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Flowering With A T5? I Think So!


Guest drcanna-pest

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Guest drcanna-pest

I have been flowering with a T5 w/ 8 bulbs for sometime now. I get 12 clones of different strains and veg them using the blue spectrum bulbs and switch 6 of them out to flower with. I have been getting results very close to when I used a 1000 watt HPS light. I used to veg with a 400 MH & T5 supplement. I changed to all T5 lighting to reduce the electric bill & heat issues in the summer and never went back!

A few issues....dont go from veg at 24 to 18 hrs - some strains will trigger to flower. Also the lighting and a fan dries the soil very quickly. Anyone else doing the same??? Any comments/questions?

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Guest drcanna-pest

Over a year with the 1000-watt. Again not saying 'better' or even 'just as good' but close. I think using the right nutrients, light combo, & medium you can achieve good results with a lower electric bill & heat issues. If you need to...

There is nothing better than an HPS sytem with T5 or LED supplement...

I am always becoming a better grower..aren't we all? New strains have different needs...I like growing new kinds of medicine...

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Guest drcanna-pest

I have a question.

How long were you growing with 1000W before switching to T-5's?

phrased another way - Are you sure the results are not because you became a better grower?

 

 

I grew outdoors for over 10 years...but moved inside when I moved into 'town'. Its been a good experience though...but you don't have as many issues outdoors. I was a guerilla grower for a long time. Now a legal, indoor, medical cannabis grower.

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Guest drcanna-pest

Please if anyone has grown with a T5 vs conventional methods please let me know your experience. view the post..just leave a comment even if it is stupid I like the feedback. Thanks

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I grew outdoors for over 10 years...but moved inside when I moved into 'town'. Its been a good experience though...but you don't have as many issues outdoors. I was a guerilla grower for a long time. Now a legal, indoor, medical cannabis grower.

 

Hey D.P....I'm right there with you on this one ...I've been growing outside since 1968...did a couple indoor grows in the early 80's with nothing but flouros had good yields nothing like i'm seeing on this website though but still some real nice colas...I'll be following this thread!!!!...maybe do some reminiscing of the guirella grows!!

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Guest drcanna-pest

If anyone grows in the swamps. I have a secret for maintaining through high and low water levels and animals. PVC Pipes. Get a 6 inch pipe and go about 3 feet down fill it up with some good soil and your clone. Put in some Papa's Perfect Poop (great stuff!) and leave it alone until early Oct.

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We tested equal amounts of T-5 wattage to MH/HPS in the same atmosphere and the yields under T-5 averaged 40-60% less. Our next venture was to attempt to run equal lumens but due to the results of the first test we deemed it unnecessary. T-5 start to finish grows are totally acceptable if you're a twelve count patient and size of garden, atmospheric hard costs and energy use are major concerns. When comparing to MH/HPS 'head to head' T-5 fails, miserably but like I said.....they are two different animals.

 

The MH/HPS dominance WILL fall. Just not yet.

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I have been flowering with a T5 w/ 8 bulbs for sometime now. I get 12 clones of different strains and veg them using the blue spectrum bulbs and switch 6 of them out to flower with. I have been getting results very close to when I used a 1000 watt HPS light. I used to veg with a 400 MH & T5 supplement. I changed to all T5 lighting to reduce the electric bill & heat issues in the summer and never went back!

A few issues....dont go from veg at 24 to 18 hrs - some strains will trigger to flower. Also the lighting and a fan dries the soil very quickly. Anyone else doing the same??? Any comments/questions?

 

 

i use the T'5 also and yes it's because of money they work great

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t5s rock!! especially in warmer environments, they're so cool and growth can twist right up next the bulb without burning the plant. much cooler than CFLs, they will burn your plants. next summer i may switch the flower tent to t5s or LEDs to keep the bills low. less heat, less a/c, less fans.

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Please if anyone has grown with a T5 vs conventional methods please let me know your experience. view the post..just leave a comment even if it is stupid I like the feedback. Thanks

I grew almost my entire first crop using only a 4 bulb t-5 ho fixture with cool and hot bulbs mixed at around week 5 i did not like the airy type of buds i was getting so i broke down and bought an economy 400 watt hps and finished up with a healthy harvest of black queen.

 

 

As for getting the same results using the t-5s vs a 1000 watt hps?

 

Id have to see that first hand to believe it t-5s only penetrate so far down the plant i was getting real fat sized popcorn buds with my 1000 watt digital ballast.

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these are the criteria that I used in deciding the exact opposite

Trichome count and flower density are strongly correlated to medical efficacy

One must also consider that in order to submit a sample of medical cannabis to the Health Service for acceptance into the system one must certify as to type of lighting and so far they do not allow CFL lighting at all. Of course, here we do not have a health service or even a decent health care delivery infrastructure.

