so it doesn't emit ultra violet which is very damaging for the eyes and skin. Basically it only lets the healthy light through.
I think it's largely that in contrast to my 48 inch fluorescent, the coating in the twists looks to be 4 times thicker.
Maybe we could still get them to produce something in the orange/red spectrum for flowering/fruiting though. I've seen FT plant lights but they are all the blue/green spectrum. Fine for house plants but not multi cycle produce.
I think it's largely that in contrast to my 48 inch fluorescent, the coating in the twists looks to be 4 times thicker.
Maybe we could still get them to produce something in the orange/red spectrum for flowering/fruiting though. I've seen FT plant lights but they are all the blue/green spectrum. Fine for house plants but not multi cycle produce.
CFLs are generally put into two categories(besides full spectrum bulbs). They are 'cool white' or 'warm white.' Cool white is more blue, and is good for the vegetative stages of growth, and warm white light is more orange or reddish, and is best for the flowering stage. Neither are as good as the sun, but people have great success with them. Most searches on google will lead you to sites where they grow illegal herb though, so you gotta look around for other sites.