Is my t5HO to strong for mothers and clones?

I'm waiting on my 2x4 tent to arrive from gorilla sometime mid January I think, but I want to start cracking some seeds for my first indoor grow! I'm just to damn excited I'm going to grow two strains (godberry by freedom of seeds and chunky skunk by freedom of seeds) and I want to get the mothers started up but I'm looking through all these forums and everybody says you really dont need a lot of power. My plan was to house 2 mothers and a 36 site clone king in the 2x4 but now I'm starting to wonder if thatll be enough space? I have a hydrofarm t5 with 8, 4 foot bulbs. I was going to mix in a little bit of red spectrum just for the hell of it cause I want to get the best cannabis I can grow from start to finish. Just looking for some opinions could I run all lights with better healthier plants or would that be overkill?

You'll be fine. Just keep the cloner at a very far distance from the fixture. Clones won't need much light but seedlings do.
Not sure why you want to add red spectrum T5's in veg. Straight 6500K etc work great unless your talking specific color mixing like Hortilux Power Veg etc.

Hey MrJones,
Like OneHitDone said...red spectrum not needed though once you're rolling along and if clone Mommas need more branchiness, some red spectrum will help.
JD

I planned in keeping light up far as I could. I just wanted to add more spectrum for the plants I'm tryna grow the best i can from start to finish so i figured red spectrum couldn't hurt lol ‍ and just to confirm, running all 8 lights at the same time will be ok without damaging anything? (Only once the mothers have grown a bit.)

JohnDee said:

Hey MrJones,
Like OneHitDone said...red spectrum not needed though once you're rolling along and if clone Mommas need more branchiness, some red spectrum will help.
JD

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I plan on picking clones from one about every other month and that's all new to me to so I have no idea if itll be enough or not I guess we'll have to wait and see.

You'll be fine, just make sure you have proper ventilations to extract the heat. 8 lamp T5 will heat up your tent pretty quick

mr jones15 said:

I plan on picking clones from one about every other month and that's all new to me to so I have no idea if itll be enough or not I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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You'll be good without any red added. On a previous grow setup I had (E&F) I made 25 clones every run. I did that with two small clone Mommas that I kept bonsai style about 18".
JD

Dang I wasnt expecting t5 to put off heat like that I just returned a 6 inch inline fan dammit..

Off topic could one of you tell me I just dropped two strains in 2 different cups of water, the chunky skunk straight sank, all 3 seeds I've never had any seed do that before they always float first, is that something I should be worried about?

I run a 8 lamp 4 foot t5ho for my mothers and clones. It covers my 2x4 flood tray nicely and I usually have it mounted at an angle with the mothers at the high end and the clones at the low end. It puts off very light heat. I also would recommend keeping it as close as possible to actually get the best use out of it. Mine is usually less than 5 inches from my plants. I have a fan for some air circulation and it works great to veg under. I have a separate cfl dyi built light I use for my fresh cuttings in a different space.

Thundercat said:

I run a 8 lamp 4 foot t5ho for my mothers and clones. It covers my 2x4 flood tray nicely and I usually have it mounted at an angle with the mothers at the high end and the clones at the low end. It puts off very light heat. I also would recommend keeping it as close as possible to actually get the best use out of it. Mine is usually less than 5 inches from my plants. I have a fan for some air circulation and it works great to veg under. I have a separate cfl dyi built light I use for my fresh cuttings in a different space.

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How do you mount it at an angle can you show me? And you're fresh cuttings in a different space? I was wanting to put mine in the 2x4 with the mother I'm already 4 tents deep and not looking to add anymore.

My seperate space is just a little 2x2 cart on the other side of my room. Thats where I root my fresh cuts. Then they get put into pots in my 2x4 veg tray with my mothers.

