Ok. I have limited space to grow and in which heat is a MAJOR issue. With a 175watt MH I use a fan that just makes too much noise. I dont want to attract attention to it ya know? I have a New Wave T5 24 Fluorescent setup currently running for veg in there. It works great. The T5 24 creates about 8,000 lumens. Heat with these things is NO PROBLEM AT ALL. It's fantastic. I have room to hang another T5 24 in the closet. They would be side by side. Here's my question: will this setup (adding another T5 24) work for flowering? Alternatively Id use a 175W MH which creates about 14,000 lumens. With the two T5's I would have around 16,000 lumens. I mean, growth all comes down to lumens, right? I cant find (so far) any place where someone has tried flowering w/ these things. If possible, it would save my grow-op in a heart beat! Also, I'm not obsessed w/ getting the best crop I possibly can. I'm a practical person and if I can get a certain measure of success, I will be content! Any help is greatly appreciated. -F
Fuckin A bro look me up, check out my MaxLST thread. Umm, i think my last T-5 harvest netted like 5.5 oz from one plant. LOVE EM...That said im switching over to a 1000w HPS soon. But fuck yes you can flower with one of those. Do it! And next time use a hydro set up. Have fun!
FUCK YEAH. I been tripping for the past few weeks thinkin this shit wasn't goign to be any good at all. I will proceed to flower w/ the awesome T5!! Just read a bit of your post, but I'm gonna finish reading it now. just wanted to post that I am breathing the biggest sigh of relief! nobody talks about these lights! As for the LST setup, it's a bit too late for me to do that I think. I'm basically ready to start flowering, but next time....! Thanks again, dude! -F
Hold the phone. I would recommend bending those bitches way the f over. if you grow them in the traditional manner you will not get the kind of yields you can get with HPS or by using LST. Its just a fact that the T-5 has no penetration power. once the light is more than say 8 to 10 in away during flowing your results will diminish drastically.if you have the space you cam do some pretty aggressive LST for up to say 1 week into flowering and the plant will recover and you will double your yields. if you cant do that i would almost recommend the other light.
I'm flowering right now with compact T5's. I know I could get more with a 250watt HPS but it was a lot cheaper to buy some 3000K bulbs for my first grow. I used 6500K bulbs for veg.
Alright, I'm learning about the sog/srog/lst type of methods. they all seem to be slightly different ways of achieving the same thing: getting each bud site to be equally distanced from the light source, right? So I can bend them the way I want and be able to keept he T% sitting really close to each site evenly yea? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I can achieve this.
i bent mine over 2 weeks into flowering after seeing Gator's thread... just be gentle and she can do it. pic #1 is the day i tied her down pic #2 is a few days before harvest. gl man.
u can keep them as close as 1-2 inches, just make sure u have a very good flow of air blowing across the tops/bulbs. It shouldnt be hot when u hold your hand an inch below it, especially with a good fan..
They are a hard bulb to find. I think they are more popular in Europe than here in the US. They have a 4 pin 2G11 base and are basically a HO T5 folded in half with a skinnier tube. Here's an example, a standard 4 ft HO T5 is a 54 watt lamp that produces 5,000 lumens. My 2G11 bulbs are only 2ft and uses 55 watts to produce 4,800 lumens. Fixtures are very hard to find, I ended up just making my own. Here's an example of the bulb I'm using for flowering.
thanks for all the replies, guys. i've assembled the PVC skeleton over which I'm going to lay some chicken wire for the plants with which they can "mingle". thanks again guys. this heat was a major issue, but now it's all good.
yeah I can have the light at 2 inches w/ no problems and yes with a nice draft of air across the tops. the lights are not hot to the touch at all. they are such AWESOME lights!
If you can bend the you can train them, I'm still tying them down and I've been on 12/12 for a month, and I'll continue tying them down until the colas get to big to bend. So dude, train away! My grow:http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/131440-12-12-harvest-pics-update-weekly.html
This is a huge relief for me as well; I have also had trouble finding anyone using HO fluorescents! I ordered my New Wave HO 4x4 fixture, it will be here in a few days. It produces 20,000 lumens. I saw one I wanted that was half HO fluorescent and had a HPS bulb in the middle of the fixture which you could independently control, but it was out of my price range. Hurray for this thread