curious about T5 Flourescents

[Dr.G13]

Hey everyone. I have an idea and wanted to throw it by people who are more experienced and ‘in-the-know’ then I am. I recently started researching High Output T5 Fluorescents.

Lets say you have two 4 foot fluorescent lights giving roughly 5,000 lumens ea. = 10,000 lumens total. Now lets say you train your plant to grow vertical, by using tie downs, strings, weights what ever. See what I’m getting at? When I see examples of people using T5’s their plants are growing regular (horizontal) but the penetration of these lights aren’t good at all. So if you plant is 3-4 feet tall, and growing vertical you can actually maximize those 10,000 lumens (per plant).

I’ve read on a few boards that outside at sea level the sun averages about 10,000 lumens per square foot. Now I know that my idea above isn’t in a square foot area. However this idea on paper seems to be VERY efficient. Or am I forgetting to factor in something?

Here’s my actually question I guess:
If one plant receives:
~10,000 Lumens of 3000K during flowering and
~10,000 Lumens of 6500K during vegetative
Growing vertically under a T5 light (literally directly above the plant)
Wouldn’t it grow fat delicious nugs all over?
Is this a good idea?
I would like to hear any thoughts and/or suggestions.
Any and all are greatly appreciated.

[pflover]

By vertical you mean horizontal and vise versa.... Are you missing something? yes in a way.... you have to consider what the plant WANTS to do most and how doing something else might effect it's vigor. See other thread....

[Area_Man]

With tie downs you would be growing horizontally (think: 'horizon"), and yes T5 could be great for that.

I use the Pioneer VIII (Eight 4' bulbs) to veg and it does a wonderful job. Less heat, great lumen output, low electric bill. I found difficulty flowering with it though, probably because of the penetration issues you already are aware of, and most of my plants were / are growing vertically.

I did continue to use the T5 in conjunction with a 400w HPS to flower - so far so good.

If you tied down and grew the plants directly under the T5, I can only assume good results. Like pflover states though, it depends on the plants - pick a strain with good horizontal growth characteristics.

[onus]

I'm in general agreement with what's been said about t5s in theory. That is, it all seems right to me, but I've not *yet* ordered my t5, although I will be soon. (It's getting very hot in the SW US!) I just wanted to mention something that I don't really fully know about but know a little bit about from my job experience doing studio lighting.

The 10,000 lumen per square foot is, I believe, one type of measurement. I do not know how it translates to what I believe is a far more common measurement of light, called an incident light reading. That involves using a meter at a particular point, for example, at the portrait subject's face. That reading gives you a very accurate idea of how much light is falling on that particular spot. It does not attempt to measure the amount of light falling in an area in total. And as for how they get that square foot measurement, I have to say is a mystery to me. Furthermore, I may be a dim bulb (!) but damned if I can figure out how they derive that square foot figure. It just doesn't agree with what I've been taught about the nature of light. Every lighting chart I've seen that seemed credible used either foot candles or lumens read as an incident reading: that is, for example, a typical 100 watt HPS bulb puts out 5,000 lumens at 4 feet (I just made those figures up BTW).

The per square foot is either describing something I don't understand or it's another example of misleading puffery. I strongly suspect the latter of course--who wants to think they're dumb?

onus

[coralreef]

I've been using the Tek5 8 bulb light for three years now. It's currently used for vegging and moms, and does great.

For the first year and a half that was our primary flowering light, and we saw great production from it. Excellent light even for flowering. The buds were looser, but start with great genetics and you get great product. I think it even had more trichs than under the current 400 Watt HPS on a digital ballast.

The gro sto suggested we switch to the HPS in an aircooled hood when I had the bucks to do it, and it's good. I had the bucks because I saved $$$ from buying on the black market by growing my own and smoking my own medicine.

My moms love it, but I wouldn't think twice about flowering under it again.
Just MHO.

[somenewguy]

How easy is it to modify these T5 fixtures?
are the ballast and bulbs sized to one another?
I found some 4 foot fixtures on deal and wanted to make em a bit smaller provided the bulbs can be gotten cheap enough.
will a smaller bulb overdrive the ballast by underdrawing the power?

[SpiritFilled]

I'm in an 8 x 4 shed; a 600 and 1k and 400hps for flowering. I LOVE my (3) 4bulb-2 foot t-5s, using 3000 and 6000 tubes, which - in the past - i only used for vegging, but nowI've added it to the aforementioned HIDs, and the now-flowering plants LOVE IT as a combo. I alternate hanging them "sideways" that is, perpendicular to the floor to get at the lower branches for thos eplants near them, and then hanging them in the traditional "on top" manner, altho i try to angle the T5s in such a way as the plant underneath gets the HID plus the fluoro.

I've found veggiing plants like the T5s better than MH, which gets back to what PFlover said "It's what the plants like that matters."