thoughts on growing with T5s

Of course hid penetrates more. Its a single point of light. T5' are not. Inverse square law. But you can have t5 closer. You cant with hid. but t5 with right balance of 360nm ,380nm , 420 nm, 450nm, 630nm , 660nm, 690nm, 760nm, and a little green too. In each of my 8 bulbs I have 4 zoo med flora suns( 360nm,450nm. 630nm, 660nm) , 2 uvl redsuns( 630nm, 690nm), and 2 wave point coral waves (420nm, 760nm). I produce bigger buds and frostier, and more dense than a 1000 watt hortilux. I did side by side hid vs t5 for over a year.

AGAIN ITS ALL ABOUT SPECTRUM. This has been proven time and time again. By me, several others on rui, and several universities.

Look up PAR Photosynthetically available / active radiation. You want par not lumens.

Plants turn light into food. So if u give them the right nutes, why not give them the right light.

Originally Posted by [B

past times[/B];7672739]... the downside to t5's and cfls is light depth penetration. For them to be most effective you need them to be as close as possible without touching the bulb. That is why High Output bulbs (MH, HPS) have good results. they simply have the power to penetrate into the canopy and provide more energy fro the plant

Let's talk 'penetration' since my girl friend doesn't want to ... Pretty much no matter what your light source is, if your canopy is thick you're not going to get much penetration. However, if the energy from the top is sufficient (~ 50w/cf= cubic foot) the lower buds will get what they need, BUT, side lighting can be extremely helpful especially when the canopy is thick. It's almost impossible to side light with HIDs due to distance needed not to burn the plants.

Only one ft tall? Could be the pheno for that strain. I am growing 3 plants from my first cross. All are under the same T5, 2 are begin fed via high pressure aero, the other is in my DIY 21st Century Flood & Drain. All have different expressions from height to girth to side branches. Between the 2 in hpa one is ~ 16" the other 3ft+.

It's not the light, more likely the amount of light. 2 hids and only 10K lumens? Single 4ft T5s produce that. The bud area of my large plant 'Big Girl F 1" is ~ 2 X 2 X 3. She could be taller but the weight of the buds has caused the branches to spread horizontally. That's fine with me as I get more light penetration and more+ bigger buds per cola.

Place that 2ft T5 as a side light. One of the guys on riu has a rockin grow using 8 X 2 ft T5

New pics to my journal today