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In an ideal world, you would have a fluoro tube with all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of current fluoros. Our ideal fluorescent lamp would have a relatively short, compact, flat profile, massive lumen output with excellent lumen maintenance (meaning fewer replacement tubes), cool running, low replacement lamp costs, be available in all common spectrums, and fairly cheap to setup...

Enter the "PL" Lamp.

I first noticed these things when some local street-lights got changed. All serious indoor growers can tell you the exact type and wattage of any given street-light, and these things I didn't recognise at all, but was immediately drawn to the a), beautiful colour of the light. The CRI is very high; the red and green car parked beneath were, red and green, and b), intensity of the light; where the old 75W HPS streetlights ended and this new 55W PL fluoro streetlight began was the border of two totally different worlds, one dreary and yellow, the other vibrant and clear. I got home and Googled for a long time.

High CRI might not seem important, but a low CRI will mean a lamp is gaining it's lumens ratings, and colour temperature from fewer, more pronounced "spikes". High CRI means the lamp will have a wide mix of phosphors, and a more even spectral distribution, which plants will enjoy.


They are called by many names, "Dulux L", PL-L, LYNX L, LYNX-LE, PLL, High Lumen Biax L, PL, FT, FDTL, etc, but are all the same beast; a flatish, 4 pin [2G11 base] fluoro [triphosphor as standard] lamp of two improved T5HO-like parallel tubes joined ("kissed") at the end (aka "single turn", or "U-Bend"). Technically, it's a CFL lamp. 

PL tubes are available in Colour temperatures from 2700K ("Very warm white, aka. "Interna", "Home Light", etc.) to 6500K ("daylight"), are 'very' intense, cool running, long-lived, and produce a lot of useful lumen, overtaking the T5 as the most luminous small fluorescent. 

To get usable lumen in a two foot space with T5's, you'd need to use two 22" (24W) tubes, giving you 4,000 lumen. The smaller two 55W PL tube will give you 9,600 lumen of more intense light, with a smaller lamp size, and better penetration...and the bulbs literally cost a few dollars.

Judging by the online catalogues I've seen, these things are gaining some traction in the vivarium market, and 55W versions have popped up for "deep vivaria", and are sold for plants with high light requirements. And if that wasn't good enough, wait for it...

An 80W PL tube has recently appeared on the scene, blowing away all the previous numbers. For only another 35mm length, you get 1200 more lumen! 

T5's just can't compete with PL80W lamps for sheer lumen-per-inch; we're getting into serious HPS intensity competition territory, except with better spectrum, higher PAR, 'cooler' running lamps, way stealthier profile, etcetera...

Anyways...as of right now I've only got a bunch of little sprouts under these 110Watt PL-L's, but will see how they do when the Habeneros and Fefferones get a bit bigger...

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WOW! 6" and no burn...thats really cool (no pun intented). 

Nope don't mind one bit I umm...er..used to do a bit of posting on some of them myself...Will try to SCROG some of these hot peppers eventually, as I believe the method may (or may not) have implications for non-medicinal (god, I live that term) cultivars. 

Yeah, I'm sure that a near ceiling fish tank would certainly pose certain logistical peculiarities (nightmares)...

In a small enclosed grow environment you're probably right, I don't think that a T-5 rig (entire fixture with ballast) are much better than an HPS in the way of heat. At any rate, isolating the ballasts becomes paramount. Watt per Watt I bet you are right, an HPS bulb by itself might actually be the coolest when compared to the entire T-5 set-up...With HPS ballast IDK, I can fry an egg on my Phillips BSN 302's. Good point though...

Thanks for taking an interest in these PL-L's. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be switching to them for all my indoor grows, but won't know for sure for at least one years time though.

 

Yep, 6" and no burn, and that ain't just a pick-up line. :) Actually, I keep plants farther away than that as a practice, because anything closer than a foot or so can't use that much light anyway, and casts a huge shadow. There is often a lot of discussion about the rapid loss of lumens as distance from light source is increased. But few discuss the rapid gain of plant canopy as distance from light source is increased. I strive to keep the canopy close, but not too close, about 18" from 400w, and 30-36" from 1000w.

Scrog is certainly applicable to peppers, too. My vertical style is a little different than flat, though. I use 4-6" square wire set vertically in a u-shape on the outside of a cylinder or plants. If branches reach for the light, I can fit my arm thru the large square holes in the wire, and pull them back and tie them. A couple plants on castors can slide in to close the 'U' in case you need access. The drag with peppers and tomatoes for me is pollination in the greenhouse. It started off fun to grab a q-tip every morning and hunt for fresh flowers, but now it's a chore, and more so because the jungle is overgrown, and sometimes work consumes me for a week or two at a time, leaving me with a gap in pepper supply. I should park a beehive in the room. Btw, my jade cucumbers are self polinating, big plus.

