5 LB fluoro/hydro grow

My friends have a lot of growing experience and are thinking of trying something new. The setup would be:

2 Ebb/flow tables 4'x8' filled with hydroton
advanced nutrients bloom A/B plus bud candy, big bud, hygrozyme.
Tank CO2 supplementation with regulator
Reflective poly on all sides.
More or less sealed room with only occasional venting for humidity and for temp.
Trays would be in a framed grow area with reflective poly walls. This grow area would be located inside of a larger room.
temps would be attempted to stabilise at 85F/ humidity kept 40-60%

*now the interesting part*

they were originally considering 4x 1K's (air cooled) but were thinking to take many clones of a 7 week flower strain(Ice Cream) with good yields, plant them about 6" apart in the flood trays. The clones would likely not have any veg time and would go straight into flower. They are thinking to do so many small plants without veg time so that they can use Sunleaves VIII T5 light boards and keep the fluorescents an inch above the cola. The idea is that since the non-vegged clones will be so small, they will not need deep light penetration and the light boards will be able to hover nicely an inch over the colas. they would be hoping to yield 3.5-7g+ dry, cured weight per little plant. More plants (although at a higher risk) without veg means all they need is to propagate cuttings and no extra electric use to veg the plants. All that will be needed is 400-1000W on a light mover @18hrs/day to keep the moms healthy. and the 3600W @ 12hrs/day of the fluoros.

Each 4'x8' flood trays would have 4 light boards over it covering the entire surface of each tray, so there would be 8x T5 light boards total.

WHY are they interested in this? Paranoia over electric usage, and frankly, to not have anywhere near the heat produced from 4000W of HID would be an added bonus to their security. Electric records in this location do not require a warrant or subpoena in order for LEO to access them:mad:. and so they may divide the flower area into 2 segments and alternate each tray's 12/12 cycle in order to keep their electric consumption uniform throughout the day. This setup as planned makes it easier to do this with fluoros than with HIDs.

Hoping to save a bit on electricity as well by doing it this way. each board requires about 450 watts, so they would be running 3600w from the T5 lights alone, as opposed to 4000w of HID. Not a huge savings it would appear in electric, but as stated before, so much less heat would be nice, and with an OP of that size going, any extra security measures are embraced.

The QUESTION:

with the above parameters in place, do you think it would be possible to gain 4-5 lbs per harvest from this type of setup?

otherwise it would be using 4x 1K's, which are fine and my friends ARE aware of how much better HID's are, but they wanted to consider this option.

any thoughts? anything im forgetting to tell you? thanks for your thoughts and help. especially from you experienced growers who know:) THANKS!

The boards are for meds not comercial amonts.
That being said. There is no comparison between the 2.

You might get that if you do real good with the 4 x 1000w HPS. I think you would still need some veg time to get it.

Sounds to me like you may have experience with one or two lights...but, when it comes to a larger grow you are lacking the needed skills. I have seen 10 lbs come from (3) 3x4 trays under (1) 1000k watt HPS.

it all depends on the strains and the grow environment. With that being said. Doing this with T5's can be done....and the electric bill is a lot nicer. But, the consistent weight will be difficult to maintain.:(

My advice...you will be 3 pounds of good sticky buds this way...but, not much more. The cola's just wont be that fantastic.

he's still gonna be running 3600W of t-5. why? to save on cooling? like all have been saying the t-5 doesn't compare to the 1ks.

hell, i've seen somone with a 600W HPS and a 4' x 4' tent pull 3 pounds in 55 days using gallon containers, hempy bucket style. he averaged 14 grams per plant (if i'm not mistaken). 12" buds and no filler.

beds appear to be the way to go with a SOG though.

and why hydroton? it's nothing but a pH mess waiting to happen. why not run a perlite/vermiculite blend? the perlite can be re-used. this would probably suit your purposes better. ditch the ebb and flow and water by hand. just a thought. it might be more work daily, but it might save your ass and possibly give you a better yield.

are you trying to pull 5 lbs from a single tray, or from the whole harvest?


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I wanted to make sure I added to this.

I have been flowering a tray of 8 plants under my T5 8bulb sunleaves rig. Its nice. No complaints, and the room they are growing in stays nice and cool! :thumbsup:

So far...I have no complaints...except spending $150 on it new...I can flower 2 tray under a 1000k HPS for the same price. But for someone who has temp issues...I would highly recommend this. I will post results when done!

2 4'x8' E&F tables is ALOT of med use :jointsmile:
and another point ..... if your "friends" are exp growers and were wondering if this will work why are they not the ones doing the research? hehe