T-5's with 1 150 watt cfl

puckhead

Member
Hi everyone. I am starting a new grow in my master bedroom shower. We never use it so it's the perfect spot. It is 30 wide x 29 deep x 47 tall with a clone/seedling area above it. I am planning on using 4 2ft t-5's with a 150 watt CFL to add a little heat because it only warms up to about 65 in there in winter. Going to grow 2 plants in DWC. Have three others in soil, but they can be moves when it's time foe the hydro to flower. My question is, is the 150 watt CFL excessive and could I cut it down to a smaller wattage? It's 150w equivalent to a 300w. Would like to go smaller. All advice is greatly appreciated.
Using Fox Farm Nutes with their schedule for the hydro and a mix of my outside soil with a little organic Miracle Grow potting soil. I have grown soil before and have never added any nutes. What, if any should I use. Seedlings are 2 weeks in humidity dome an ready for transplant. Thanks again.
 

thc&me

Active Member
If you're going to keep the plants real small, I suppose you could go with a lower wattage CFL. However, more light is always better. You may want to consider running several smaller wattage bulbs instead of a single 150W bulb.
 

puckhead

Member
So you don't think a 150w equivalent to a 300w will bring too much heat? My concern is burn from the lights. If that should not be a worry then I will just go ahead as planned. Thanks.
 

HSA

Well-Known Member
Puckhead: here's my two cents worth: get a fixture as close to the size of your grow as you can find with as many tubes as possible. I changed over to T-5's about a year ago and I haven't looked back yet. Start out with a set of grow/veg blue lights and when they're ready you can go to red flowering lights.

In between crops you can protect the tubes you aren't using in a length of capped 3/4" PVC pipe.

There's a lot of versatility with T-5's you don;t find with other lighting types. For one thing, they burn a lot cooler and you can keep them real close without a problem. I hope that helps. HSA
 
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