Max Yield using T5 for flowering

Well 4' T5HO's are 5000 lumens a piece at around 50 watts. If your smart, you'd get An 8 tube fixture, or if you have the room, just a bunch of singles. 8 - T5HO's = 40,000 lumens using 400 watts.
2's produce 2000 lumens, so thats 16,000 lumens. The 4'ers make more bang for your buck in every aspect.
Remember that the closer the light, it GREATLY increases the % of light reaching the plant. So IMO It will be on par with a HID. But you will get less coverage.

 

I love my T5's and have got some great yealds with autoflowers - I just flowered a crop with the 27k flowering bulbs and had better results with the standard 65k bulbs.

 

the mixed spectrum may be what you're looking for, i have used dual spectrum (blue/red) tubes for my 4' 8 tube t-5 and REALLY liked it. Purple tubes are A bit more expensive ... one day you have cash, then it goes and you have bud... and on and on...

I would just go with a mix of blue and red tubes for flowering though

 

I've heard the same when it comes to metal halide 250w... might as well choose the mh over hps... The recommended lights though, are 400 or 1ooow ceramic metal halides, on a high pressure sodium ballast

 

What wattage and lumens are the lights you have?

 

I am on my second t5 white rhino scrog grow. I use a t5ho 4'4 bulb unit with 4 3000k tubes. That makes 20,000 lumens and uses 216 watts(plus probably 30 watts or so for the ballast) and I yielded 148 grams(5.3 oz) from 3 plants after full dry and cure. It being my first ever mj grow I did make some mistakes while training, so I ended up with about 10% of my sreen not filled.
For my current grow I added 2x 4't12 dual tubes fixture with 6500k tubes to either side of the t5 fixture and went from 3 plants in 5 gal pots to 4 in 3 gallon pots.
The photo album in my sig has pics of my scrog box during the first grow.
Sorry for the long winded run up to this but I think with your fixture and the right strain and good scrogging you might be able to get 8 or 9 ounces. Also keep in mind I'm new at this so I could be way off.

 

vegging with 2700k worked better for me too. last 12/12 from seed run i did with my 4' t5h0 i yielded over 1 ounce per plant. i grew 4 plants in 5 gallon buckets and used a ton of lst. we were very happy with the results.

 

For one to two plants you have plenty of light. If you were going to up the number of plants, it would be beneficial to up the wattage as well.

If you make a thread I'd follow, I love starting a thread from the beginning.

 

Not to seem to rain on the parade. But it should be pointed out that though many use the same method to determine total initial lumens for their grow, it's inaccurate. One cannot simply multiply a direct ratio from a tube or bulb's lumen output by the number of bulbs used to come up with total lumens being generated. Each tube or bulb is still only producing a certain amount that cannot somehow become so much greater because multiples are being employed. The space appears brighter and a light meter seems to confirm there's more lumens over a broader area. But this is deceptive, as were the meter to be placed right near each bulb one would see that in fact each one is still showing the same reading whether one bulb or many. You merely are providing a better coverage area of 2000 or 5000 lumens. Not really 20,000 or 40,000 lumens in terms of comparing to a HID that actually produces much higher lumens. Apart from this if you're happy with your yields and potency, you're good to go. Just know it's getting done with less lumens tha you think.

 

After cured the plants flowered under the 24k bloom bulbs were a whole 1/3 less weight than when bloomed under the 64k bulbs, they were also way less frosty & resin production was poor. I have no real way to guage that other than I only had to clean my trimmers once while trimming and not as sticky as previous grows - The only change in this grow was the addition of AN bud candy during the flowering cycle.

 

Kuahiwi: I think there are too many variables in the question you asked. You're going to find yield is a result of a combination of things: the strain you're growing, the nutes you're using, the ambient environment you're growing in and the style of growing as well as the lighting you have available to the plant. All I can give you is the results of my experience growing my personal meds indoors.

I've used T-5's exclusively from seed propagation or cloning all the way up to harvest for the last couple of years. As a retired personal grower all my costs fixed like my income and are absorbed by me as I have no one to pass them on to, unlike my friends who grow commercially for sale. So I have to watch my costs or it would be cheaper for me to buy my meds from a dispensary.

Electricity is a major concern when you only want to light up 12 vegging or 6 flowering plants in a 2' by 4' by 6 1/2' tent, so HPS and HID are pretty much out of the question. T-5's are inexpensive to run and they produce very little heat so that keeps the other energy costs down. There's no need for separate cooling/air conditioning to protect my plants.

My babies veg well under close T-5's without me worrying about frying them. You can['t do that with other lighting options. Some of my friends have switched over to T-5's for vegging and they're happy with the results but then they switch to HPS or HID for flowering.

I go all the way to harvest under my T-5's and the only difference I can see is that my buds are not as tight and photogenic as theirs. You'll probably never see mine in a "HIGH TIMES," centerfold. Flowering under T-5's produces a looser bud but one just as potent. I hope that helps. Hank

 

$0.45/kwh? Where the heck do you live? Why not use a 250w HPS? You're already using 288w with that t5 lamp.