Hello everyone its DChief420 I'm about 5 weeks in veg, "plants seem smaller due to lack of light in beginning weeks" besides that my two babies are doing pretty well heath wise. Just looking for tips, and advice, but please not hating on my "small plants" please. My setup list: 1.# in a huge closet about 7ftwidex9ftheight "so I have plenty of room". 2.# I have a 12'' exhaust fan for clean air and to take out humidly in the room. "Room Temp is always about 70ish" 3.# Growing in Premium Miracle Grow Soil. "Great soil, but heard alot of stories of other peoples grows turning up bad, although I've had alot of experience growing in it so I've never had problems with it. I think people may over-water to much when using it, and don't realize MG holding water for a while unlike other soils do. 4.# In 4Gal Buckets with plenty of room to grow. 5.# 1 60Watt Soft white bulb, 1 85 Watt Grow bulb, 1 90Watt bulb. "I know everyone I need new lights but I need advice on great kinds, mainly energy efficient and not too expensive, thinking about some T5's? Pic 1. First plant different strain with kindly purple stems, smells great but growing slower. Pic 2. Second plant nicknamed "Sasquatch" LOL Smells a ton, Growing really fast considering lack of light in early weeks, its now starting to take off. Pic 3. Is Sasquatch again from a different angle. Pic 4. Is both plants together in my lil setup. That's pretty much about it, I've pretty new to growing but learning day by day and loving it!
Yeah T5s can work. I would not use Miracle Grow! Buy some good soil at your grow shop. Buy some organic potting soil with bat guano and worm castings. You will see bigger buds! Good Luck!
T5's are great for vegging. I've even seen a couple ok blooms done under them. Your next run, once you get some decent lighting will be much better. You can get your T5's much closer to your seedlings which will prevent the stretching (long spindly stalk and stems) and with proper nutrition and soil, your leaves will appear more rigid and sturdy. For flowering, if efficiency is really important you may want to look into lights that provide just a usable spectrum, like LED's. They are very expensive on the front end but I've seen some grows that make me think they could definitely pay off...especially when running such a small setup.
He will use less energy with LEDs and more than make up for the cost of the lights. They're not that expensive.
if your only going to be growing 1 or 2 plants at a time then spend $120 on a good digital hps light(got mine for $117 so not expensive) 400 watts would be more than enuff, I have 2ww,1 blueberry gum,1 pineapple x-press,and 1 Liberian red under a 150 watt hps and a 400 watt hps and they r doing great, i went from 2 t5's and within a week could see the diff the light made on my last grow, my latest grow is at diff stages but the size diff from my last grow using cfls and the t5's is a huge improvement