question about T5s

[Baked123]

Hey guys the woman that i spoke to yesterday said that i could grow a plant no longer than a foot with High OUTPUT T5s(10000 lumens) is this
true or is it just bullshit? thanks

 

[billybob420]

Sounds about right, unless you used side lighting or whatever. I only use t5s for vegging.

 

[WyoGrow]

I have no experience, yet, with growing MJ with T5's. But I've grown tomatoes, peppers, basil, spinach, lettuce and whatnot indoors under T5 and I am set up to run 100% T5 lighting in my upcoming 1st MJ grow. She is correct but not telling you why seems fishy. Sounds to me like she is just regurgitating information she doesn't really understand. Pretty typical in retail..... unless it's a mom-n-pop store run by enthusiasts. The sales person is most likely just some schmuck doing a "job" and they don't care to learn anything about what they are selling. Floro light doesn't have the punch to penetrate very far into a dense plant canopy. It's not to say you can't grow a taller plant. It's just that the foliage under the main canopy won't get enough light to photosynthesize properly. That's why you'll see T5 growers pruning off leaves under the main canopy... because they are under lit and essentially just sucking energy out of the plant to stay alive vs adding energy to the plant via photosynthesis. I've personally grown a climbing tomato that had previous been growing outdoors for a season inside under T5's. It was already trained into a SCROG of sorts and 4' tall. But 3'6" of it was stem from the planter up to the screen. And when any leaves or shoots would try to grow off the stem I'd prune them because there was no way the light was going to make it through the 6" thick flat canopy to get down to them.

 

[chrishydro]

They dont get big at all and they yield not much. I veg with t5s and when they reach 10 to 12 inches I get the big boys out and they go wild. You can get a good 400 w hps with both bulbs and hanger and timer on amazon for 140 bucks. Well worth the money

 

[4 2 0]

ive had good experience growing mothers from seed with 3 2 ft T5's, and they got to a foot and a half, they were moved outside after cloning beacause of smell, but if you had 6-8 2ft-4ft T5s in a good reflector, im sure you could veg to 3ft with fairly bushy growth and no problems, but id say she implying if you have a hid you should grow with T5 to one foot, then throw under HID, that would be "ideal"

 

[Jogro]

Hey guys the woman that i spoke to yesterday said that i could grow a plant no longer than a foot with High OUTPUT T5s(10000 lumens) is this
true or is it just bullshit? thanks

Its not literally true, but her point is still valid, I think.

T5 fluorescent lighting is really ideal for starting seedlings, cloning, and (to a lesser extent) maintaining "mother" plants. These plants are generally short and don't need the same sort of intense lighting that flowering plants do to generate yield. T5 works *best* when you use it for relatively small plants.

Yes, you certainly "can" grow plants taller than a foot high with just T5 lighting, and people do this all the time, but the bottom parts are not going to get much light and are likely to be spindly and low-yielding. This type of lighting really isn't optimal for growing tall plants.

I'd say its probably more accurate to say that you "shouldn't" try to grow plants much more than a foot tall with just T5 lighting. If you want to get max yield under T5 lighting, then you'll want to either grow a larger number of really small plants (mini "sea of green"), or use a similar SCROG type setup to create lots of small tops.

You can also supplement the overhead T5s with side lighting, and that will help, too.

 

[jtrimbl3]

I have a quantum badboy 6 bulb throw out 400 watts. I added cfls around the side and grew one plant. Strain: amnesia haze. Veg for 8 weeks and flowered for 10.5 weeks. I came out with 6 ounces roughly. Then I switched my bulbs to aquarium bulbs and almost doubled my yield, granted I had 2 more plants BUT these bulbs are legit. It's not about lumens, those are what OUR eyes pick up. You needmto find the appropriate nanometer spectrum for chlorophyll A and chlorophyll B. Check out professors " led without LEDs" thread.

 

[jtrimbl3]

And yes, lst so you can take advantage of the most space possible

 

[Slipon]

yea about right I belive .. after a foot the light is`t wort much .. keep your plants low (FIM/TOP and/or LST)

use em for Veg. as I do



and then trow them in under that 600W HPS

or LST heavily and maybe some lolipoping .. atlest remove the bottom 1/4 grow a week before flowering/the stretch .. if you want to do a complet grow under your T5HO ..

 

[Slipon]

Ooh yea and I found out my plants did best 2-4 inches away from my T5HO tubes ..

a inch was to close it seemd .. top leaves look wierd and a bit curly ..

what I mostly did was to keep em 4-5 inches away and then let em grow up and then LST them a bit down agin ..

so most of the canopy is between 2 and 4 inches away all the time ..

 

[jtrimbl3]

Try some bigger pots.

 

[Slipon]

nahhh 6-7 gallon is fine for finishing pots .. just repot em a week before you trow them in under the 600W HPS or do as I .. and Veg em a week under the HPS .. go down in light time over a few days from 20 to 16 and then down to 12


18 days after 12/12 begon ..





thats how much they stretch them fist two weeks or so of flowering .. from 1 to 2 feet roughly ..

so make sure you got boath the light for it and room in the pots or you might get some problems ..



Edit: a pic from day one in 12/12



hope this give you a idea on now much they do stretch doing flowering ..

tho I doubt they would have done that much under my 27900 T5 lumens as under my 92000 HPS lumens .. and I guess that is the diffrent .. insted of haversting etc. 6 oz in the end you might just get 3oz with the T5

if that is ok for you its fine .. go with the T5 only .. tho get the best once you can get your hand on if you plan on use em from start to end ..

I would look for a 8 or maybe even a 10 or 12 tube fixture .. can get somre realy nice once for 200-300$

maybe even the VHO type (Very high output) tho cost a bit more ..

and get the right bulbs as some also said .. dunno much about them for fish tanks .. some even is 12K Kelvin !

but atlest get some nice high out put 6500K and 2700K bulbs .. enough so you can runn etc. 6 6500k and two 2700k in Veg and visaversa in flowering ..

if you runn em all the time .. I would changes tubes evry half year or so .. atlest evry year .. even tho T5 last a lot longer and dont loose as much light over time as etc. T8 or T12

another good thing about spending the littel more cash on a nice grow fixture is that it also comes with some good refletors .. that also make a hugh diffrent from lets say a 1 tube stripe with out any ..

and since they dont make much heat compaird to HDI lamps you dont need to spend as much on ventilation .. just for fresh air/co2 and for odour controle .. less money .. less power use .. less noise .. that is some of the kool things about T5 ..

and ther for I would also suggest to runn en 24/7 will help or atlest as I do 20/4 if you want some dark time doing veg.

 

[Jogro]

FWIW, an inch away from T5s can definitely burn your plants.

Keep it 2" or more.