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Old April 28, 2018   #67
Greatgardens
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Indiana
Posts: 1,124
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"Fluorescent tubes will be gone..."

Yes I agree, but I think more than a few years. Those dinosaur T12's are still around and considering the life of fluorescents, it will be quite awhile before enough life cycles of the fixtures/bulbs have expired to warrant extinction. Unless, of course, the government puts it very heavy thumb on the scales (one way or another). Where LED's currently come up short is with higher wattage bulbs. They just haven't developed a product (yet) that gives a say 150 watt-equivalent bulb (that looks like a typical residential A19-A20 form) at any reasonable price. So, larger CFL's should be safe for awhile longer.

But the flip-side is that LED's should continue to improve. Hopefully, plant-specific tubes will appear in larger numbers at lower prices. My 6500K LED tubes do great for my wife's cactus -- just not for tomato seedlings. At 19 watts/tube, these tubes give lots of light! (And I have no idea what the actual spectrum of these tubes looks like.) I may also modify my seed starting shelf to provide more headroom. That might be helpful.

-GG

Last edited by Greatgardens; April 28, 2018 at 06:59 AM.
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