Help: When to change lights

I'm using T8 fluro 6500, but it occurred to me I'm growing autoflowering, so I should just use 3000, but I don't want to hermie them, do I leave a light on while I'm changing the bulbs? or do I sit in the dark and try to change them out... (that sounds fun) Thanks for any help

You cant turn a plant hermie by the light spectrum its getting. Wait till it shows sex then flip to your flowering bulb. I'd seriously consider adding a fixture or 2 if your going to try to flower with tubes, preferably more. Tubes dont work out good for flowering unless you get alot of them.

You need 2700k for flowering, 6500k for veg. it can be others but get as close as possible, and nothing between 4000 - 5000 IMO. And to change them out it doesn't matter much for the short amount of time you will be changing.

I would just add a few large cfls to the sides if you can. Tubes are great for veg. Not so much for flower.

I have 4 bulbs on them right now, all within an inch away of the babies, is that enough?

if worried about working in the dark the have a green light bulb. it wont affect plant at night. veg need 2500 lumen and flowering 10000.

perfect, four of them produces 10840

RavenMochi said:

I have 4 bulbs on them right now, all within an inch away of the babies, is that enough?

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For now yes. I'd get some more for side lighting, you need to surround the plant on the sides too.

I have 2 bulbs on top, and 2 to the right, all encased in imprinted foil. the plants seem to be loving it, they were losing they're color and stopped growing, but since I put in the lights they've all gotten they're color back and have resumed growing...and I only did this yesterday...

RavenMochi said:

perfect, four of them produces 10840

Click to expand...

10,000 lumens is per square foot, not total grow. So if your grow area is 2' x 4' (8 sq ft) you will need 80,000.
Saying that 10,000 is ideal, but I've been using 4 x 55w pll CFL tubes giving me 19,400 lumens over 3.45 sq ft (5623 lumens per sq ft) and produced 1-1.5 oz per plant.
I've now got 6 x 55w giving 8434 lumens per sq ft and is looking well frosty

Well I was checking out a short rider grow using 400 hps lighting for 4 plants, and they're at the same place on the week 3 mark and I have twice that many under 128w of t8 4ft fluro's. They're new growth is actually looking good, especially 2 of the short rider pheno's, its sbout to start branching out beautifully...

The flouro tubes will veg fine but forget flowering under them, get soft white cfl's or go even bigger... Sounds like you should try the CFL's though..

the major problem about the t5 lights is that the light dimishes very quickly at distances.. so although they are great for vegging, i use them myself, they aren't the best option for flowering like everyone else is saying.. as your plants get bigger, the t5 will have more trouble penetrating your canopy.. going with auto's should help this out a lot as they won't get near the size of a non auto strain.. also, adding side lighting like dark destruction said, will help the light to get down further on the plants..

well right now as you can see, I have 2 bulbs on top and two running alongside of them, and I plan on getting mylar when I get a chance to. So far theyre doing okay on flowering, and I plan on doing sog which should help me keep an even canopy. as it is I keep the top one just shy of an inch from the tops, and the sides are flush with the pots.I have thought about putting 3 cfl in there to for supplemental lighting.
I'll be training the tall one starting today and will be setting up the sog net when my girls finish the branches they just started shooting. but Yea, like I said, they're flowering right now, so I figure as long as I keep the canopy even, I should be good. Oh, and they're only T8's, not T5's, but I saw a few grows go well with them, all were using sog. Probably the only way to get it to work...

My only problem with the cfl's racerboy is that with the t8 I get 4 ft worth of canopy, with a cfl not nearly as much, though that will probably be how I keep my babies mama's from my outdoor 12/12. I'll grant you I've seen some tall beauty's kept up with cfl's...I just don't see them working for the sog part of my setup.

RavenMochi said:

perfect, four of them produces 10840

Click to expand...

nah man, its still 2700, but the coverage is better. lumens dont add