Lumens and only Lumens are the best assist that trichome count and flower density can get.

CFL does not deliver Lumens in anything like the strength attainable with old school HID

I only use CFL for my clones and it gets an assist from my MH in the same room anyway

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Ok, you asked for it. I am a new at all of this so by trail and error, I will find my way. It's ok if you think its a hack job, or anything else really. The most important thing is that I grow my own medicine, and it works for me. That said, here is what I use now.

 

I run a 400wt HPS sun systems, but I have supplemented that with the cheapest florescent lighting fixtures I could find at the store. TS had four foot, 2 bulb fixtures for 9 bucks a piece. I bought five of them.

 

I also found at the same store the plant lights, which give a red spectrum, and some natural sunshine lights. Each was about 5-6 bucks. I bought 7 of the red, 3 of the natural sunshine. What I have gotten in return was good.

 

All of my plants look healthier, denser buds, and more yield thus far. I believe the denser flowers are a direct result of less heat. But I can not say for certain what other advantages are truly directly related to the new lights. However, I can not find it in me to complain about such a cheap set-up. It definitely did no harm.

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I set up salt water aquariums as a side business.. The typical thing in that hobby is that you "need" metal halide lights to sustain most light needing corals..

The truth is, you can keep any coral you want, and even throw in some clams under just T5 lighting..

 

If a T5 can keep a clam happy, I am sure it can keep a "weed" happy.. :goodjob:

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I have some experience using T5's.

 

As one would expect, HPS watt-for-watt has about a 50% more light output than a T5 fixture in theory. In actual fact the advantage may be somewhat less.

 

As noted, don't expect some sort of instant heat fix using T5's. If there are heat issues with an HPS source swapping to T5's won't necessarily resolve the problems. T5's are hot. So are LED's for that matter. Good ventilation will be required regardless of the light source if heat is a problem.

 

Where T5's do have an advantage is the broader footprint of the light source. T5's emit light from the entire length of the tube whereas HID tends to be a point source. Careful pruning can take advantage of the expanded T5 footprint to minimize the so-called 'light penetration' drawback to using a T5. Most folks using T5's to flower would find the suggestion T5's won't penetrate a non-issue.

 

Lumens are lumens. The sun puts out about 10,000 lumens-per-square-foot. Some HPS flowering rooms will provide 25,000 lumens/sq-ft, more than 2-1/2 times the power of the sun (althought the spectrum has some limitations). Naturally an installation delivering 25,000 lu/sq-ft will produce superior results to a T5 set-up that at maximum can deliver 5,000 lu/sq-ft (a 8-bulb 4-foot T-5 will generate about 40,000 lumens under a 5-sq-ft area or 5,000 lu-sq-ft).

 

 

3,000 lumens-per-square-foot is a minimum necessary for successful flowering with most varieties. Genetics makes a big difference. Some varieties will do well with less light. Others need significantly more energy than others. Personally, I think T5's are most advantageous for a 'rolling' harvest; that is spacing out plants to finish each plant on a spaced interval. For instance, a twelve plant limit will allow harvesting one plant every ten-fourteen days from a 'perpetual' grow. Using roughly 1500w of T5's (750w for clone/veg and 750w for flowering) will produce approximately eight-ten ounces each month without too much work.

 

And make no mistake, growing indoors is work, plain and simple, even with a small installation. T5's are easy to use and worth consideration, especially for a beginner looking to start growing for the first time.

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We tested equal amounts of T-5 wattage to MH/HPS in the same atmosphere and the yields under T-5 averaged 40-60% less. Our next venture was to attempt to run equal lumens but due to the results of the first test we deemed it unnecessary. T-5 start to finish grows are totally acceptable if you're a twelve count patient and size of garden, atmospheric hard costs and energy use are major concerns. When comparing to MH/HPS 'head to head' T-5 fails, miserably but like I said.....they are two different animals.

 

The MH/HPS dominance WILL fall. Just not yet.

I only use t5's and CFL lights for Vegging seedling and or Clones ONLY. A dual 600 side by side are even better than a 1,000 watter. I have 1 room with a 1,000 watt HPS is is the whip and 2 600's in another. The HID lights simply cannot be compared to a inferior T5 or CFL. HID is soo much more powerful in all aspects. In my basement for example inthe winter the heat emission given off is strong enough to keep the rooms ambient. While a T5 even a large t5 will not generate enough heat in the dead of winter to keep them comfy.

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" While a T5 even a large t5 will not generate enough heat in the dead of winter to keep them comfy."

 

Wanna bet?...........HJ

 

+rep

 

if anyone is under the misconception that T5 lights put off ZERO/or very low heat, you are way way way wrong. they put off serious heat. enough heat to fry plants very easily.

 

just not quite as serious as a small HID.

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