HO t5 flowering??

I was hearing a couple people talk in my grow shop earlier today about flowering and i over herd one on them saying he was trying out using a 8 lamp HO t5 to flower instead of a HPS by switching out the bulbs. has anyone tried this?

I have 2 friends who have tried this with the inception coming mainly from the hydro store employees. The problem lies in the T5's penetration..... past 12 inches they are rendered "inefficient" and well the initial stretch of 12/12 can often reach beyond that.. so even with no veg time.... ideally your still lollipoping in flowering...it really will also depend greatly on genetics...but the Bud I saw were dense and stinky..... no quality lost just per watt not as efficient. 430 something watts i believe they are and I have yet to see either of them yield over 5 ounces from the 6 plants they get under there. they are twins too who do everything the same as each other even tattos... weird lol

Pros-
cheap and easy to set up/run
requires minimal cooling power
nice colas due to close light to bud proximity

Cons
Low intensity, low penetration
the wattage is spread across the entire length and quantity of the bulbs
airy lower buds


Overall can do well with red spectrum bulbs but not as efficient. The way indoors is even with HiD lights its hard to penetrate enough to veg a plant past a week or three without using side lighting. HiD also have the advantage of sending out all of the wattage and light from one central point. Imitating the sun closest in terms of all indoor lighting. Some have their own take though. That's just my 2 pennies.

so if you were to do a SOG it would do alright because your going for one large cola very quickly? otherwise probably not worth it right?

just flower with hps veg with t5

m4a2c0e said:

just flower with hps veg with t5

Click to expand...

yeah, you can stick with status quo thinking, and, hell, if you're just looking to get a harvest that is a surefire way to do it. boombats lays out the conventional wisdom about T5s in a concise way but if you check out the threads, "Club T5," "Led without Leds," and "Advanced Lighting Spectrums for T5 Floro and Led" you will find that scientifically speaking, HO T5 can produce buds of higher quality and equivalent density when compared with the same strain grown HID.

Of course, there is also the context of your grow to consider: if you're trying to crop out commercially then T5s are probably going to be too cumbersome compared to HID set ups. Still, the information about photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and photosynthetically usable radiation (PUR) is worth understanding regardless of your type of light source. Also, it will depend on which aspects of gardening you enjoy most (i.e. how involved you LIKE to be with your girls)

Links
Club T5 >> https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/493026-club-t5.html
Led w/o Led >> https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/358190-led-without-leds-my-first.html
Advanced spectra >> https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/545857-advanced-lighting-spectrums-t5-floro.html

hope you come back and check this and keep an open mind!
be easy

wonder6977 said:

so if you were to do a SOG it would do alright because your going for one large cola very quickly? otherwise probably not worth it right?

Click to expand...

you're getting close to the idea here, wonder;

the idea is an even canopy so that you can keep your lights equally close (4-6" is what i've seen most often recommended in full veg and flower, with seedlings benefitting from a little more distance) thereby reducing the penetration drawbacks and increasing the par delivery to your plants. this is why tailoring the spectrum of your light source by using wavelength specified aquarium bulbs is necessary to achieve the heights of success other growers have using T5. hence, they are well suited to SCROG (and to an extent, sog) and other stress training techniques that manage the canopy. furthermore, the implementation of side lighting (whether its more t5 or cfl or whatever) is a fairly straightforward and simplistic way to combat the penetration issues (which are overstated IMO).

combating these penetration issues, along with engaging in spectral balancing, will enable a T5 setup to produce buds that are as dense, more resinous, more potent, and in comparable quantity when compared with those produced by HID. check out the thread links i posted for photographic confirmation.
be easy

p.s. when i "liked" your post, i did also have the ulterior motive of getting you back in here!

I'm thinking I'm going to have to try doing a scrog grow with all t5 and keep a journal to post results. clone time!!!