gego, the fixture with cxb3590, which I linked is not DIY. It is pre-assembled.
I agree with you, Lacnce, at this moment, there isn't many reasons to go blurple at this moment (other than they are cheap initially). Nothing is wrong with them, neither, and plants do grow ok, as long as they get enough light. This situation can change once LED companies put more efforts for horticultural LEDs.
Can you share the literature about the LED effectiveness in slower growing plants?
Within white LEDs, there seems to be slightly higher PPF per watt in warmer white than cooler white in some brands (e.g. citizen), but not always. But the difference is pretty negligible. So in terms of photosynthesis, I personally don't care too much about CCT (within 3000-5000K). Also you can see "Effects of Light Quality" section in this paper:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0099010 Here is the relevant quote:
Over the past 30 years, numerous longer-term studies with whole plants in higher light indicate that light quality has a much smaller effect on plant growth rate than light quantity [6], [7]. Light quality, especially the fraction of blue light, has been shown to alter cell expansion rate, leaf expansion rate[8], plant height and plant shape in several species [9]–[11], but it has only a small direct effect on photosynthesis. The effects of light quality on fresh or dry mass in whole plants typically occur under low or no sunlight conditions, and are caused by changes in leaf expansion and radiation capture during early growth [6].
The last sentence here is similar to what you stated, but the study didn't use low light plants. It was done in low light with high light plants. So I'm curious about the source of your info.
I can see the advantage of 3000K when plants are sensitive to red:far red ratio (e.g. photoperiodic plants like some Cattleya and some medical plants).