4-5LB fluoro/hydro grow

[dottoressaX]

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. 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!

dottoressaX Reviewed by dottoressaX on 09-09-2009. 4-5LB 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 Rating: 5

[hizzarp702]

Well sounds like u did alot of thinking about this...only one way to find out....but i dont think u need the C02 bro. It wont hurt, but as far as the the cost..ur not growing enough plants to really justify it. I run 4-8 lighterz all the time and never needed it...if u look at my Lavender grow on here u will see 4 1000w HID's with no c02 and this will produce 5-6lbs. If u have the extra cash and time go ahead...but not really needed. Also u have to pay super attention to detail with c02 and adjust almost every setting, time, temp etc accordingly.

Anyhow...love to see pics when u turn the lights on!