T5 or HPS

Hi All!
I would like some opinions from the experienced growers out there. I am currently about a month into my first grow & the girls are doing great despite the things I have had to correct like using distilled water & ph being too high. I am currently vegging under a 46" HO T5. I already have in place a 400 watt HPS light & ballast that I just have to purchase a bulb for.

If I put the girls under that light will it increase the growth of the plants substantially or not so much? I've been talking to a guy at the grow shop that has discouraged me from using the hps & says just to stick with the T5 till flower, that it's a waste of money to use the hps. Is there a big difference between the two?

And B Meat, please resist the urge to comment, I don't know you but you bring out a lot of negative energy from the rest of the crowd & it tends to detract from the question being asked so please just button it.

Thanks!!!!

For veg its hard to beat a t5. How many bulbs and what wattage?

There are 6 bulbs, 54 watts, 6500K high output.

First off i love the avatar . You will speed up the veg process with the hps IME, but it is achievable both ways. Personally, I would try to find a way to run both, using the t5 as side lighting, just be careful to not get that 400 to close. I also would recommend at least a week veg time with the 400 before throwing it into flower but running both would be optimal IMO.

Edit: nevermind go with the t5s for veg i did not realize you had such a fixture.

Thanx for rep. I run t5s for my whole grow, just change out a few bulbs.. As long as you keep an even canopy the t5s can run whole cycle.
Fro what ive seen an hps during veg can tend to cause a lil stretching

HPS is for flower, as im sure you know.. Your T5 is the best for vegging as long as they're cool whites, the HPS will cause your plants to stretch.. If you have to buy a bulb anyway, and are worried about your plants, you could get a Metal Halide (MH) bulb, which is an HID made for vegging, it burns cool white.. But im sure your T5 will be fine.. Hope this helps

Okay, I'm new so what's IME?

vanillahub said:

Okay, I'm new so what's IME?

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"In my experience". I have used both the HPS and T5s for veg and really I don't notice a huge difference, now I just use HPS for the whole grow with supplemental cfls and LED pannels.

In my experience.

vanillahub said:

Okay, I'm new so what's IME?

Click to expand...

Usually means In my experience

burningMH bulbs and HPS bulbs are said to be the most effective when ran together.

thats bc it gives both rays of light. veg/flower.

I imagine using at5 would b the same. replace the MH with t5.

t5 as side lighting and hps over top.

right so you want to have 6x54w bulbs each bulb has about 4000lumen to 5000lumen
so times 6xthe average of 4500l you get 25000 lumen

the average 400w hps will give you roughly 45000-60000 lumen
(all the figures are rough estimates)


you will get a better yield off the 400w HPS

Thanks everyone!!!!

If you have enough money to buy a couple T5's go that route. HPS is a fixed spectrum which isnt bad at all don't get me wrong. But with T5's you can sub out shitty bulbs and use aquarium bulbs to pinpoint the best spectrum of light; not wasting time with yellow and green light which most REGULAR T5 bulbs distribute. HPS penetrates way deeper than T5's but I bet if you grew 2 plants with each kind (T5 vs HPS) the T5 would look prettier and I would also go out on a lim with potency. Once you can play god with the light given, there's no limit.

bmeat said:

i would veg under fluors and flower with a hps

you can veg under a 6 pack of 20 watt cfls, thats 125 watts, enough for two plants.

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read the fucking thread you prat