Hi guys I currently have a 1.5 x 1.1 x 0.5m wardrobe with a 400watt ballast which can run either MH or HPS. At the moment I have some 4-5 week old medicine man and afghan seedlings growing under MH. I plan to take some clones once they get big enough, switch the MH for HPS for flowering and want to have another wardrobe just for the vegetation stage. So 2 wardrobes running simultaneously to keep the cycle going. I want to keep the power bill and heat as low as possible, so looking at getting either CFL or T5 lights for the vegetation cupboard. ATM I am looking at either something like this 6400k 2x55w bulb T5 setup on ebay or a growlush 6400k 130w CFL. Any thoughts or advice? I have been reading round the net for the past few days, there is so much to learn, I've done a few grows outside before and have helped do some indoors but this is my first time doing it on my own, and I haven't grown from clones before. Thank you =)
you want like a complete prescription? how many do you have? femmed or are we still rolling the dice atm? id plan on finishing 2 plants and start from there, but i dont know your goals... if that sounds reasonable gimme a little more info and we can hammer this down.
really I'm just looking for advice on which would be better the T5 or CFLs for vegetation once I have taken some clones. I know HID are better but electricity is expensive and I don't want my bills to get much higher than they are now. Cooling is also a problem, atm not too bad as it is winter but in summer I will be struggling to keep the cupboards cool, one HID in my bedroom I can deal with, but 2 will be a bit much. I have 13 plants all up and no they are not feminized so rolling the dice I am! By the time I remove the males and keep a couple for mother plants there won't be much left. I think I will start with 6-8 clones for the next batch and go from there
so if i hear you right you are flowering under HID in a bigger space? Anyways for veg its totally up to you... they both work. i built a sweet t5 lamp: http://forum.grasscity.com/lighting...-flourescent-tube-12-x-48-pics-questions.html or you can get creative with desk lamps and 24 W cfl's figuring like 50W per plant for veg through a foot. NYCD plant i got like that.. pic on day 15. 3 bulbs were just cus i went away and needed them a little farther away from the plant. 2 is plenty at that size and this one only had one 24W 6500k up to 4 days before this pic: PicValley.net - FREE anonymous photo hosting and photo sharing I built a light with the 42W cfl's too but no pics here... basics are simple though, i just used plywood for a top and 3/4 x 5.5 inch pine board for sides.. mine was for 8 plants veg so i went with 8 42W cfl and spaced them 8 inches for 1.78 gal pots. Drilled holes in the plywood of the diameter of some porcelain sockets i had and just wood glued them in place through the plywood... i cut all the lamp cords and spliced them up to one plug and heat glued plexiglass to the bottom of the pine board sides so all the bulbs are in a box so to speak. then two comp fans on each side blowing in the same direction cools that thing like woah! you can slam it literally on the tops of them. you can scale that down to 2 or 4 plant models easily enough... oh yeah and mylar the inside of the box or use small drop light reflectors around each bulb if you leave space (i didnt want mine 7 inches thick) and i guess im still not clear on how you are gonna get 13 plants through veg in that space... thats better for the 6 or 8 plants you plan to make runs with, not this batch necessarily. and you def cant flower 6 plants in that wardrobe... .5m is only wide enough for one row... i dont get this man lol i keep thinking i can picture your setup then i lose it... how are you putting 400W on a .5m x 1m square? and for that matter how can you run that bulb in less than 1 M^3 of space? thats gonna buuuuuurn!
thanks for your post. Here is a pic of the cupboard I am using now. This will be the cupboard I use for flowering once these get bigger. Assuming 1/2 will be male and I keep 2 for mother there won't be much left to flower this time. The cupboard I want to use for veg later will be even smaller about 1.2x1x0.5m. OK so maybe I will only do 4-5. Will just have to see how it goes I guess! I don't mind a few extras, can always give them away to other people if I find I have too many to fit. My partner has used this first cupboard with 400watt lights a couple of times and it does get quite hot in summer but still manageable, had to run the aircon some days. Your DIY setup looks good, nice work. Not sure that would have the skillz to do that ha. Might burn the house down knowing me. My cupboard would be too small the T5 bulbs in the one I was looking at were 53 cm long
yea im not sure if euro standards are different but i was thinking a 2' (53 cm?) 24W x 4 system for that... but you def have to be thinking 3 maybe 4 plants flower in there. hopefully you keep this updated or fire up a journal... seems like you got a plan. Love to see it. I vote t5 for veg. where did the seeds come from?
