T5 Lights??

Hey ive been hearing a lot of good things about T5 Lights.. I am planning a closet grow (enclosed in a box slighty), of 3 LowRyder females (hopefully). Plan on using 2gal pots and basic soil... I have a walmartr & home depot in my vicinity. I want to keep online ordering at a minimum (only lights)> I dont have a HUGE budget so i'm either doing CFLs or T5 If I can afford it.. I just need to know some specifics about T5 and my setup... What type of setup/fixure would I need for a 3 plant autoflowering setup in a 3-4 foot tall enclosure. Can I just buy seperate t5 bulbs and put them into a ballast? Whats my best and cheapest bet to getting a good setup with t5? Thanks

I am a huge fan of T5's, for vegging. Not so much for flowering though I have done it before. That said, New Wave makes several models ranging from 2' two bulb to 4' eight bulbs.

I would get a fixture that holds 4-6 t5s for the overheads, and cfls for some side light. clamp lights with splitters are the easiest way. t5s are best utilized with supplemental side lighting to create some overlap where the light starts to lose intensity. I have vegged with t5s without side light but theres no way around it for proper budding. If you're going strictly cfls make sure to get a shitload of them and make sure they are each at least 40 (actual) watts. those little cfls kind of suck. i like floros because of the lower heat and the ability to more easily customize the light spectrum for each growing stage.

I got my T5 a couple weeks ago after vegging my plants with cfls and I was actually planning on flowering with the T5 just like you, and Phillips makes the 3000k warm spectrum bulbs, so I picked up 3 of those bulbs. but after more thought, I decided to just go and get a 600w Hps for flowering. so now i just use my T5 for vegging. but if you were going to try to flower under a T5, I'd definitely do a scrog grow. that's what I was doing and its really the only way to utilize a T5 for flowering. here's the link to the journal I started with my scrog and t5- https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/230582-nbs-cfl-scrog-grow.html

and here's my new journal I started with my 600w-https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/236487-nbs-600w-hps-basement-corner.html

hope this helps

-Nb.