The sun's the best but as we all know artificial light is better than no light. So for the experts, please comment, fill in the details and help us out here. This is what I have gathered so far on flourescent or compact flourescent.
Lumens vs Colour Temperature vs Photoperiod
Lumens - go as high as possible; that means, put in as many tubes with as high a wattage
Colour Temperature - 6000K to 6500K is closest to sunlight but I noticed many growers here using cool white which is around 5000K and their VFT traps colour up nicely. FL or CFL tubes with a higher K produces lesser lumens than one with lower K of the same wattage.
Photoperiod - mininmum of 12-16 hours
*p.s. Bear in mind that certain varieties of VFT will not turn red or extremely red even if you bake them under the sun. They are genetically coded not to produce much of the red colouring.
Lumens vs Colour Temperature vs Photoperiod
Lumens - go as high as possible; that means, put in as many tubes with as high a wattage
Colour Temperature - 6000K to 6500K is closest to sunlight but I noticed many growers here using cool white which is around 5000K and their VFT traps colour up nicely. FL or CFL tubes with a higher K produces lesser lumens than one with lower K of the same wattage.
Photoperiod - mininmum of 12-16 hours
*p.s. Bear in mind that certain varieties of VFT will not turn red or extremely red even if you bake them under the sun. They are genetically coded not to produce much of the red colouring.