I use the little adjustable mounts for the light. Just like these, I got them at my local shop. https://growace.com/adjustable-grow-light-hanging-kit-2-pairs.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgf3gBRDtARIsABgdL3lTCQk78bqzix3SH5rqqr8dhDYNL2GkecmSDvZM2NRfpJxbcjhjllkaAmDCEALw_wcB

One on each end of my light and i can raise and lower it however my plants grow .

mr jones15 said:

Off topic could one of you tell me I just dropped two strains in 2 different cups of water, the chunky skunk straight sank, all 3 seeds I've never had any seed do that before they always float first, is that something I should be worried about?

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No worries. I've been working on an old seed project and have soaked loads of seeds lately. Some sink, some float for awhile. If they never sink...then you have a problem.
JD

Thundercat said:

My seperate space is just a little 2x2 cart on the other side of my room. Thats where I root my fresh cuts. Then they get put into pots in my 2x4 veg tray with my mothers.

I use the little adjustable mounts for the light. Just like these, I got them at my local shop. https://growace.com/adjustable-grow-light-hanging-kit-2-pairs.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgf3gBRDtARIsABgdL3lTCQk78bqzix3SH5rqqr8dhDYNL2GkecmSDvZM2NRfpJxbcjhjllkaAmDCEALw_wcB

One on each end of my light and i can raise and lower it however my plants grow .

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I had already ordered some of those straps I was curious to see

mr jones15 said:

I'm waiting on my 2x4 tent to arrive from gorilla sometime mid January I think, but I want to start cracking some seeds for my first indoor grow! I'm just to damn excited I'm going to grow two strains (godberry by freedom of seeds and chunky skunk by freedom of seeds) and I want to get the mothers started up but I'm looking through all these forums and everybody says you really dont need a lot of power. My plan was to house 2 mothers and a 36 site clone king in the 2x4 but now I'm starting to wonder if thatll be enough space? I have a hydrofarm t5 with 8, 4 foot bulbs. I was going to mix in a little bit of red spectrum just for the hell of it cause I want to get the best cannabis I can grow from start to finish. Just looking for some opinions could I run all lights with better healthier plants or would that be overkill?

Click to expand...

I kept moms in small "1 gal" square pots and ROOTED clones under a 4 bulb 2 ft. for a while, before switching to a 65w quantum board for those.

I root clones in a turbokloner 48 site under 2 2ft bulbs they don't need hardly any light. That's where people usually run into problems, blasting unrooted clones with a bunch of light, not misting new cuttings, not sterilizing equipment. Basic stuff, just make sure you follow some basic rules that you set up for yourself regarding equipment and space sanitation and this will be very easy.

I have space for about 12 moms and my cloner in a 4'x2'x3' shelf.

Put some shelves in there and get some trays if you got the tall tent. Make the most use out of the space. The lights you want to use can be inches away from the rooted plants as long as you've got the environment under control, so no real concern there. Just make sure not to use too much light for your cloner.

Thundercat said:

One on each end of my light and i can raise and lower it however my plants grow .

Click to expand...

Also with varied plant height...you can raise or lower pots as needed using bricks or old encyclopedias or whatever...
JD

JohnDee said:

No worries. I've been working on an old seed project and have soaked loads of seeds lately. Some sink, some float for awhile. If they never sink...then you have a problem.
JD

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I just checked them a few minutes ago, 2 of the 3 that sank floated backup. So I poked them one slowly sank the other very very very slowly sank almost looked like it was floating in the middle of the water before it slowly sank down again. It's weird I've just never seen that didnt see to much on the web about it.

Some say give them bare minimum light and some say the more light they can get before yellowing is good so I guess I'm just gonna wing it and run 8 bulbs and try to angle it like @Thundercat mentioned and just see what happens. Hopefully they dont die

Why are you running 8 of them? Take 4 out and keep closer. Electricity cut in half. T5s should be close. They’re very gentle. Even at an inch if theres a little draft over the plants, they will be fine.

...and Jonesie,
If you're talking fresh clone cuttings...very low light, but after a week or so, once they develop roots...then you can give them full light. Remember that clones are the same age as their Momma...so they don't need to be treated like seedlings.
JD