My all T5 closet grow, 2nd grow

Thanks I am hoping to have a decent harvest from these.

Just ordered 2 39w T5 HO 3000K bulbs to replace 2 of the 6500K bulbs and a 100w 2700K CFL to fill in a gap in the lighting. I have a 26w warm white CFL in there now but it is old and too small IMO. I am pleased with the pink photosynthesis plant bulbs I got they seem to be well suited for flowering. Done playing around I want a good combo of bulbs in the right spectrums to help ensure a good harvest.
Something else I am doing that should be interesting is 3 of my plants are all New Your Diesel cloned from my last grow from the same plant. What I decided to do with these is to give them each a different mix of bud sweeteners to see if there is any difference in the taste and smell. One is getting all berry sweet, one is getting all sugar cane sweet and the last is getting a 50/50 mix of the berry and sugar. I will keep this updated as I see any differences between the plants.

Buds are getting heavy need to start supporting them and starting to smell good. Going to HomeDepot to get supports for the plants and a light socket splitter. I got the bulbs I ordered in yesterday and they are now in. I now have a mix of 6500k, pink photosynthesis, 3000k and 2700k bulbs I need to do the math and figure out the total lumens but they are up there now. So far I have very happy with the way this grow is going other than a constant small white fly population and my lack of knowledge on training things are going pretty well. I will takes some pics once the lights com on.
Wow just did the math on the lumens as of right now I have 41,800 lumens and a total of 479 watts and once I add in the second CFL I will be at 43,500 lumens and 505 watts. For comparision a 400 watt HPS is 45,000 lumens, puts out way more heat and depending on the ballast will use 420-500 actual watts.

Pics taken this morning. There was a strong yummy smell in the closet this morning. Day 27 of flower.

Any good tips on how to get more swell out of my plants??

Yes.....more light.

I knew someone was going to sat that. I think I am pretty good with the light I have 505 watts of HO T5 and CFL is a lot of lumens.

Haha. are you mixing your spectrums??? Adding more red during flowering?

Yep. I have 2 6500K, 2 3000K and 4 special photosynthesis bulbs that are all in the red and pink spectrums.

How many watts per bulb???

My 36" fixtures have 4 bulbs each at 39 watts, I have a 24" 4 bulb fixture at 24 watts each bulb, I have 2 more 24 watt single T5s on the walls for side lighting and 2 26 watt CFLs filling in a gap in the lighting. Total I have 505 watts.

What are your temps running with that much light? And how do you do your exhaust. I feed molasses to my plants during flower and a bit in veg. Helps with pluming up the buds. CO2 also helps growth rate. There is a thing called an exhale bag. I just started trying that out after using the sugar and yeast method. The bags are head and shoulders better. I would try to keep those plants way shorter next time. Means short veg, and training the plant to stay low. Or even scrog.

Hate to say it also but a more powerful light would probably be your best bet though. It has further penetration into the canopy and grows some pretty dense buds. You can still use your t5s for side lighting, or small veg/mother room. And put a dimmable 600 watt HPS for flower, and boom. You can dim down to 300 and 450 watts with those ballasts.

With it all sealed up and no fans on lights on it gets up to 85 but I normally have the closet doors open on each end with a fan pulling in air from one side and venting out the other side. With this going temps stay mid to high 70s. I feed molasses in flower as well. HPS is just not do able for me. I tried running a 400w in there and temps went to 110 really quick. I was thinking about those CO2 bags. Yeah I need to LST my plants next grow and flower then a lot sooner so they dont get so big, this was another learning experience for sure.

The lights seem very far away if you are using T5s. I would tie down the top branches so that there is an even canopy and then lower the lights to within a few inches of the tops. I would have just gone with 250w HPS, 500w T5s isnt very efficient. You would probably see 100% increase in yield

I learned most of what i know through mistakes. Just part of it. I still learn something new each grow.

Just keep your lights as close as possible and you will be good. I dont know why people keep telling you to use a hps when you cant. If you cant use a hps you just freakn cant. Ya know. Keep up good work. Oh and 500 wattts of flouros is great if you place them properly. Peace

yep need to tie em down ...........

Rizzo00 said:

Just keep your lights as close as possible and you will be good. I dont know why people keep telling you to use a hps when you cant. If you cant use a hps you just freakn cant. Ya know. Keep up good work. Oh and 500 wattts of flouros is great if you place them properly. Peace

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I agree that its annoying when people have a small grow and somebody keeps saying they should forget CFLs and get an HPS, but in this case he has a large room and while a 400w HPS might not be right (due to heat) a 250w could be the best choice. Could be that thats also too hot without ventilation though.

Yeah if I could do a HPS in there I would no doubt. If I had my way I would have a 400w HPS cool hood vented into the attic but my wife will not let me cut a hole in the ceiling even though we own the house and it is something that I can easily fix. Wouldnt tieing them down at this point starve the bottom sides of the buds for light? If not I will try it. The only reason I have the lights up so high is because I have 3-4 tops that stretched a lot and grew over the canopy. Yeah I figured the lighting I have is pretty good for the limitations I have. I do not have a large room it is a closet grow. I am still trying to get the wife to let me do a HPS but then I have all these T5 lights that I spent dome $$ on and cant do much with. These T5 need to pay for themselves at least 2-3 times over before I could even think about buying new lighting.

i would just tie down the top 2 or 3 that are way higher.........maybe the bottom side of those buds dont get the light but the rest of everything will............