What kind of bulbs, please help!

[TheChemist77]

I have a 5x5' DWC table using 5, 5' strips of 4'' pvc and each has 5 3'' net pots so 25 plants. Overhead i have 1 400 watt hps and 1 600 watt hps cool tube reflectors and inline fans pushing the heat out though the roof.. under the canopy i have 4 T12 4' flourecents each with 2 bulbs for extra light for the lower buds.. Can anyone please recomend what type of 4' 40 watt T12 bulbs would be best for flowering? I have warm white bulbs in them now that are 4100k they dont seem to increase the lower bud size at all. I read that using warm and cool is the way it used to be done but as i said the warm isnt doing anything.. Should i put in wide spectrum bulbs with a lower k value or daylight or full with a higher k value?? Please any help would be apeaciated as i need to increase the size of the lower buds.. I plant to switch to T5 bulbs in the future but for now what is the best 40 watt 4' T12 bulb i can get to increase my lower bud size??

 

[jijiandfarmgang]

step away from the t-12s

Your experience is correct, not what you heard. Fluorescents lighting doesn't do well with flowering.

- Jiji

 

[vostok]

Dude T12 come out in 1933 the latest is T5's, expensive
or T8's I use for early veg these are shop lights and cheap to buy and use ...consider!

tube and kelvin: use 50% warm white tubes for veg an 50% cool whites.
later for bud use 100% warm white or 75% with 25% cool white
hang on chains adjust daily

 

[TheChemist77]

CAN I PUT T8 BULBS IN MY BALLAST? If so would thet help?

 

[Banana444]

No you cannot use t8 in a t12 fixture/ballast. T8 shop light are cheap as hell, like ten bucks for a fixture that runs two 32w t8s. They are great for clones and seedlings. For flowering...I think they would be a bit of a waste of electricity because they are not suitable for flowering because florecent light loses its intensity very quickly as you move farther away from the bulb. One ballast in each corner would be 256w, and I dont think you would get much extra bud for the wattage. Upgrading the 400w to a 600w would do a lot more than side lighting, thats an extra 40,000 lumens for 200w or 200/lumens per watt

 

[TheChemist77]

Thanks for the help, i guess im switching to 4 t5 lights for the lower lighting, i have nice tops with the hid's above its the lower buds i need to get bigger. i found 4' single sunblaster t5 fixtures for 25 bucks a piece . I will try putting 1 bulb between each of the 5 rows of plants hope that will increase lower bud size. i also have a bloom box from b.c. northern lights and it has 2 2' t5 bulbs on the bottom and the buds near the bulbs are good sized not tops but nice size concidering they are lower branch buds.. i always used to grow ebb n flow in a 4x4' grow tray, but after seeing the buds out of the bloombox i switched over to DWC as the plants get bigger with bigger buds. i think its because with ebb n flow the roots were bound in 4'' square rockwool blocks and with dwc even in 3'' rockwool the roots grow very big in the resevoir.. any opinions on ebb n flow vrs DWC?? ANYBODY HAVE A bc northernlight grow box? Do you think switching to T5's underneath will help lower bud size? thanks again for any input!

 

[jijiandfarmgang]

no fluorescents in flowering

HPS 1000 if you want more penetration

end of discussion

- Jiji

 

[redzi]

For a small grow and certain strains T5 work. Cindy loves it bent over...my C99 has good resin production and a potent buzz under 4 foot 3000K T5s. If you want to bake a turkey then go the 1000 route, if you want the most bang for your buck in terms of lumens per watt buy two 600W HPS.

 

[xXOnyxXx]

i too run a 600 in a 5x5 cab .... for veg i just run it @ 400, no bulb change just a agrosun super red all the way through .. i average 12 to 14 oz per run not bad ... i'm thinkin' i broke the 1lb barrier on the 600 this run .... got 6oz on the early finishers and there is atleast 10oz off of the last 4 plants easy! ... flouros are good for clones and babies ...

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

I have a 5x5' DWC table using 5, 5' strips of 4'' pvc and each has 5 3'' net pots so 25 plants. Overhead i have 1 400 watt hps and 1 600 watt hps cool tube reflectors and inline fans pushing the heat out though the roof.. under the canopy i have 4 T12 4' flourecents each with 2 bulbs for extra light for the lower buds.. Can anyone please recomend what type of 4' 40 watt T12 bulbs would be best for flowering? I have warm white bulbs in them now that are 4100k they dont seem to increase the lower bud size at all. I read that using warm and cool is the way it used to be done but as i said the warm isnt doing anything.. Should i put in wide spectrum bulbs with a lower k value or daylight or full with a higher k value?? Please any help would be apeaciated as i need to increase the size of the lower buds.. I plant to switch to T5 bulbs in the future but for now what is the best 40 watt 4' T12 bulb i can get to increase my lower bud size??

So you have 2 HPS's above and Flo's underneath?.. I get youre trying to do supplemental light.. but I think there's better ways.
I bet you're crowded against a wall or something thats why you want supplemental light. Ive seen it done before.

Meh.. I dont worry too much about lower bud development, I strip the lower stuff off.. sounds like you're running SOG style.
Its my opinion you mess with apical dominace when you do the lower lighting thing.

You could run 1KW really close for deep penetration, but I dont care too much to do that, I get too much stress on the tops,

Mebbby pull a few plants out and you get better light penetration from the lights for the lower stuff.

