need help how many fluroescent t5 tubes will i need for 6 to 10 plants

im be growing indica autoflowering plants how many should i need ima use the 4 foot t5 tubualar fixtures
please help ima newbie

are u training or topping

u are going to need a top set of lights 6 plants i would say 2 4ft 6 bulbs

and as they get taller and u move the lights up u will see yellowing from low light lvl near the bottom of the plant u can fix this with sidewall lights 4 4ft 2 tubes .....u will need to rotate the planters when u feed them so the light gets on all parts even ..................go for a 600 watt or a 1000 watt cool tube system ....i started out with 4 autos on a 2 ft 8 bulb t5 and had major issuses with not enough light moved outside and ordered a new tent and a 600 watt HID system

bluntzndbongz said:

im be growing indica autoflowering plants how many should i need ima use the 4 foot t5 tubualar fixtures
please help ima newbie

Click to expand...

Depends on the size of the pots, drip pans, and plants... I can fit 8 plants in traditional sized circular 3 gallon pots under a 4 foot 6 tubes T5HO fixture, but as the plants become larger and start to branch out, I found that 6 tubes were not wide enough to cover the entire plants with light... I'd go with a 8 tube 4 foot fixture.

These are like a 2 and 3 weeks old photos of my autos that are under a 4ft 6 bulb. You can see in the last pic that the fixture is barely wide and long enough to be able to sit completely over the top of the plants at this early stage of growth. Now that they are much much larger and bushier, they are branching out past the light...



Even with one 8tube 4foot T5, I highly doubt you'll be able to fit more than 8 under it comfortably...

bluntzndbongz said:

im be growing indica autoflowering plants how many should i need ima use the 4 foot t5 tubualar fixtures
please help ima newbie

Click to expand...

4 plants in a 4 foot row

3 x 4 tube T5 HO (one on top and two on each corner angled in).

Thats minimum for anything worthwhile.

and of course make sure you get a good variety of spectra (not just the 65k and 3K tubes)

my berry ryders letting go natural got to 16 inchs wide and 14 inches wide.......that is why i said the 2 x 4ft 6bulb with 6 plants

alright that sounds good i havent started building my grow storage yet but i have the base for it already its 6 feet wide and 8 feet long and im gonnha make it 8 feet tall

and ima have them in 3 gallon pots
im not gonnha scrog or lst till my second or third grow dont wanna waste my money if i kill my plants doing it wrong cause i have no extra money right now im on a 250 dollar budget

I use T5s for veg room as seen in the pics in this post. They are great and the eight tubers allow for turning them on and off in fours. These are better than MH IMHO. You can witch out the veg bulbs for grow bulbs or buy them with grow bulbs if you must use them for flowering.

Granted, the three plants in the pic do not warrant all eight tubes. Vegged from seed for six weeks post germination. They were pinch topped at 3 weeks and then again this week at week 6. They are ready for for flower room once some room clears in about 1-2 weeks. So at this size, about 2' tall, I can get about six bushy indicas under both T5 units with all sixteen tubes turned on and it's bright as hell under there!!!

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/690531-first-time-grower-results-discussion.html

Sheesh420 said:

I use T5s for veg room as seen in the pics in this post. They are great and the eight tubers allow for turning them on and off in fours. These are better than MH IMHO. You can witch out the veg bulbs for grow bulbs or buy them with grow bulbs if you must use them for flowering.

Granted, the three plants in the pic do not warrant all eight tubes. Vegged from seed for six weeks post germination. They were pinch topped at 3 weeks and then again this week at week 6. They are ready for for flower room once some room clears in about 1-2 weeks. So at this size, about 2' tall, I can get about six bushy indicas under both T5 units with all sixteen tubes turned on and it's bright as hell under there!!!

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/690531-first-time-grower-results-discussion.html

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That's just it. He's wanting to go start to finish growing 8 plants with a T5, and I'm telling you that a 6 tube or lower isn't going to be big enough to cover all 8 plants once they start to stretch and branch out. It's okay to veg smaller plants, but not big enough to flower 8 full sized autos.. My 6 tube 4 foot is barely large enough to cover the top of all 8 for my 3 gallon pots let alone over anything that grows past the lip of the pots... If not for the help of my SCROG screen, I'd have branches of buds that would not be covered by lights right now. He's either is going to have to buy an 8 tube fixture at least, grow less plants, or 8 be content with having an inefficient amount of light for the 8 plants... Ten is out of the question.

The OP can get a 400w HPS for less than the cost of an 8 tube T5, and it would spread enough light to cover all 8 plants while using less electricity.... The HPS would also get you better yields as well. I'm not sure if you're in the US or not, but you can get a light timer, ballast, HPS bulb, rope hangers, and a reflector for around $100.00... I'm running a 1000w Flower tent in the same room that I have my my T5 auto grow in. It's summer and I 100 degrees weather, so heat would be more of an issue for me with both HPS's in one room, but you should be okay if you go that wrought...

the reason i dont wanna get a hps they produce to much heat and i dont wanna pump heat or anything do you think if i get two 4 foot 4 bulb systems and one 2 bulb system to drop in the middle of the plants to produce heat to the lower leaves

and its in texas its weird as weather and usually 95 and up degree weather

i really wanna go led but to expesive so cfl for know till my second grow

if u are building

why not copy the screw in kind make a center tent pole and use 6 4 foot tubes and to make it round stick that in the middle run 2 on each of the walls except the door side and then hit with 4ft 8 bulbs on top

the other idea i had was 2 4f 8 bulb but instead of having them at the top flat u angle them so the plant is covered on the sides and the top can grow tho and use one more at the top of that a 2 ft 8 bulb ....................i think this is the best but i figure u get 2 maybe plants fully covered prefectly 3 would be pushing it
t5s are great for low heat but they do not get in to deep nor does the light carry to far from the edges

figure anything directly under the light is good for 2 feet and it can expand about 6 inchs( not directly under it ) and the light still be good but any more u are getting into the area of low light and not much functional use ..................the t5s are 100 to 120 so u can get with in 2 inchs if u have a good wind system to move the heat away

i meant to produce light to the lower branches

bluntzndbongz said:

i meant to produce light to the lower branches

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Use T5s for sidelighting, or maybe cheap ebay leds (caution know what your buying)

what about LED have any of yall had any experince ive been reading up on them but the good ones are to damn expensive and same with plasma

im not gonnha buy nothing of ebay especially lighting never know what your ordering could be some broken ass leds ima order from a garden store or hydro shop

or go to home depot or lowes

http://www.thelashop.com/225-high-power-red-blue-led-plant-grow-light-panel.html there 35 dollars each i might get 2 of the blue red spec and two of the blue spectrum

led ............i posted a ? on amazon about them

the guy that responced said i should look into .....black dog ....black sky ..........he said he uses the black dog brand and is loving the results