Anyone flower under T5's?

[Dutch Pimp]

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[Ocotillo]

Oops, uhh..... Yeah, what he said!

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[Roughrider]

The problem with T5s (or any fluoro lights) is their lack of canopy penetration. You have to keep fluoros of any type close to the plants (1-2â?�) to get top results. Obviously, if you've got a 30â?� plant, you're going to have some problems if you've got bud sites 12â?� below the top of your plant...or if your top buds go down more than a few inches. This is also why CFLs and T5s are terrific in veg or SCROG/SOG grows; the plants are smaller, and canopy penetration isn't an issue (or much of one) for a 10-14â?� plant in veg, or plants that arne't going be to be to tall when fully grown..

I'm thinking that one way to get around thisâ??but it be more of a pain to set up in real lifeâ??would be to have two T5's in an inverted V pattern ^ around a plant. You'd probably do pretty well.

And it's also true that CFLs or T5s won't be as efficient as HIDs. CFLs give you around 65-70 lumens per watt. T5s are a little better; around 80-90. A pretty average 250w HPS bulb gives you over 26000 lumens, so you'd be over the 100 lumens/watt mark. The gap increases with larger HID bulbs; 600 and 1000w HPS bulbs get to about 150 lumens per watt..twice as efficient as fluoros.

For the type of setup described, you really would need a dump truck load of fluoros...something 1000w (or more) of T5s. You'll still have heat and ventilation issues with that many lights, and they will also become pretty costly. Not worth the switch, IMO.