T5 or CFL Or straight to MH

Kookiemonsta

Kookiemonsta

Active Member
Heres my question

I currently have a cfl hood I made that can hold 180ish watts of cfl light over a 2ft x 1.5ft area. OR 1 (or 2 if I need to go take the other down) T5 fixture with 2x 42w bulbs in it. OR straight under mh 600?

Plants range from just popped to 2 weeks
 
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s0high

Well-Known Member
Ive always like the T5 lighting over the cfl's. 600mh is a bit much even for the 2week old plants also, but it really depends on their growth rate.

You can go under the 600watt mh if you can distance the light from the plants. Id say like 5 foot away. Ehh maybe 4foot.... hahah
 
Kookiemonsta

Kookiemonsta

Active Member
s0high said:
Ive always like the T5 lighting over the cfl's. 600mh is a bit much even for the 2week old plants also, but it really depends on their growth rate.

You can go under the 600watt mh if you can distance the light from the plants. Id say like 5 foot away. Ehh maybe 4foot.... hahah
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Do you know how the T5's work? Im trying to find a bit of info right now but failing.
I mainly am wondering exactly how many watts/lumens they put off over their surface. Would my single fixture of 2 42w tubes be enough for plants? Does it put of equal lumens over the distance of the bulb? How many do you use?
 
comed

comed

Active Member
more of a personal choice than anything, i have done all 3. my best results were doing pop-2weeks under cfl because I could get the cfl really close (5X 24watt per plant) made a nice compact bush with nodes about 1/4-1/2" apart.
some use t5 for veg due to less heat and so you could have a veg room without getting expensive.
but they will like the 600mh just fine just but the newborns towards the edge and slowly up the amount of light they get. (don't want to burn them with too much light early on)
is up to you. try experimenting see what your plants like with your growing style.
 
golddog

golddog

Well-Known Member
Kookiemonsta said:
Heres my question

I currently have a cfl hood I made that can hold 180ish watts of cfl light over a 2ft x 1.5ft area. OR 1 (or 2 if I need to go take the other down) T5 fixture with 2x 42w bulbs in it. OR straight under mh 600?

Plants range from just popped to 2 weeks
Click to expand...
I like to get mine seeds/sprouts going under a 23 watt CFL under a humidity dome.

After a week or so I put them under a 400 w MH at around 18 inches which provides 5,000 lumens. I have 10 plants going from seed right now.

I will probably wait a few more weeks and put in the 600 watt HPS.

So you'll be OK, no matter what you do, just don't burn them.

Good Luck :joint::peace:
 
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s0high

Well-Known Member
T5's put off the rated lumens down the entire length. Ive used the 4-bulb and the 8-bulb fixtures with mixed bulbs "grow and bloom". I think the biggest problem with t5 is the initial cost, but IMO bet any kind of cfl setup. Well its been a few years since ive really looked at CFL's
 
comed

comed

Active Member
you have to get creative with CFL setups to maximize them. I used a large plastic bowl - upside down- with air holes drilled in rim of the bowl, fan hole and fan on top to suck out old hot air, and cfl's placed around interior, Kind-of like a perm machine at salon only this was a grow machine.
if you are going to grow more than 4 or so plants at a time T5 would be the way to go. or the MH at a distance.
 
W

what what

Active Member
t-5 to the mh. I put mine that were under cfl's to 600hps after one month to speed things up and with the hood 25 inches above the plants and the air at 75 they got burnt. So if you are going to do the mh start them at 3.5 ft or more the first few days. Thats a lot of power. Mine are doing better now but it slowed them down and thats the wrong way I wanted to grow. got to get this done before christmas!
 
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