 

[jijiandfarmgang]

For a small grow and certain strains T5 work. Cindy loves it bent over...my C99 has good resin production and a potent buzz under 4 foot 3000K T5s. If you want to bake a turkey then go the 1000 route, if you want the most bang for your buck in terms of lumens per watt buy two 600W HPS.

Two 600 hps will output more heat than a 1000 watt. 1000 watt gavita de is more efficient than gavita 600 or other 600 hps.

- Jiji

 

[TheChemist77]

Heat is no issue as i have 2 inline fans pulling the heat from the bulbs out the roof, through the cool tubes, i have 1 600 hps now i can switch the 400 to a 600 so 2 600 over would be easyer than switching to 1000, for me. yes it is sog mostly northern lights and they branch out very wide for light its like chaos,,so many branches and some bottom branches are 3 feet long comming out as tops there are 25 plants but looking from above you would think theres like 40. maybe on the next run ill cut some bottoms off but right now id lose some nice tops cutting off bottom branches. also your right as 2 sides are up against walls the back and right sides against white walls,, well the right side is 2' off the wall just enough room to get in there to get any yellowing bottom leaves off. i also have 6 critical hogs and they stay much shorter and dont branch out as much but have denser buds so equal in terms of weight ,maybe im better off getting rid of the nl and just going with 25 c,hogs next run.. i dont know i really like the nl though.. Thanks for the info...the T12's on bottom not cutting it, need to switch to T5'S. or just take out the bottom lights all together!

 

[TheChemist77]

next run im running all new strains, durban poisin, critical mass, purple bud, mighty grape, and mellon gum 5 of each, no NL. I hope to see which strain works best in my DWC set up. also i think ill take out the T12's.. I think the northern lights are just to tall n stretchy for my set up.

 

[vostok]

Update.. dump those T12 see the ballast are wrapped in some bullshit sticky tar paper stuff thats very toxic
..and get some T5's if you got the cash or T8's if poor

good luck

 

[TheChemist77]

For a small grow and certain strains T5 work. Cindy loves it bent over...my C99 has good resin production and a potent buzz under 4 foot 3000K T5s. If you want to bake a turkey then go the 1000 route, if you want the most bang for your buck in terms of lumens per watt buy two 600W HPS.

I just reciever famale seeds c'99 havnt planted them yet, 5 feminized. can you give me any info on how they grow? short,tall, brachy, just basicly what to expect growing 25 in a 5x5 area. hope they dont stretch out or branch to much. after clones take root i normally do 1-2 weeks veg before flower depending on how the strain stretches once under 12/12. Like NL can go 1 week of veg and end up in the 3-4 feet tall were critical hog needs 4 weeks of veg just to get around 3feet cause it does not stretch in bloom. this is nirvanas Northern lights that ive been growing, I also just got NL#5 from british columbia seeds so that should be better for my grow as its suppose to stay shorter.

 

[Flagg420]

How do we feel about T8's? Only cuz I have access to T8 ballasts stupid cheap thru my work...

 

[TheChemist77]

So you have 2 HPS's above and Flo's underneath?.. I get youre trying to do supplemental light.. but I think there's better ways.
I bet you're crowded against a wall or something thats why you want supplemental light. Ive seen it done before.

Meh.. I dont worry too much about lower bud development, I strip the lower stuff off.. sounds like you're running SOG style.
Its my opinion you mess with apical dominace when you do the lower lighting thing.

You could run 1KW really close for deep penetration, but I dont care too much to do that, I get too much stress on the tops,

Mebbby pull a few plants out and you get better light penetration from the lights for the lower stuff.

Your right on SOG and against 2 walls, only 2 weeks till they are ready so not going to pull any branches now.think maybe my whole problem is the strain im growing? maybe i need to find a less stretchy plant for my grow area. I think having 2 600 watt hps over a 5x5 area is alot of light, but ill switch the 400 to a 600..

 

[AKHUNTER]

I just reciever famale seeds c'99 havnt planted them yet, 5 feminized. can you give me any info on how they grow? short,tall, brachy, just basicly what to expect growing 25 in a 5x5 area. hope they dont stretch out or branch to much. after clones take root i normally do 1-2 weeks veg before flower depending on how the strain stretches once under 12/12. Like NL can go 1 week of veg and end up in the 3-4 feet tall were critical hog needs 4 weeks of veg just to get around 3feet cause it does not stretch in bloom. this is nirvanas Northern lights that ive been growing, I also just got NL#5 from british columbia seeds so that should be better for my grow as its suppose to stay shorter.

The C99 that I got from BCBD, the tallest I've seen me get is like 4 1/2 feet finished in flowering, the seeds them selfs that I got weren't too bushy but all the clones I've taken since are pretty round and bushy.. Excellent strain one of my fav. Kinda temperamental to grow at first. Best of luck. Cheers

 

[TheChemist77]

How do we feel about T8's? Only cuz I have access to T8 ballasts stupid cheap thru my work...

guess they are good for veg, but im getting that flourecents are really not for flowering.However i did see you can buy high red spectrum bulbs for T8's at amazon if you can get the fixtures cheap get some bulbs get growin and tell me how it goes.

 

[TheChemist77]

The C99 that I got from BCBD, the tallest I've seen me get is like 4 1/2 feet finished in flowering, the seeds them selfs that I got weren't too bushy but all the clones I've taken since are pretty round and bushy.. Excellent strain one of my fav. Kinda temperamental to grow at first. Best of luck. Cheers

That finishes in 50 days right? Also heard its mature enough to clone off at a month old from seed. I have so many seeds im struggling to decide what to plant. i became a bit of a seed adict have over 80 strains now and more on the way'