LED Without LEDs -My First T5 Grow

[kpmarine]

Shasta is awsome, took my boat up there 2 times last year. The Klamath is also great starting about Memorial Day. Nice Salmon come out of there. Much better then the salmon we get out of our river down here.

Nice, salmon fishing has been on my list of things to do. I just love how I wander outside and will see deer 10 feet away in my yard. If they keep teasing me, I'm going to have to set a tasty venison trap.

 

[polyarcturus]

thanks for response nice shit altarnation. you think this will be on par with 400mh?(the swap) i got a lot growing was gonna add some supplemental but it seem pretty powerful fromwhat my eyes can tell. distance from the floor 36-40 inches good? distance from canopy 6-12 inches? i know these are basic ?s but may as well get them answered before i make the swap and encounter problems.(the area is open area but its basically a 2x4 area)

 

[AltarNation]

thanks for response nice shit altarnation. you think this will be on par with 400mh?(the swap) i got a lot growing was gonna add some supplemental but it seem pretty powerful fromwhat my eyes can tell. distance from the floor 36-40 inches good? distance from canopy 6-12 inches? i know these are basic ?s but may as well get them answered before i make the swap and encounter problems.(the area is open area but its basically a 2x4 area)

Can't really tell you how it will compare to MH, i've never grown with HID at all. As for distance from plants, I like to keep them less than 6" to maximize penetration.

 

[kpmarine]

thanks for response nice shit altarnation. you think this will be on par with 400mh?(the swap) i got a lot growing was gonna add some supplemental but it seem pretty powerful fromwhat my eyes can tell. distance from the floor 36-40 inches good? distance from canopy 6-12 inches? i know these are basic ?s but may as well get them answered before i make the swap and encounter problems.(the area is open area but its basically a 2x4 area)

Canopy distance can be as close as you want really, it won't burn your plants. Mine grew into my lights with no problems. The only potential issue is a bit of bleaching if its touching too long. 3" seems to be a happy medium between distance and not having to move the lights up all the time. As for equivalency, I havent used HID, so I can't say. Though 4 HO bulbs would be about 200 watts. With some good bulbs, being right on the plants (The inverse square law is on our side for once.), and the benefit of less much less inefficient light, you should get some good growth.

 

[AltarNation]

kp, I saw you mention that before, about no damage to stuff growing into the lights... i haven't quite found that to be true, haha. Minor burns, but permanent damage definitely. I lost the tips of several leaves from growing up into the light. No where near the damage you can get from a stronger light, but still permanent damage to the areas that were physically touching the bulbs. Perhaps you just caught yours sooner. :0]

 

[jsamuel24]

thanks for response nice shit altarnation. you think this will be on par with 400mh?(the swap) i got a lot growing was gonna add some supplemental but it seem pretty powerful fromwhat my eyes can tell. distance from the floor 36-40 inches good? distance from canopy 6-12 inches? i know these are basic ?s but may as well get them answered before i make the swap and encounter problems.(the area is open area but its basically a 2x4 area)

I keep my lights about 2.5-3 inches from the tops of my plants and I havent seen anything bad happen as of yet. I also am only using 3 footers so they may be a bit cooler then 4's

 

[polyarcturus]

remember this is veg not flower and i have used hid for the most part since i strarted(first harvest under t12) but i was under the impression you could have a little distance with t5 i just want to keep my mothers mad bushy, my clones barely have a VEG stage so their growth under the t5 isnt that important

 

[polyarcturus]

as far as damage yeah you just got to catch it soon enough had it happen with t12s plenty of times thx guys about to do the swap tonight

 

[Undercover Cop]

thanks for response nice shit altarnation. you think this will be on par with 400mh?(the swap) i got a lot growing was gonna add some supplemental but it seem pretty powerful fromwhat my eyes can tell. distance from the floor 36-40 inches good? distance from canopy 6-12 inches? i know these are basic ?s but may as well get them answered before i make the swap and encounter problems.(the area is open area but its basically a 2x4 area)

T5 is great for sidelighting/supplemental... since it can hang horizontally/sideways you can line your walls with em and get those lower buds some love too... check my thread, I started with a 400wHPS in a cool tube and have slowly migrated to an all T5 setup... will never look back fuck HID!