Medicinal. That is a great term, isn't it? Ah, California. Where do you live Vlad? I think I saw Serbia somewhere? Where are you from originally? You could consider yourself a 'medicinal habanero' grower, eh? :D

Hand pollinating can definitely get to be a drag...Yes, you certainly do 'lose' lumens as distance is increased, but christ it's not like people using these HID's can't spare a few (10's of thousands :) for a nice spread and canopy...

Sounds kind of like a vertical scrog that you have going on there, interesting. A bumble bee box probably isn't such a bad idea, and would hopefully take care of those weeks of pepper-less-ness :)

Yes, you saw correctly, and 'originally' I am from here (the name's kinda a give-away huh)? But spent almost all of my years in the States and the Netherlands.

So, vlad. I just ordered two "fullham 7" 220w ballasts and six sockets from 1000bulbs, and some bulbs from lighting emporium. I wanted to get 2700k in 80w, but settled for 3000k, and also found some 5500k in 55w. One kit will go flat to illuminate my daughters saltwater aquarium, and the other will go vertical in the grow room to experiment with. I plan on running 2 80's and one 55 for each ballast, giving me 215w on three bulbs, for each ballast.

I also discovered that pl-l's can be 'over-driven', meaning you can run two leads to each light. It makes for some very bright flouros, but leads to a bit of spectral shift, increased bulb temp, and reduced bulb life. I assume that is how HO T5's get their brighness, it's just that HO T5 bulbs also exist to suit the higher wattage. This would make sense because the "workhorse 7" ballast (220w) has 3 leads for up to 3 lamps, yet the "workhorse 8" (still 220w) has six leads and still only rated for 3 lamps. Apparently a forth can be used, but there are too few amps to properly power 4 bulbs.

Wonderful! I'm anxious to hear how they work out for you :)  

Although running say, T-8's ODNO (OverDriveNormalOperation) is a really good way to squeeze more light out of them, my belief is that it's probably just not necessary (depending on your application I guess) with these PL-L's. Hehe, I find it a bit odd that I'm saying that as I'm sure it wasn't "necessary" to get my computers processor to run at 4.9Ghz stable, or to "hot-rod" (re-bias) my already way too loud/overdiven Marshall 100Watt tube amp! (or my cars air intake...or my)...anyways you get the idea...

Let us know how it works out, oh yeah, and take more pictures :) Glad to see someone here giving these lights a shot.

Day 25 under PL-L's...man I am really diggin' these lights...

 Also liking this 'dual root-zone hydro-organic' deal with the hot peppers. Will be putting them in their own dedicated DWC containers tomorrow...

 These emerged from seed between Dec 27 - Jan 1...13cm net pots are set up dual root-zone style.

Ok, so yesterday I had to modify my home-made grow box by making the right half 11cm deeper. I did this so that I could accomodate a slightly larger DWC bin in there and turn the PL-Lamp 90 degrees. Got the bins all set up now...

  The local variety of Red Summer Crisp type lettuce turned out well. It could have gone for at least another 10 days, and they were just beginning to fill out nicely... (but I needed the real-estate). 

The COS Romaine lettuce on the other hand, was as leggy as the French Prime Ministers mistress, but tastes good all the same. No bolting.

 The one spinach that I left in there is apparently some kind of warm temp loving mutant, because it just grew and grew with no signs of wanting to bolt, let alone any bitter taste. Didn't seem to mind the 18-20 hour light cycles either. Go figure? I know that, at least in lettuce, delay in going to seed (bolting) is a trait that can be bred in, maybe spinach too.

'In 1995, William Waycott, at the United States Department of Agriculture in Salinas, California, described a number of experiments that dealt with the interaction of temperature and day length on bolting. Plants grown in plant growth chambers under short days of eight hours of sunlight at a steady high daytime temperature of 90˚F grew to harvest maturity without bolting'. The temps in my box were in that range 27-34 Celsius (90F is 32.2C), but the light was on between 18 -20 hours each day. So I'll just chalk it up as an anomaly that may not be repeatable, though I will certainly try it again.  

Just a pic update. Doing well so far. (10cm net pots)

Vlad. You really seem to know your stuff. Maybe you could help an old fart that dont know a lot about lighting. I plan on placing a IBC tank in my basement where it stays cool most of the year. The grow bed will be the top 9 inches of the IBC tote.  I have one 4 foot by 4 foot window in which I will place my grow bed that faces the east. Since it will always be cool, I plan on raising cool weather crops that wont be flowering.

Can you give me advice on what kind of lighting, and what temp I should try to keep my water, remembering I dont have a lot of money to invest. I dont understand all this talk of all the alfabet of letters. I have a florescant light that has two four foot bulbs 40 watt each that I had hoped would do the trick.

Also, how many hours a day should I leave the lights on for my lettuce and cabbage, and how far should they be from the plants?

I wish I knew more so I could even talk to you intelligently, but I cant. Please help.....John

Hi John, 

Thank you for the kind words, they are unwarranted :)

Your 48" 40Watt fluorescent's are what are called T-12's. (Unfortunately, they are the weakest of the fluoro bunch). Try to keep them within an inch or so from the tops of you plants. To have any success, this is really a necessity with those lights.

