Vegging under T12 Fluorescent Lights

Ok I know, I know T12 Fixtures SUCK..

BUT
Why? I know they are low Lumens compared to Bla bla bla..
I am running 3-6 fixtures depending on how many plants I have vegging at once.
They each hold 2 bulbs, 1 bulb is like 3000k and one 6500k bulb. 37w and 40w.
Right now I am vegging 7 plants and Have Clones under all 6 fixtures. I think they are dooing well, what do you think?
Here are some pictures.


My Clones under their Dome





Oh and all of these plants are 34 days old. the ones on the table near the clones are carmalicious, the other 2 are freebie seeds, the ones in the buckets are my White widows.
These bulbs again are as you can see in the picture here, --> 3200 lumens for the 3000k 32watts and 2325 lumens for 6500k 40watts.
I know lumens are not cumulative but there is still alot of light there. the fixtures were $10 each, and the big cases of bulbs were like $30 each.
For the money and results I would not count T12's out.

I would love to see comparable results with other fixtures.
anyone have any plants at or around 34-35 days with different lights? I would love to see the difference and cost of your lights.

I vegged with them the first year I was growing and they worked great. It is much slower growing compared to HID but if time is not a huge factor the money should be spent in the flowering space.

They look pretty good. T12's aren't terrible, and certainly work better than most CFL setups I see on here. They grow nice plants, just not real big, before they start to stretch. Your's are at about the max recommended heigth for T12's,(they can go a litle longer, the biggest ones), before they get 'stretchy'. They just grow a bit slower than T5's, for example. I use T8's,(6-bulb) and am quite happy, so far. I do plan to upgrade, but so far, I'd rather put all the power in my flowering room, where it actually counts.

jawbrodt said:

They look pretty good. T12's aren't terrible, and certainly work better than most CFL setups I see on here. They grow nice plants, just not real big, before they start to stretch. Your's are at about the max recommended heigth for T12's,(they can go a litle longer, the biggest ones), before they get 'stretchy'. They just grow a bit slower than T5's, for example. I use T8's,(6-bulb) and am quite happy, so far. I do plan to upgrade, but so far, I'd rather put all the power in my flowering room, where it actually counts.

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I hear ya there, I neglected to mention my flowering room, 1000w HPS

Gah, Besides the Cost of the fixtures, theres the electric bill to think of also. I would love a 600w MH fixture but for me the results I have gotten with these plants and my first grow it's not worth the monthly cost forever.

^Same here man, I'd love to do the exact same thing. I have a couple magnetic-ballasted 400 HPS lights sitting around, and am thinking about going to CMH(ceramic metal halide) with them, for veg. It'd be a little more wattage, but not much, and should work ALOT better. I'd like to be able to cut two weeks off my 6 week veg, for the perfect perpetual grow, with a harvest every 4 weeks. That's the main drawback to my T8's, they take about 6 weeks to get where I want, before switching to 12/12. Decisions, decisions,......lol

jawbrodt said:

^Same here man, I'd love to do the exact same thing. I have a couple magnetic-ballasted 400 HPS lights sitting around, and am thinking about going to CMH(ceramic metal halide) with them, for veg. It'd be a little more wattage, but not much, and should work ALOT better. I'd like to be able to cut two weeks off my 6 week veg, for the perfect perpetual grow, with a harvest every 4 weeks. That's the main drawback to my T8's, they take about 6 weeks to get where I want, before switching to 12/12. Decisions, decisions,......lol

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That is exactly it, when you are working on a schedule and you can shorten the whole cycle by 2 weeks, it adds up over the period of a year.