LSTTT: Low Stress Twisty Tie Training

[Mr. Clandestine]

Just got some T-5's, we'll see how they hold up in there.

Do T-5's do a pretty good job for vegging mothers? I've used some T-12 fixtures before, but wasn't really impressed with the results. I need ample lighting for a couple of mothers, and was planning on using my 400W MH for it... but I think I'm really starting to lean more towards a fluorescent setup to save on energy. (Already got a 1000W burning bright for 18 hours a day.)

[Opie Yutts]

I think 400W for 2 mothers is a little overkill, unless you need them mothers to grow as fast as possible. Fluoros work just fine for my situation. One 23W cfl of the correct color per plant does real good.

[MVP]

Gotta agree with Opie unless they are intended to be Monster Moms and throw off several dozen clones each month....

[Mr. Clandestine]

Thanks for the feedback, fellas.

I'm hoping for enough growth to take about 10 good sized cuttings every 2 months or so. I was kinda figuring the 400 would probably be a little too strong for my needs, and actually was wanting to use it during flowering anyway. If you had to choose between an independent CFL over each plant, or a 2-tube 4' T-5 fixture, which do you think you'd choose to produce the amount of foliage that I'm shooting for?

P.S. - Opie, how did the harvest go last night? Any happier with the results (weight) than you were with sickhead?

[psteve]

If you had to choose between an independent CFL over each plant, or a 2-tube 4' T-5 fixture, which do you think you'd choose to produce the amount of foliage that I'm shooting for?

More is usually better as long as you can vent the heat.
Shoot for more than 70 watts per square foot of canopy with cfl's.
You can get away with >50W/Sq' if you use T-5's.

[Mr. Clandestine]

More is usually better as long as you can vent the heat.
Shoot for more than 70 watts per square foot of canopy with cfl's.
You can get away with >50W/Sq' if you use T-5's.

Thanks for the feedback.

Got plenty of fans, so I'm not worried too much about ventilation. I'm heavily weighing the options, but Opie and MVP are right about the HID being overkill... fluoros will give off much less heat, and I've got quite a few CFLs and socket extenders laying around. I'm gonna go pick up a T-5 setup later this afternoon, too.

[Opie Yutts]

If you had to choose between an independent CFL over each plant, or a 2-tube 4' T-5 fixture, which do you think you'd choose to produce the amount of foliage that I'm shooting for??

OK, this might get dangerous but let me think. Without doing a bunch of looking for stuff, I think my 2-tube T-12 fixture puts out something like 5200 lumens, and it's closer to the proper veg spectrum. I think it peaks at 6100K or something. My 2 T-5s put off 12,200 lumens, but their color isn't as good. They peak at about 6500K. Even though the 12s have less lumens, they'll probably veg about as good as the 5s since they are closer to the proper color.

With CFL you can get even closer to the proper color, since manufactures are wanting to make the happy daylight bulbs. They take even less power to make the proper lumens, and they are more convenient to position and so forth. I also think you can take advantage of nearly all the light with a cfl by dangling it between plants, near their tops.

OK, my vote: for mothers it's CFL, or a mixture of CFL and T-12. Until tube makers get closer to the color that produces peak chlorophyll activity the 12s are going to be more efficient at vegging. Even more so for budding, since the lowest you can get for the 4 foot T-5s is 3000K, which aint that great. For cute little flats of seedlings, I'm thinking tubes. The 12s are bigger, bulkier, and produce more heat, but I'm seriously thinking about returning my new 5s. If you want to be as efficient as possible you should try to get close to the correct color.

P.S. - Opie, how did the harvest go last night? Any happier with the results (weight) than you were with sickhead?

Harvest went pretty good yesterday, thanks for asking. The 6 billion buds were kind of a pain in the butt. Several hours for the initial manicure. And yeah, I am much more pleased at the results of the mid health ones. A little surprised actually. My fingers are very sticky. Lotsa oozing resin, even more I think, than I'm used to. Fox Farms' enhancers may have had something to do with it. Lil fluffy on the outside, but hard as rock on the inside. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sickhead nuggets look pretty sad now that she's almost dry. It sure is a let down when you see their real finished weight.

[Opie Yutts]

So, you can imagine all you want, but a picture helps so much.

The first one is what's left, which I now realize are 2 plants. Turns out the left back one had managed to get a hold of a couple bits of light-filled territory before the healthiest one choked it out completely. Harvest them in a couple days? We shall see.

[Opie Yutts]

Now I must go work on my LED stuff.

Heres where they're drying, dark most the time with a bit of air flow. The hanging racks are left overs from the new screen. Did you know that it's best to hang them upside down, so that when the aliens come down to pinch little samples, the THC moves from the buds up through the stem and into the aliens hands? That's where their brain is, and they have some sort of THC flow enhancing enzymes and stuff.

[Opie Yutts]

PS. If anyone's into measuring, those are 2"x3" holes in the screen.