Considering the spectrum, fluorescent lights have always been better than HPS, but because their relative low output they where only suitable for maintaining libraries/nurseries and small scale cutting production. At flowering the low output (combined with short days for some crops), didn’t provide enough moles per day to produce an acceptable quality. But with the development of high power CFL’s (technically a bundle of fluorescents) like the 4U and 8U lights, we now have a sufficient light level of 550 µmol/(m²s) at close distance to the system with the 4U bulb, and up to 750 µmol/(m²s) when using the 8U. This will give a total illumination level of 23,76 moles per day at short day’s (12 hours) for the 4U and 32,4 for the 8U. As shown by the table in fig. 1, these values are more than enough to support a high quality growth and flowering.
Of course this is only very close to the bulb itself and light levels will drop rather quickly to 183/238 µmol/(m²s) at 20 cm as shown by fig 2. Therefore much effort must be put in to training/modelling plant canopy in order to obtain the best result. To overcome this last disadvantage we now have developed the Garuda™ , a modular light system that is able to grow along with the needs of your crop.
When starting from seedlings or cuttings with long (18 hours) days, the Garuda™ even when equipped with just a single 4U, will give a sufficient light level to support high quality growth up to a distance of 10 cm. Later, when the plants get bigger and more light is needed to reach deeper in to the canopy or to compensate for short (12 hours) days, there is no need to change the complete system. You can simply upgrade the current Garuda™ system with the extension set and add another 4U to increase the light level to high quality at 20cm (10 cm at 12 hours), and a peak level at close distance that is beyond the saturation level for most crops at ambient CO2 level (±350 ppm).
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Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
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