Hello Ive been picking through thread after thread on here learning all i can about t5s for the first stages of my girls life cycle. Here are a few questions i still have. 1. When looking at lumens or watts how do i calculate what size i need to optimally germinate and veg my 4x4 tent with 10 autoflower plants? 2. If using led to flower will the t5s make a big difference if i leave them in the tent after veg but with bloom bulbs at lower levels? 3. Should i use all grow bulbs for germ and veg or should i mix in a bloom bulb because they are autos? That will start us off here please any info you can share or any links to good info on t5s would be great Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
While my grow was not the size of yours, I was quite content with the way my first effort turned out...used one of the 4-bulb, four foot 54W HO fixtures (216 total watts) from a big box store as well as two three-footers that were a total of 42W each. If I had more than the two plants at the time, I had given thought to adding a second of the four bulb fixtures. I also had bulbs in two different temperature levels to use depending on stage of growth...
Did you do the entire grow with those? Also is the watts from wall per sq ft the same with t5s as with other lights? Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I use 8500 lumens per square foot as my measuring stick (some use watts instead). 7500 is the least and 10000 being the most. Lumens are lumens (and watts are watts) regardless of the light source. No comment on t5s as I have never used them, other than cfls have proven to be viable options
I misspoke with regard to lumens...I should have written it as two different K-level temps...basically swapping bulbs between veg and flowering. But yes, I did the entire grow with nothing but the T5 lighting. It worked for me, especially given that it was my first real attempt at doing anything. I suspended the four foot fixture above the plants and raised it as needed. The three footers were positioned at the sides of the plants. I had a thread from that first grow that I updated with pics from time to time as well as the PVC structure I created (and then slightly re-engineered for the next go-round). If I were going to try and grow more than two plants at a time, I would definitely have planned on adding the second four-foot fixture or perhaps even bought the six-bulb fixture the same big-box store sells. The four bulb unit was about $80 while the six bulb was something like $100.00. Bulbs were sold separately, but I was able to order boxes of 10 in each of the temperatures and that saved a ton over buying them individually... If I had it to do over again, I would NOT get the three-foot fixtures...not because of the lesser wattage but because trying to find the bulbs has been damned near impossible.