I have my ladies under t5s right now and they are doing great. Will I have to change to different lights when I start the flower stage or just change the time to 12/12?
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How big of a grow room or tent do you have?
You going to want to change the lights out t5 are great for veg not so much for flower
I can help you size them up if needed @hippy4life
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@Countryboyjvd1971 the room is about 7 x 8 and 6 feet tall. We have 3 t5s with 4 lights each and 2 with 2 lights each on the wall for side lighting
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So you have 56 square feet of grow space you’ll need 50 watts per square foot
With leds you can drop it down to 35 w per square I personally try to stay around 50 either way
So with that said 56x50 =2800 watts of light
Now the next question I have is how many plants are you growing? In that space cause if it not full you won’t need that much light
You can fit 4 plants in a 4x4 area comfortably which only requires 800 watts
@hippy4life
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we have 5 plants growing. there is actually 3 1 bulb t5s on the wall
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these are the overheard lights we are using, there are 3 of these
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HEYCRI8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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there are 3 of these on the wall, we are not using right now because the girls are still young
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let Me tag in a few other that can make some suggestions I grow with leds myself and only use a small t5 setup for my sprouts
The fixtures are nice
Lumes look good I would be more concerned and canopy penetration myself in flower with t5 light
@bob31 @Hogmaster @Donaldj any thought here guys
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6 plants you can get away with a 1000 watt hps or mh fixture
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@Countryboyjvd1971 I have been getting a lot of help from @dbrn32 when it comes to lighting. Also new member @Daddy seems to have a good feel for things.
I have t5’s but I use them for sprouting and side lighting. not for a whole grow,
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thanks guys I appreciate your input so much.
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Perfect @dbrn32 is on point with leds for sure wasn’t sure he knew T5 as well but good call @bob31
I haven’t spoken to @Daddy to my knowledge
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You have a nice space there brother big grow room
As I said 1000 wats will should be enough to flower all the plants you have
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I would cover the walls in panda plastic great room
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I just replaced 2 of my house t8’s with very similar LED fixtures I would use t5’s over them any day for my plants just based on online research they have very low PAR
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Thanks for the shout out @bob31, and to @hippy4life You can grow and veg with your T5’s and they work awesome when the plants are smaller, but they don’t have good canopy penetration. So they will work for awhile but the plant will stop growing and seem to “stall” at a certain size. They won’t flower well at all though…small fluffy buds. But they will grow start to finish lol. You will need to supplement lighting when you put them into flower brother. The led’s that you have will help but won’t be big producers in the end.
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I’m out of likes but nice looking room!
I’ve only used t5’s for veg, never for flower. I see some people do and have expected results. I think one of the things that jump out is with the larger multiple bulb fixtures. They are weak at height, but can create ideal veg par levels when ran right over top of canopy. Being a much larger fixture, you don’t really lose the footprint. As to where a smaller led panel has much higher par levels, but will have to be quite a bit higher to match footprint, thus reducing intensity. In most cases, one will be slightly better or slightly less than the other for vegging, when it comes to flowering, you’re looking at getting optimal at 2-3 times the par levels as veg, and the t5’s really just don’t have it at any height.
As far as the led shop lights, I would probably agree with @Donaldj. I’m sure there are exceptions, but most don’t seem to justify shelling out the cash for replacement. If you already have them, I would look at removing diffuser or any covers to get a little par boost.
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I don’t see enough light there to get a great result in flower. The 4 t5s are around 200 watts each fixture and the single bulbs are probably 54 watts. I had a homemade fixture that was a combination of all the CFL technology and it was 800 actual watts. I had it for 3 weeks of flower and it was ok. When I replaced it with 600 actual watts of LEDs, the plants took off. I have buds that are as big as my wrist. They were as big as my thumb before I switched to LEDs. I had read a lot of CFL growers were getting “airy” buds and I didn’t want that.
@hippy4life
@Countryboyjvd1971
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