Using (a lot of) 4-Foot T8's as side/supplemental lighting (so cheap!) thoughts?

DrGribble

DrGribble

Well-Known Member
Not sure I agree with getting rid of my HID's in favor of T5s... T5's are supplemental lighting to me, T8's are just the cheap version of that... I'll always have the HIDs. I'm not looking to get smaller yields in favor of a lower electric bill and since I am growing with a medical card I am trying to keep my numbers where they are supposed to be so am looking to get at least 4-5oz per plant (minimum goal) which I'm guessing is going to be a bit easier with HIDs. That's about what I yielded last grow per plant with the exception of 3 plants I had which were problematic the entire way. My single plant SCROG was easily above that and was vegged for like 22 days / not very large but I had a 600W dumping light all over it.

I'm planning on vegging my plants to be a bit beefier this time around though, they're in DWC so should grow a little faster than they did in my Hempy Buckets, already starting to grow well and are very small still but getting thicker than they should be at this stage. I missed DWC, it's been years since I've run one and ideally I'd like to experiment with my strains until I get around 8oz per plant and then continue to go about that way. I figure a 6 week veg time with LST could probably get me that realistically. I'm only flowering 2-3 plants at a time, 2-3 more come in each month and they're all 60-70 day strains.

I'll probably replace all the T8's with T5s in time though, if that's what you meant but I doubt it as we're in the Fluoro section and T8's don't make any heat lol.
 
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PurpleBuz

Well-Known Member
DrGribble said:
Not sure I agree with getting rid of my HID's in favor of T5s... T5's are supplemental lighting to me, T8's are just the cheap version of that... I'll always have the HIDs. I'm not looking to get smaller yields in favor of a lower electric bill and since I am growing with a medical card I am trying to keep my numbers where they are supposed to be so am looking to get at least 4-5oz per plant (minimum goal) which I'm guessing is going to be a bit easier with HIDs. That's about what I yielded last grow per plant with the exception of 3 plants I had which were problematic the entire way. My single plant SCROG was easily above that and was vegged for like 22 days / not very large but I had a 600W dumping light all over it.

I'm planning on vegging my plants to be a bit beefier this time around though, they're in DWC so should grow a little faster than they did in my Hempy Buckets, already starting to grow well and are very small still but getting thicker than they should be at this stage. I missed DWC, it's been years since I've run one and ideally I'd like to experiment with my strains until I get around 8oz per plant and then continue to go about that way. I figure a 6 week veg time with LST could probably get me that realistically. I'm only flowering 2-3 plants at a time, 2-3 more come in each month and they're all 60-70 day strains.

I'll probably replace all the T8's with T5s in time though, if that's what you meant but I doubt it as we're in the Fluoro section and T8's don't make any heat lol.
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I think the combo is the best of both worlds. The T5s allow you to add a little more blues to enhance an HPS, and you get the brute force of the hps. To save electric with the combo the hours on the hps could be limited with the T5s running the entire light period and maybe turning the hps off in the middle of the light period for an hour or two to help control heat and lower electric costs.

I run T5s for 13 hours/day, and have LEDs as the top lighting for about 11 hours/day stagerred through the light period.
 
DrGribble

DrGribble

Well-Known Member
Yeah that could definitely work, last grow I ran two 600 HPS with a 600 Metal Halide together for the added spectrum but that without any doubt required the A/C, I don't really see a workaround w/ the A/C (without buying air cooled hoods for all my lights) since summer is approaching anyway but in the winter I think I had a better chance. I do want a larger A/C unit, the one I have is struggling with the amount of lighting I have now. I do like that idea of having the HIDs on for a few hours less. For what it's worth I am not 'too concerned' with my electric bill I must have said something in here or it's the fact that I am trying to skimp on the lighting but it's not that big of an issue it makes up for itself in the fact that I never have to buy smoke. :)
 
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