T5 Lighting and area effectiveness?

[Muzzle2]

Hey Friends!

I want to attempt growing about 6 plants in doors in Southern Cali this week. I have a shelf area in my garage that is pretty much setup as perfect rectangle. It's about 6 ft in height and about 8 ft in width. I can easily fit 6 plants inside with about 10 gallon smart pots. Anyways, the question I have is will I be able to sustain a successful yield under this setup.

Cover the rectangle area with reflective rolls for reflecting light. Using t5 florescent lights and a fan to circulate air and blow the leaves around? It's in a garage that I open every day. Very basic setup. Literally it wold be a foil covered room with t5 lights and a fan.

 

[OneHitDone]

How deep is the space? 6ft H x 8ft W x ?D

If you can fit 4ft t5 fixtures end to end in there you can definitely get it done.
Maybe 2 8 lamp fixtures depending on the depth
Just gotta make sure your keep your humidity and temp in check and be ready for the wall of funk coming out of your garage when you open the door
Make sure the area is Light Tight and you may want a carbon scrubber

 

[mauricem00]

Hey Friends!

I want to attempt growing about 6 plants in doors in Southern Cali this week. I have a shelf area in my garage that is pretty much setup as perfect rectangle. It's about 6 ft in height and about 8 ft in width. I can easily fit 6 plants inside with about 10 gallon smart pots. Anyways, the question I have is will I be able to sustain a successful yield under this setup.

Cover the rectangle area with reflective rolls for reflecting light. Using t5 florescent lights and a fan to circulate air and blow the leaves around? It's in a garage that I open every day. Very basic setup. Literally it wold be a foil covered room with t5 lights and a fan.

I have been getting successful yields for years using T5s in a 4ft by 2ft by 6 ft high tent as have many other T5 growers. I use a 6ft by 2 ft closet for flowering and a 4 ft 6bulb next to an 8 bulb 2ft fixture to cover that space so I see no reason running 2 4ft T5 fixture end to end would not give you good yields and high quality

 

[OneHitDone]

I would just advise staying out of the led section unless you are looking for a migraine to go along with your fresh growing experience

 

[mauricem00]

I would just advise staying out of the led section unless you are looking for a migraine to go along with your fresh growing experience

hay the LED section is very entertaining. a whole bunch of people parroting the claims of LED makers and acting like they understand what they are talking about. an electrical engineer or horticulturalist would find this section very humorous
T5s and CMH bulbs are a much more cost effective way to grow and produces higher quality as well. seriously just focus and completing your first grow and keep it simple until you learn to grow. some people claim that 85% of new growers fail and if you can get any kind of harvest of your first crop your doing very well

 

[growin-Jables]

Hell. If your going to want to utilize every inch of that space both height and width wise. At 6 ft high using t5s as your base lighting. They be pretty damn close to the top of the canopy as long as they have enough air circulating past the tops. Probably safely grow plants up to about 3 or 4 ft. Would give you some head room. T5s will probably only really penetrate the first 12 inches of your canopy. So I would just include some cheap 23w cfls for side and lower lighting. 1600lumens for a 23w 2700k or 6500k cfl. Cfls work great for closet grows and don't put out a ton of heat. Just know of you pack the space full of t5s and cfls, your going to definetly be creating quite a bit of heat. You want 6 plants, at a Bare minimum ( in my opinion ) you need at least 100w per plant. So shoot for 600w to start and add more as you go if you prefer

 

[whitebb2727]

T5 will work just fine. A couple 4 foot 8 bulb units would work real nice in that area.

I used a 4 ft 8 bulb t5 in a 2x4x6 for a long time.

 

[growin-Jables]

I have an 4 ft 8 bulb t5 as well im my veg closet. I was able to finish flowering 3 - 2 ft tall plants i had to bring in from outside when weather turned. I don't think it's gonna 6 plants worth spread out over 8 ft. Maybe 2 of those fixtures ? Each fixture is roughly 432w providing a efficient # of lumens ( more than most 400w MH bulbs ). 40,000 lumens total. I'm not discouraging the use of them at all. But i just dont one fixture could cover the area

 

[SchmoeJoe]

Hey Friends!

I want to attempt growing about 6 plants in doors in Southern Cali this week. I have a shelf area in my garage that is pretty much setup as perfect rectangle. It's about 6 ft in height and about 8 ft in width. I can easily fit 6 plants inside with about 10 gallon smart pots. Anyways, the question I have is will I be able to sustain a successful yield under this setup.

Cover the rectangle area with reflective rolls for reflecting light. Using t5 florescent lights and a fan to circulate air and blow the leaves around? It's in a garage that I open every day. Very basic setup. Literally it wold be a foil covered room with t5 lights and a fan.

A t5's effective coverage area is barely any bigger than the dimensions of the fixture. You'll also want to keep the plants as close as possible to the light. You won't be able to get plants big enough to need anywhere a 10 gallon pot. Also, foil is a terrible reflective material. I'd use Killz or Gripper flat white paint. If you can afford it you could spring for reflectx. It's essentially bubble wrap with mylar. It's a great reflective material and insulation.

 

[growin-Jables]

A t5's effective coverage area is barely any bigger than the dimensions of the fixture. You'll also want to keep the plants as close as possible to the light. You won't be able to get plants big enough to need anywhere a 10 gallon pot. Also, foil is a terrible reflective material. I'd use Killz or Gripper flat white paint. If you can afford it you could spring for reflectx. It's essentially bubble wrap with mylar. It's a great reflective material and insulation.

Agreed with everything you just said. Panda film is another option that I use as reflective material. Its a bit cheaper than mylar. As you stated. T5s only cover areas directly beneath the fixture. So if he wanted to fill up that entire space with plants bare minimum of 2 fixtures. ( 4 ft 8 tubes ). but I mean...you will be pulling nearly 900w with two fixtures.....more than a 600w hps would pull. I am not one to tell others what they should do . im all for different set ups for different enviornments

 

[Daveindiego]

I use 1 T5 4 light fixture in a 2’x4’x5’ tent.

 

[SchmoeJoe]

Agreed with everything you just said. Panda film is another option that I use as reflective material. Its a bit cheaper than mylar. As you stated. T5s only cover areas directly beneath the fixture. So if he wanted to fill up that entire space with plants bare minimum of 2 fixtures. ( 4 ft 8 tubes ). but I mean...you will be pulling nearly 900w with two fixtures.....more than a 600w hps would pull. I am not one to tell others what they should do . im all for different set ups for different enviornments

One of my first spaces I set up was with t8 shoplights in the 90's. It was a low ceiling pantry. It was about five feet tall, four feet wide and nine feet deep. We mounted the four foot shoplights vertically on the walls and hung a few eight foot t12's. That was just a veg space but I've never seen anything compare to how well that worked.

 

[growin-Jables]

One of my first spaces I set up was with t8 shoplights in the 90's. It was a low ceiling pantry. It was about five feet tall, four feet wide and nine feet deep. We mounted the four foot shoplights vertically on the walls and hung a few eight foot t12's. That was just a veg space but I've never seen anything compare to how well that worked.

I bet that's because you had complete lighting above and around the sides. Not neccessary with HID because they have good penetration . But with any kimd of flourecents. They have about 12 -18 inches of sweet spot range . Having the walls lined with t8s helped with lower and side lighting . In my veg closet, I do 6-7 week veg times. Which means they get about 2 - 2 1/2 ft tall. I utilize a few 23w 6500k cfls and hang them aroumd the edges of the t5 fixture about 12 inches off the ground. Works great!

 

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