thanks I'm in Australia, the one I was looking at was T5 Grow Light Panel Hydroponics Ballast Aluminum Reflector 2 x 55W 6400K | eBay I posted a couple of days ago here http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1078795-my-grow-cupboard-400w.html but yeah not much of a plan ha. My plan used to be take plants out to the middle of nowhere and put em in the sun, come back every couple of weeks to check on them. But that was while living in NZ, bit too hot and dry here in Aus to do that unless I want to be hauling water out every 2 days. Now the plan is "stop wasting money on $400 ounces" lol =) I bought the seeds from seedsman.com. thanks for your help! mel
Hi the guy to see on T5's is Hank Alveraz, he knows it all and a great guy, introduce yourself and you will never drop a CFL again, (or use them)..lol hey this is my 10001 post ..don't time fly peace "V" ps you'd be better of with 2 x 1200mm light racks than that 600mm,... it's all in the lumens!
yea that thing def wont cut it... you gotta double that output at least... you need one with 4 lamps in that same space. The one i built had 6 lamps in a 1 foot width. two lamps will be pretty painfully slow. something more like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Bulb-24-T...n_0&hash=item257346aace&_uhb=1#ht_2526wt_1344 or a 4ft instead if it will fit.
This is a pretty good 2' 4bulb unit Amazon.com: FLT24 2-Foot Four Tube T5 Fluorescent Grow Light System: Patio, Lawn & Garden Pretty good deal and should be a good fit for your needs.
u want full spectrum t5 ho bulbs, they are the shit, veg'd under 50 watts of these u can grow as much as will fit under the surface area of the 2 2 foot long bulbs, iv vegged 6 plants under 2 of these runing 24 watts each and they grow about a half inch a night. the plants love them, no heat wat so ever. flourescent of same brand n full specrum, hot n plants dont like it as much.
thanks guys, T5 sounds like the go. Now to find somewhere that sells them for a decent price in Aus =) thanks again
Mary: "Mary, Mary, quite contrary how does you garden grow?" Sorry, I couldn't help it, but for what it's worth, I went to T-5's a couple of years ago and I've never looked back. They operate economically, cooler and I think there's an element of safety that you have to consider with one cord connecting your fixture as opposed to a die hard friend who has a dozen CFL's with cords running all over the place. The only warning I would give you with T-5's is to buy a fixture big enough to completely cover your grow. It doesn't project light out like HID. But it's great for a sea of green. There are a couple of brands that come complete with a set of blue grow lamps and a set of red flowering lamps. One has both in the fixture with dual switches but frankly, my friend bought it and found that with the grow lamps in every other terminal the light was weaker, and with T-5's you don't want that. He took out the flowering lamps, put all blue grow lamps and he saw a lot more vigorous growth. When they were ready to flower, he changed to all red lamps and did well. You have a lot of options with T-5's. I hope this helps. Hank
In my current grow room plants are under T5 Fluorescent Bulb. I can't actually tell you how to compare with other bulb as I haven't attempted them. Generally I had to say it work well.
Kelly: measure your fixture and that's how much it will illuminate efficiently. Here's an example: I bought a two tube T-5 fixture 2 feet long and hung it over a 10" by 20" black plastic starter tray with 50 Rapid Rooter plugs. It's only about 5" wide and the ones growing under it in the center rows, directly under the narrow fixture, grew vigorously. The ones in the outer rows, rows one and five, grew scraggly trying to get up to the light source that was too weak to get out to them. That's the only real down side I've found with growing under T-5's. The have to COMPLETELY cover your grow. I hope that helps because I've seen people try them with narrow two tube fixtures and they weren't happy so they condemned the whole idea of using T-5's. Hank