Fastest growth for babies in cups - 1000 watt HID or 8 Bulb T5 on top of them

My Sensei is bad ass. He is a for real master grower and has been helping me big time. He likes 1000 watt HID about 6 to 7 feet from babies in cups. His methods are rocking.

I was wondering if a 8 bulb T5 right on top of them moved up each day might grow faster.

I run a 12 bulb 648W T5 with 6500k bulbs right on top of my clones and established seedlings, they grow into the bulbs and do not burn whatsoever. This results in short, dense plants with good internode spacing and a tendency to grow uniformly. As for the speed of the growth, my 600w MH kills the T5 in side by side comparisons using 16 oz cups with clones from the same mother.

If you plan on going T5, I don't recommend using it past 2 or maybe 3 feet of plant height at most. I even switched every other bulb to 2700K like most growers recommended and the growth was nonchalant next to the MH. Clones that were super cropped did excellent under the T5 when kept around 12", untopped plants from seed were spindly next to the supercropped plants from seed. I overcame this by not raising my T5 more than 12 inches, defoliating top fan leaves and vegging them until the bottom shoots were even with the tops.

lucky bounce said:

I run a 12 bulb 648W T5 with 6500k bulbs right on top of my clones and established seedlings, they grow into the bulbs and do not burn whatsoever. This results in short, dense plants with good internode spacing and a tendency to grow uniformly. As for the speed of the growth, my 600w MH kills the T5 in side by side comparisons using 16 oz cups with clones from the same mother.

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Whats the foot print on those?

a mongo frog said:

Whats the foot print on those?

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It penetrates the canopy well if you don't get too far from the tops. That's why I keep my plants short and the T5 very close. The depth it reaches is around 4 foot of decent light and 24 inches of very good light with 54w HO bulbs.

don't doubt him it works wonderfully well, however it's not really cost effective when you could get comparable results from much lower wattage lighting placed closer

lucky bounce said:

I run a 12 bulb 648W T5 with 6500k bulbs right on top of my clones and established seedlings, they grow into the bulbs and do not burn whatsoever. This results in short, dense plants with good internode spacing and a tendency to grow uniformly. As for the speed of the growth, my 600w MH kills the T5 in side by side comparisons using 16 oz cups with clones from the same mother.

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Great analysis. You want bushy, shorter and slower T5. You want fast, taaler and not as bushy MH.

Freddie Millergogo said:

Great analysis. You want bushy, shorter and slower T5. You want fast, taaler and not as bushy MH.

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The MH keeps them short and bushy as well, but the T5 does basically the same thing with a little longer veg time at a lower cost. I run both on 24/0 and the cost of the MH per month is around $60 and the T5 is half that easily half that. Great results under both!

i like to use cfl's to veg and hps for flower. in a 2x2 i can leave it closed up all day with a fan on my babies and have no issues. they grow short, have tight nodes, big leafs, fat stalks and are extremely healthy. ive tried t5's but compared to a cfl, you cant really beat em in veg. two 86w bulbs at 6500k over 4000 lumens each, and i get faster results than using my mh.

lucky bounce said:

The MH keeps them short and bushy as well, but the T5 does basically the same thing with a little longer veg time at a lower cost. I run both on 24/0 and the cost of the MH per month is around $60 and the T5 is half that easily half that. Great results under both!

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What do you estimate the time in veg MH versus T5? Thanks. Good stuff.

thanks man,
really i think it depends on what youre using as far as medium or hydro, and pot size. if you dont transplant, you ssave growing time. if you transplant i think i adds at least three days if not more. so say you just anted to veg in a gallon pot, you drop the seed right in there and grow, i can veg that plant get it around 3' or bigger, have at least 8 main branches thick nice sturdy stalk in less than 5 weeks depending on the strain and thats after the 14 days from seed of course with a mh. with a t5 i can veg a plant the same in around 4 weeks. with my cfl's its not that much faster but i seem to get better looking plants. i get more leafs using a t5 vs a mh. but the leafs are thicker looking with the mh imo.

I use all 4 lights...2tube flour for the ezcloner..t5 for party cups...led/400mh for the 1 gallon plants
and 600hps for flower
150 plants

Freddie Millergogo said:

What do you estimate the time in veg MH versus T5? Thanks. Good stuff.

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If I were using identical clones from the same mother, the MH would be ready in half the time. So a two week veg under a MH, IF THE clones are both rooted is comparable to a month veg under the T5. It's really up to the grower about how they choose to grow.

Mine have been growing really slowly and I think it's because of the lighting but I'm not sure. Is it because I didn't start them in cups? I started them in three gallon pots but up until now they've been growing really quickly. I have some T5s, the led grow lights, and a few CFLs. Which one should I use and is there anything else I can do to help the growth process?

Katkatkat717 said:

Mine have been growing really slowly and I think it's because of the lighting but I'm not sure. Is it because I didn't start them in cups? I started them in three gallon pots but up until now they've been growing really quickly. I have some T5s, the led grow lights, and a few CFLs. Which one should I use and is there anything else I can do to help the growth process?

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What are you temperatures like? Sometimes in the winter it is too cool for the plants. Too hot is not good. In veg you want your humidity close to 60% too. Do you have your T5s pretty close to the plants?