Help with T5 selection

Ok so im looking to possibly go round 2, im thinking about buying a t5 light and use it through the whole cycle changing with bulbs for flowering. Im looking on ebay, and i think i decided on a 2ft 2 bulb t5, it puts out 96-104W and its 86 bucks free shipping. Would this be enough for 2-3 plants? would it be better to just get 1 and 1 mixed 6500k and 3000 k bulbs all the way through, or just both 6500k for veg, and 3000k flower? Thanks +rep for reviews on a T-5.

Do NOT do it... I would buy HPS lights and stay clear of CFLs

The difference in success or failure is knowing.

Some of us are following Pr0fesseurs' lead and using coral bulbs. Here is a flower update taken this morning ~ 3 full weeks since seeing first pistils. Just ONE plant~

I have a 4 foot 4 bulb t5. I'm currently flowering 9 plants. I also have a lamp that has 5 of those octopus arm things, with 5 2700k cfl bulbs *8530 lumens total* in it spread out above the plants for supplemental lighting and I left the day bulbs in the t5 fixture. The person I bought it from told me that the red bulbs do help when flowering, but they put off less lumens and overall if you can get red light from somewhere else, you'll do better with daylight bulbs the whole time. The day bulbs put out about 5000 lumens each while the red bulbs only put out like 3000. Remember the day bulbs do have red in them, it just splits between the full range of the spectrum.

I suppercropped my plants and after they healed they started exploding. I topped 2 and fimmed 1. 3 of my plants are clones and 1 of the clones was already topped. I only had 1 male total.

got an 150 watt hps on ebay for 60 bucks!! almost 30 bucks cheaper then any t-5 worth mentioning.

i have a 8 bulb t5 for clones and seedlings and i like it...but i would never try to flower with it...you need a hps light or a bad ass led to get dense buds

HID will more easily get you denser buds but from what I understand, but CFL's will do it too, just takes a little more work and proper know how. Check out Concord Dawns last harvest on about page 245 of his thread, his buds are nice and dense. Also my first grow the buds where dense (although they where not very large due to mites stunting growth). So don't rule out CFL's, they work and under the correct circumstances they work great. I'm tired of seeing people say they don't work well enough to grow with, there is too many threads out there as proof they that can and do work great especially for stealth and budgeted grows.

Zkack25 said:

Ok so im looking to possibly go round 2, im thinking about buying a t5 light and use it through the whole cycle changing with bulbs for flowering. Im looking on ebay, and i think i decided on a 2ft 2 bulb t5, it puts out 96-104W and its 86 bucks free shipping. Would this be enough for 2-3 plants? would it be better to just get 1 and 1 mixed 6500k and 3000 k bulbs all the way through, or just both 6500k for veg, and 3000k flower? Thanks +rep for reviews on a T-5.

Click to expand...

that price seems high for a 2ft 2 bulb t5 fixture... you can buy a 2ft 4 bulb HO t5 from home depot online for only like 3 bucks more

phxfire said:

Do NOT do it... I would buy HPS lights and stay clear of CFLs

Click to expand...

dont you think the fact that an entire sub forum is dedicated to cfl's lends some validity to their use in marijuana growing? The hundreds of successful cfl grow journals as well? Just a thought.