Are These Junk?

[pushindirt]

My wife , bless her heart, knew how much I wanted to set up an indoor light for herbs and lettuce.
She bought these for my birthday, but I'm afraid they are inadequate. Can I use these? It says (2)
20W lamps. Will these be powerful enough for my lettuce and herbs? Can I put stronger lamps in
them?
Dave

[lambraiser]

I would return them and get the 8'. Also, make sure you keep them on for a good 16 hours as these don't put out a lot of light.
Amanda

[Oregon Veg]

I think it depends. How much are growing and how long?

[pushindirt]

Thanks everyone,
I'll see how well these lamps work, and how much
lettuce I get. I've got 5 lettuce plants and a tray of herbs under them now.
Dave

[lambraiser]

If your growing area is only 24" long then those lights almost have to be suitable because you
don't have a lot of alternatives. Short fluorescent tubes are relatively inefficient and these are
going to be borderline for growing lettuce, really only useful for a single row of plants right under
the tubes. You will need to use some form of additional reflectors, you just can't afford to lose half
the light.
The next step up is a T5HO system, 24W per tube, 22" long, and nearly twice as much light.
Quite a bit more expensive.
Beyond that you would be looking at using compact fluorescents. The best bet is to use an
aquarium-type double or quad tube, 55W would probably be suitable for your shelf but there are
higher powers also. Quite expensive again.
You could also try three or four of the spiral compact fluorescents, say 23W each. These are
cheap to buy but relatively inefficient, notice I am recommending 69W-92W vs 48W-55W for the
other good options. You would also want to look for at least one 6500K bulb rather than the
3000K that Home Depot tends to stock.