They wont throw much light to either side of the fixture (a couple of inches at best), so any planys that are not almost directly underneath it wont benefit much at all. Maybe place the fixture at the furthest end of the grow bed away from the window.

I don't think you'd be happy with the results if you were using only that fixture in an almost 4' x 4' grow bed. But you have the window to help out a bit. Try it if your tight for cash (who isn't these days)?

. Also, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE OUT THE TUBES EVERY 6 MONTHS OR SO. Without getting technical as to why, just trust me on this one. Your humans eyes will not notice the difference, but plant usable PAR (photoactive radiation) drops off drastically. This is something EVERYONE notices in their plant performance with ALL fluoro lighting and is just standard operating procedure. Tubes for your T-12's are really cheap anyways...Try to buy ones that say "Daylight" (GE) or CooLite. Stay away from any "WarmLight" tubes.  

Those plants you mentioned have a lower light requirement than many (relatively speaking), but expect even them to stretch a bit, be a little slower growing, and generally be spindly and weak-ish. Unfortunately, lighting is always your biggest cost when growing indoors, and it's a tough thing to get around. But, again the widow will help, but only so much.

I can't in good conscience tell you "that they'll do the trick", but try it out, between the window and them...if you are happy with the results, that is what matters.

Roots are pretty much fully functional at 16 deg.Celsius, but heat your water according to the needs of your fish species. Yellow Perch, Carp, Bluegill, Catfish, are better than Talapia as far as paying for heating goes. (How cool is it generally in that basement)? Insulating the tank and/or grow beds if its real cold will help at any rate. So would heating the place up a bit with Metal Halide lighting while delivering the 'best' light possible to you plants at the same time, but again their are costs involved (which may or may not be justifiable) which you may want to avoid? Keep in mind that if you water temps are warmer than your air temps you will in all likelihood experience condensation 'problems'. Which could lead to mold, dampness etc...if not dealt with in some way.

As far as to how long to leave the lights on? Well there are ongoing, passionate, and sometimes emotional debates on that topic in many forums. Scientifically speaking, C3 category plants, like yours (and 'most' plants on the planet) in vegetative stage, need no rest, or dark period whatsoever. But, there is little noticeable benefit beyond 18 hours of light with most plants. So give them as much as you feel comfortable paying for.  

I hope this helped a bit.

Thanks Vlad. Since talking to you I have read about the T-5. I could spring for the $140 for a 4 light set up of 4 ft bulbs. Do you think this is wise?

The temps in my basement is running 60 F at floor level. I think the most it will be in the summer is 70 F. I will probably try to raise cat fish, or if I try to heat the tank, I will go for tilopia.

I built a green house last summer and I am having trouble keeping it cool enough on sunny days for my lettuce. I am thinking of growing my cold weather crops in the basement in the summer as well as the winter. Can you give me any advice on this?

Thanks ...John

My personal opinion would be that you if you are already going spend that money on lighting you would (for a number of reasons be better off getting a complete 400Watt Metal Halide (or even combo, Matal Halide, High Pressure Sodium kit should you ever decide to flower things)... from here on we'll refer to them as MH or HPS lamps :) kit with a dimmable ballast.

1) - T-5's and their ballasts give off an extraordinary amount of heat actually. And if it's not a DIY project and your buying the T-5 as a fixture, your not going to isolate the ballasts like you would with the MH set up. Your pretty much stuck with all that heat. Great in the winter, not so much in the summer. With a MH set up you can very easily put the ballast in another room in the summer time, bring it into the grow area in the winter. Also, venting the heat from the bulb itself in the summer (should you need to) is a breeze. 

2) - You still need to replace all 4 of those tubes every 6 months or so, as opposed to about once every 2 years with the MH. Those are costs which really add up over just a couple of seasons.

3) - In reality, in an optimal scenario you would need two of those 4 tube T-5 set ups for a 4' x 4' grow bed. Whereas just one 400Watt MH set up is good for the same 16 sq. foot grow space (Especially if you are not growing very tall plants like tomatoes or medicinal marijuana).

4) - You have a dimmable ballast, so you don't need to use all 400 Watts at all times (Your 4 tube T-5 set up runs at about 220Watts, but then it will only take care of about half your grow bed). Depending on your grow schedule, cultivars and method this could come in handy.

http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Light-Hydroponic-Reflector-Comparable/dp...

Now, I can't vouch for this manufacturer as I use only Phillips brand ballasts and even bulbs, there are cheaper, as well as more expensive manufacturers out there, but for a 16 sq. foot grow bed in a basement, something of this type would be the way I'd go. My 2 cents. HID (High Intensity Discharge) lighting (MH and HPS) is hands down absolutely the best lighting I've ever used to grow plants, and often the most cost effective.

In a temperate climate, I would personally would stay away from Talapia (or heating your water to 85 deg could very well give some stiff competition to your lighting as to which is your biggest cost to growing indoors :)

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