Up and running with new Quantum badboys

After assembling my new 8bulb Quantum T-5 unit,I realised that my grow cab was about 6 damn inches to narrow for the new setup ,so I spent the weekend tearing the old one apart and rebuilding from scratch...fun LOL.

My current crop is 10 Bubba X Lemon Kush plants from seed.This is the 6th time I have grown this strain from seed and as the first 60 of those seeds were all females I am not going to bother with the whole sexing/reversion thing.Should any show signs of being male when they hit pre-flower I will pull them then.

They are in 1 gallon grow bags with neutral soil with no pre added supplements or nutes.
I am watering 1/2 cup straight water every 2-3 days as needed and a mild solution of Seaweed extract @ 5mils per 2 litres every 7-10 days as they show the need for it.

Currently the girls average 12-14 inches in height with internodal spacing of about 1 1/2 inches.I am hoping this spacing will tighten up under the new lights.
Up to this point I was running them under 5 4ft. generic T-5 full spectrum bulbs. . . not bad but not great either.
they will continue to recieve the seaweed extract for the entire veg cycle as it not only contains all 13 mineral elements required for healthy plant growth ,but also a large number of natural growth hormones.

they are currently under an 18/6 light cycle which I will be switching to 12/12 in about a week.At that point I will add a top dressed supplement from a local company (Welcome Harvest Farms) called Flower Power.
Aprox 1 tablespoon is all I will add to each 1 gallon grow bag.I will also start adding an organic Bloom Tea once pre-flower signs appear.

now to see if I can add some pics here. . .Badboy unit unassembled and then some of it in action.

i dont know how much heat your t5 puts out but mine puts out nothing. i had my light about 2-3 inches from the tops of my plants and they all turned into bushes.

GARE0440. . . the T-5's certainly dont radiate as much heat as an HID bulb but they most certainly will raise the ambient air temp in an enclosed space.

The plants have been under the new lights for a week now ,so here is a bit of a progress report.
My new 2900k bulbs have not arrived yet but due to height limitations in my cabinet I have put the 6500k bulbs on to the 12/12 cycle.
The internodal spacing is certainly tightening up under the new light.As well the lower and side branches are gaining height and mass ,both very good signs.
I also added a new Quantum Infinite Breeze fan to help move the air around inside the cabinet.I chose this particular fan as it does something no other fan I have seen do.Not only does it occilate from side to side but it also nods up and down.I thought this was a very cool feature as the air is much more efficiantly used all over the cab as opposed to just across a certain part of the plants or cabinet.
The girls are just starting to show the first hairs of pre-flower so I will add some Bloom Tea tomorrow for thier first feeding of the week.
Now for some pics. . .

It has been exactly one week since I switched the girls to 12/12 light cycle and they are all showing female pre-flower.
My new 2900k bulbs have not arrived yet, but do to height limitations in my cab I was forced to flip anyways.
They recieved thier first dose of Bloom Tea yesterday at a rate of 5ml per 2ltr.
They also recieved a top dressed application of a bloom soil supplement at a rate of 1 tblspn per 1 gallon pot.

They will continue to recieve the Bloom Tea once per week but the soil supplement is a one time applicationYou may notice from the attached pics that I have taped the fan to reduce airflow,again due to cab size restrictions.

The girls recieved thier second feed of Bloom Tea (w) a couple mil's of Seaweed as well.
They are doing well,but I have decided to hold off on my soil supplement untill after this feeding.They will recieve it at the end of this week.
Day temps are staying in the mid 70's with night temps dropping to the low to mid 60's

Looks yummy! One of these days I'm going to get some new single-color T5 bulbs made, pure red and pure blue, to rock the maximum potential of T5HO.

Still no red-spectrum bulbs to replace the grow bulbs but the plants seem to be coming along fairly well.
I added a soil supplement (top dressed) to boost flowering.
I have also added a Bloom Tea to the Seaweed extract for thier weekly feeding.
I put trays under the plants so they could get a more thorough watering to get the soil supplement working.

The addition of the fan is a nice help as well with day temps staying in the mid 70's and the stocks staying nice and thick.