I keep my lights as close as I can (on all sides)... I figure if the highest colas arent getting the best/widest spectrum, they're getting more intense light due to their proximity to the bulbs so they will get some benefit from that, then the lower buds are getting a better spread of spectrum so they benefit from that. Honestly I dont see any areas that are struggling, Im rocking out with my spectrum, I think you could do very well with a ratio of 2 FloraSuns-1 CoralWave-1 RedSun/life. FS=RGB, CW=RB, RS=R... sounds like a good ratio to me, and my still developing buds prove it to me!

Pic update soon

And just a reminder to all the new posters here, make sure to vary your tube assortment across your panel... if youre using 2 blue and 2 red, have one of each on each side of your panel, dont put both blues on the same half, you (and your plants) want the bulbs to create a homogeneous/equal glow over the entire footprint, not half/half red/blue. If you have 8 slots and put a blue tube in slot 2, put one in slot 7. Red in slot 1, put one in slot 8 etc... I found the RedSuns very useful to complete the spectrum, but I tried a 4 bulb panel with half RedSuns and my babies quickly grew tall and spindly towards them. They're still good to fill in the spectrum, but if you have 2 on one half of your panel, the colas under that half may grow more spindly than the other side that is under blues and growing slower but bushier. just make em as even as you can, is my humble advise

 

[polyarcturus]

thats the info i needed thx uncover cop for real. whats red sun and what the spectrum for the flora suns? this is a veg bulb setup right? as far as supplemental im just gonna add an 80w t12 flouro.

 

[Undercover Cop]

kp, I saw you mention that before, about no damage to stuff growing into the lights... i haven't quite found that to be true, haha. Minor burns, but permanent damage definitely. I lost the tips of several leaves from growing up into the light. No where near the damage you can get from a stronger light, but still permanent damage to the areas that were physically touching the bulbs. Perhaps you just caught yours sooner. :0]

If found that you can fuck up a bud if your flower is actually pressed onto a tube, but I dont worry about leaf burn. The leaves will burn/bleach out if left on contact, but it wont stress the whole plant like a hot HID bulb can (I crisped 3 ft worth of sativa my first grow when I thought a 500w HALOGEN light would be good to grow with, yeah lol I know) HID heatstress/burns can damage right down to your babies soul! no recovering from that. But the T5 burns Ive had to my foliage is basically just a white strip across a fan leaf where the contact was made, but the leaf structure is not damaged (the tip of the leaf will remain green where there is a bleached white strip right across it) Ive even found that leaves that are bleached when the plant are young, actually repair themself (or seem to at least, young leaves continue to grow larger and the bleached strip seems to shrink in turn). The point is, T5's operating temp is abt 95deg I think, and HID's are in excess of 150deg. Im only concerned for top colas growing up into the bulbs, otherwise I dont worry about jack love my T5's! 29 tubes running as of today, soon to be 37!!!! oh and my electricity bill last month (with a 14kBTU 1350w AC running 24/7, in a 2story home) ... = $84!!!

 

[polyarcturus]

i think im gonna switch a coral accelerator for a redsun as far as my bulb selection goes

 

[Undercover Cop]

thats the info i needed thx uncover cop for real. whats red sun and what the spectrum for the flora suns? this is a veg bulb setup right? as far as supplemental im just gonna add an 80w t12 flouro.

Go back a few pages to post #3176 (#'s are at the top right of each post). between the three links it should give you alot of new info and should catch you up... warning, your head may explode (this thread is for waay advanced T5 users, most are happy with one bulb for grow/bloom) You'll get all the spectral graphs and explanations to common questions.

and no that was for my flowering spectrum, roughly FS/CW/RS/FS repeated. For Veg Im using 50/50 420-460Actinics and FloraSuns (would prob work just as well with 6500k's in place of FS's).

 

[pedro420]

I know it's not a lot of light and I should be getting a bigger fixture wile I'm in down to.comw wile getting my new house so when I go to set up again I should have upgraded my equiptment and stocked up on supplies for a better go around but just for personal use this should do me rite untill I can grow again if not I got a few auto seeds I can pop and let go for a lil bit

But here are the girls
I'm useing 2x flora suns 1x coral wave 1x 3000k
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[Undercover Cop]

"Like" ^^^ aw shit man I like everything posted before this one one big blanket "LIKE"! feel my love everyone!!! *now go clean up lol

 

[polyarcturus]

have you seen the spectrum charts for the 4100 phillips 54w t5 its got a pretty good spread im thinking those the coral growth accelerator or 1200k and a red sun? i think that might be the best mix for me. with 2 40w aquaium bulbs.
296w veg that not too bad to swap for my 400 mh i think i will be good with this mix tthx for the input. good read UC

 

[Undercover Cop]

I would avoid the 4100k's, they're a commercial bulb produced for human use ie offices/buildings/ etc for people to see, its gonna have waaay too much green/yellow/orange to be a good choice... yes they will work, but wont be as efficient as a bulb that is producing more PAR light and less G/Y/O. 6500k's are prob the only commercial bulbs that can be used in a PAR setup (3000/2700k's have their place, but a much smaller place IMO) as they have more blue, and less green/orange so most of its power is putting out photosynthetically usable Blue. I would, and am currently, use a 6500k grow bulb before I'd use a 3000k bloom, even during flowering... blooms waste too much output in the G/Y/O range for my liking. I use the 6500k's kinda like an actinic+, since neither will have any Red over 610nm anyways and both have green. Again, any bulb can have its place in a PAR setup, but if you only have a few bulbs in your spread, make them good ones (then you can get creative and add in oddball tubes to fill in the spectrum once you have your base spectrum laid down)

You want the CoralWaves for the PAR blue, plus its unique in how much IR is emits, which will act like a catalyst to help make your Red spectrum from other tubes more effective. most 12000k's will be like 6500k's, they'll have some good blue but little useable red and a large dose of green

make sure to read all 3 of those links

 

[kpmarine]

Woo! It's christmas in my house! Got free seeds from 9 strains from a friend! Probably a solid 70 seeds total. So I'm a happy individual.

 

[AltarNation]

T5 is great for sidelighting/supplemental... since it can hang horizontally/sideways you can line your walls with em and get those lower buds some love too... check my thread, I started with a 400wHPS in a cool tube and have slowly migrated to an all T5 setup... will never look back fuck HID!


I keep my lights as close as I can (on all sides)... I figure if the highest colas arent getting the best/widest spectrum, they're getting more intense light due to their proximity to the bulbs so they will get some benefit from that, then the lower buds are getting a better spread of spectrum so they benefit from that. Honestly I dont see any areas that are struggling, Im rocking out with my spectrum, I think you could do very well with a ratio of 2 FloraSuns-1 CoralWave-1 RedSun/life. FS=RGB, CW=RB, RS=R... sounds like a good ratio to me, and my still developing buds prove it to me!

Right on brother... totally agree with fuck HID and with intensity over blend... they blend anyway more or less, unless they're like 1" away. And even then, I mean, it's the same plant... the plant is going to use the different spectrums that hit it, even if not all in the same spot... 's all good.

And I also second the FS/CW/RS combo. Working very well for me. That's what I have, straight up, plus two fiji purps thrown in because I had extra slots to fill and it's better than standard bulbs!

 

[AltarNation]

If found that you can fuck up a bud if your flower is actually pressed onto a tube, but I dont worry about leaf burn. The leaves will burn/bleach out if left on contact, but it wont stress the whole plant like a hot HID bulb can (I crisped 3 ft worth of sativa my first grow when I thought a 500w HALOGEN light would be good to grow with, yeah lol I know) HID heatstress/burns can damage right down to your babies soul! no recovering from that. But the T5 burns Ive had to my foliage is basically just a white strip across a fan leaf where the contact was made, but the leaf structure is not damaged (the tip of the leaf will remain green where there is a bleached white strip right across it) Ive even found that leaves that are bleached when the plant are young, actually repair themself (or seem to at least, young leaves continue to grow larger and the bleached strip seems to shrink in turn). The point is, T5's operating temp is abt 95deg I think, and HID's are in excess of 150deg. Im only concerned for top colas growing up into the bulbs, otherwise I dont worry about jack love my T5's! 29 tubes running as of today, soon to be 37!!!! oh and my electricity bill last month (with a 14kBTU 1350w AC running 24/7, in a 2story home) ... = $84!!!

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the plants suffered at all from the burns... just a little localized patch that dies on the leaf exactly where the bulb was touching. Definitely not a big deal at all compared to intense HID damage! Just wanted to clarify because it sounded like kpmarine got full recovery even in the spots that touched the bulbs. Definitely no worries with these little burns, especially when contrasted against the kind of damage you can get from HID.