The T5s aren’t as good once the plants get growing but they make beautiful seedling to a month veg. The plants do better under that for me than almost anything.
Get the HO (high output) bulbs for veg or bloom. Less than $5 I think. You can also get UV bulbs, LED that work in T5 fixtures.
They also make great supplemental lighting during flower by standing them up vertical around the sides of the plant.
They just don’t penetrate deep enough overhead once the plant is flowering. The plants love them otherwise. For early vegging I use 3 blue spectrum and one red in my 4 bulb.
I’m with you in the LED sticker shock. I still haven’t used them yet.
I do have some 21+ inch T5s. They’re separate tubes, something I’d have to build something to gang them up on. I’m not against building something like that, I just don’t really want to. I’m quite capable of building a rack for them.
Another issue is I’m not sure what these bulbs are. I broke one and I don’t know what type of bulb that was. I used these T5s for cloning and rooting. I am not sure what T5s I have to use, the mix. They worked great, just not sure what to replace them with.
Also, I used one as a “night light” near where I bed down for a very long time. It died. I don’t know why. I have to test the bulb and fixture to see which one failed.
I’m all for fluorescent lights as starter lights, vegetative lights and side lights, as you detail.
I also have a 400MH High Bay someone gave me. I got it a long time ago. It is brand new, never used. I’d have to make the ballast remote. I bought a heavy gauge extension cord for that purpose around the same time I received the light. I haven’t seen the extension cord in a while. I don’t remember where I last used it . I know it is around.
So, I really only need light to take them from clone/rooting stage and into veg.
Another thing about these T5s I have. I don’t know what length to buy. The tubes are 21+ inches long BUT everything I see says 24 inches.
Do 24 inch fixtures actually use 21+ inch tubes?
Thank you for your input, @GMan ! I really appreciate it!
Yeah, it’s for the 24” fixture. I think you could get the bulbs online cheap, and shipped to you.
I got mine locally from Grow Generation . I just looked at there fluorescent page and they have a lot of cool T5 solutions. I didn’t go past the first of 5-6 pages.
If you have a walk in grow supply you can get ok deals maybe better than online. GrowGen caters to large grow houses but seem to give me good prices when I go in. peace
I saw a while back that have stores in Cali and it seemed a few other legal states. Our little town attracted a lot of commercial grow ops and dispensary/grow houses.
So, at least I can get most things off of the shelf rather than wait for shipping. What state are in? Legal I suppose.
… oh, I see you said Conifer… that’s in Colorado isn’t it?
Okay. Now that I know that a 24 inch fixture actually uses 21+ inch tubes, that makes things a little easier in choosing some.
What mix of HO tubes are the best for rooting and taking them to veg. Coolness (color, I guess) and Kelvin? It’s been a while since I was hands on growing and that information is no longer in my data base - my Thought Process Machine
I’ll be running the lights over a 23-1/2 inch x 28 inch Cloning Machine
I just looked and they’re in a lot of states now. All legal places. They got in the game early.
They actually have 95% of what a home grower needs. I bought my lights online. But it’s nice to go in and see what’s on the shelves. I get lots of samples, too.
I looked at the map and see you’re out in the hills on the way to South Park. I like it up there.
Thank you, @PadawanWarrior ! That does look like a nice setup with many options! Nice.
IF I decide to go with the separate fixtures I already have. What different range T5 tubes does everyone use these days?
I know people are using different T5 tubes in their rooting/veg setups. I have searched and I don’t see in search results what ‘specific’ mix of T5s they use in the rooting stage. Maybe (I’m sure) that specific information resides on grow sites, possibly this site. Those results don’t pop up in a DuckDuckGo search.
I see in your link they only specify one type of bulb color - 6400K - in those fixtures. I know people are mixing the K tubes. What are they that other people are using?
For seedlings, rooting, and vegging this is the spectrum you want. Higher K rating during veg vs during flower.
I liked using the 4ft 6 bulb in my 2x4 veg tent, but they would stretch a bit since I wasn’t keeping them short. I use a couple HLG V1’s in 5000k now turned to 90 watts a piece. They stay way more compact and don’t stretch like they did with the t5’s. But it’s a great light for shorter plants. The bulbs can almost touch the plants.
Sounds like a “whatever works for you” situation I know I have seen the mixed K ratings mentioned.
In fact, those fixtures I have that I used to root clones in that machine above was a mixed K rating setup. I’ll be dipped in dog doo if I remember what they were.
I can see they are different colors, the 2 tubes that still work, but I can’t read their values.
Blue is more for veg, and yellowish, more in the red spectrum for flower. So the yellow ones are the lower k rating bulbs, better for flower. And the blueish ones are a higher k rating and are more for veg.
That’s such a tiny difference it doesn’t matter at all. Like I said I use 2 5000k QB’s now at 90 watts a piece in my 2x4 and they don’t stretch as much as the 6400k t5’s. But I have 2 15 gal pots in my veg tent so the t5’s have a tough time penetrating deep into the canopy. The QB’s penetrate the canopy way better.
And I hate talking about anything penetrating plants, but I can’t think of a better term, lol.
I should also mention that was 300 watts of t5 vs 180 watts of QB’s. QB’s for the win.
,
. I know it is around.
I went to Conifer for all of my needs.