First day of fourth week and the girls are doing well.
I must say I like these badboy fixtures,they are doing a really good job for T-5's.
I did add the soil supplement,and they are getting Bloom Tea every 5 days now.
Although every seed from this batch has been female ,there seems to be two slightly different phenos involved.About 1/2 the plants are quite tall compared to the others and have slightly thinner leaves.
All in all though I am quite happy with the results.Looks like they may need to go 9 weeks to finish rather than 8.. . time will tell

Here are some updated pics.

dont remember 100% but I think you can start/finish a grow with the 6500k HO lights. It will take a few weeks longer, as I see you already noticed. Either way, those hairs on that sweet thing make my mouth water. Guess I should start bugging my girlfriend again to see if she will let me grow...probably not but anyways, good lookin fem's man...good growin

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Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

Looks yummy! One of these days I'm going to get some new single-color T5 bulbs made, pure red and pure blue, to rock the maximum potential of T5HO.

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Philips Colored Pro Series. Fairly pure red, green and blue in 2' and 4' lengths - about $22. Also check out AgroFlora bulbs with very high blue and red.

lookin good with the t5 bro, keep it up, the buds are startin to fill in!

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Originally Posted by RackitMan

Philips Colored Pro Series. Fairly pure red, green and blue in 2' and 4' lengths - about $22. Also check out AgroFlora bulbs with very high blue and red.

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Having problems finding that.

I was looking at the Sylvania FP54/BLUE/HO - those are absolutely perfect for the blues, but their red bulb is way too orange-red for my tastes (the peak is around 615nm, I want from 650nm peak.) Most places want 80 bucks a tube for the blue ones, but one website is offering the blue tubes for 32 bucks a piece.

http://www.goodmart.com/pdfs/sylvania/fpcolors.pdf - there's a PDF with the spectral emissions graphs for the Sylvanias.

the girls are just starting thier fifth week and so far so good.
very easy to tell the two distinct phenos of this cross breed now.
The taller ones lean more towards the appearance of the Lemon Kush and the shorter much more like the Bubba.
Alternating Bloom Tea and water now,no more seaweed.

Here are some pics!

its now 1/2 way through week 6.
Bottom leaves are starting to yellow off as expected,pulling them off as they reach more then %50 yellow.
This Badboy lighting seems to be working really well for a T-5 system,buds are stacking well,plants are staying healthy.

I am now reducing feeding strength of Bloom Tea,with one feed this week and the last one will come early next week,then on to straight water for ten days or so.14 days if they take a bit longer to ripen.
My red spec bulbs are finally in the mail and on thier way,but I may just stick with the blues till end of crop,as there is so little time left and they seem to be doing well enough as is.

Not sure if I will stay with T-5 for full next crop,or if I might try out the Quantum 600 didgital ballast I have just to compare results.Would mean rebuilding my room yet again LOL

Here are some pics from yesterday. . .

looks good man your gonna get a nice crop! when are you planning on starting flushing?

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Originally Posted by Gare0440

looks good man your gonna get a nice crop! when are you planning on starting flushing?

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One more feed next week and then they will go on straight water.
With the feeding regime I am using,there is really no actuall flush to do.Simply putting the plants on straight water for the last week to ten days will clean them up nicely.

For this entire crop from seed to harvest I will have used less than 1/4 litre in total of nutrients.(Seaweed ,Bloom Tea and Soil supplement.).
Thanks for checking out my thread.

Seventh week is just starting.
It looks at this point as if I am going to get two seperate harvest times.

The plants are Bubba and Lemon crosses,and some are short ,showing a higher Bubba cross the rest are tall,showing more of the lemon Pheno.

The taller plants are noticably less mature than the shorter ones.
So the Bubba ones will come down end of next week,or beggining of next,and the taller ones are going to be about ten-fourteen days behind.

They all had a good dose of Bloom Tea on friday and that will be the last food they see. . . time for straight water.

Leaf degradation and loss is accelerating now,which I expected.
All in all I am quite happy with the way this T-5 experiment is going,havent decided yet if I will run another show on T-5 all the way through or if I am going to switch to my Quantum 600w digi ballast for the next run.

Okay. . enough chatter. . here are some pics!

Well,thats the end of that one.All the plants are down and trimmed.
I will post weights and pics when it is dry.
Thanks to everyone that participated in the thread.

Looks yummy. :) Good job. Can't wait to see the weight results.

nice grow...congrats...:thumbsup: