# Sexing with T5's



## drfting07 (Feb 16, 2012)

As the title suggests i would like to sex with the t5's im using in veg. Please share your thoughts.


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## bubba902 (Feb 16, 2012)

Umm.. Veg long enough for them to mature enough and show ya themselves.. Don't rape em lol... 

I veg and flower under t5s sometimes. I Don't see nothing wrong.


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## Hushpuppy (Feb 16, 2012)

I just finished vegging my plants in 2 separate cabinets. I vegged 1 cab under 40k lumens of T5 for 6weeks and they are averaging 22" tall and all are showing unmistakable preflowers. But I also just flipped them a week ago.
If you want to sex them under T5 just veg them for 5weeks and turn the lights out on them for 36hrs and when you turn it back on again I bet you will see preflowers on everyone of them. That is how I normally do it but I didn't do that to mine this time as I was doing a different experiment and couldn't do it that way. My brother soes it that way in our "blueberry grow-lab" every time.


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## drfting07 (Feb 16, 2012)

Thanks for the tip Hushpuppy! Im restricted to a rather large rubbermaid until i transplant outdoors. I was hoping under my T5's i could veg and sex within 4-5 weeks in solo cups. I can transplant from solo cup to a larger pot if need be and still have room in the rubbermaid. Im just concerned with height issues at this point. T5's lend to bushier growth so i have my fingers crossed. 

Im trying to sex early so i can weed out the males and find permanent homes for my girls over the summer. They will go back into veg once they are hardened off outdoors hopefully. That gives me a jump-start on the season, and 5-6 months of veg time before harvest season starts.


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## Hushpuppy (Feb 16, 2012)

If you keep enough T5 light on them they seem to stay a lot shorter and tighter nodes than under HIDs. you might be able to sex them at 4-5 weeks depending on the strain and pheno. You could try putting them in the dark at 4weeks but I don't know if that will encourage them to show or not. If they do just put them back in 24hrs of light as soon as they show and give them a good dose of nitrogen to halt the flowering hormones.


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## drfting07 (Feb 16, 2012)

Thanks Hushpuppy! 

Just measured my height. I have about a 7" buffer from the top of the cup to the light, before they start to touch the bulbs. I might be able to go 5-6 weeks i just don't want root bound cups. At the max i can fit 25 in the rubbermaid but im only looking to run 15 to 20 and some of those are Fem. That will give me a little more room to work with in case I need to transplant. I would use square pots to utilize as much area as possible.


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## Growdude (Feb 17, 2012)

drfting07 said:
			
		

> Thanks Hushpuppy!
> 
> Just measured my height. I have about a 7" buffer from the top of the cup to the light, before they start to touch the bulbs. I might be able to go 5-6 weeks


 
7" would last me about 7 days not 5-6 weeks.

And IMO T5 will not vegg your plants shorter and tighter nodes than HID.


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## Roddy (Feb 17, 2012)

*I was hoping under my T5's i could veg and sex within 4-5 weeks in solo cups. *

Really?? Wouldn't they get awful rootbound and growth severely stunted?


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## Roddy (Feb 17, 2012)

*And IMO T5 will not vegg your plants shorter and tighter nodes than HID.*

Tried both and prefer the T5's, my experience is they are shorter and tighter nodes.


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## drfting07 (Feb 17, 2012)

I can go larger pots, 1/2 gallon square pots will fit. Solo's are to germ in. Just wanted others thoughts on vegging in solo cups.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 17, 2012)

I see real problems with trying to keep plants for 4-5 weeks in 1/2 gallon pots.  Solo cups are probably an impossibility.


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## Hushpuppy (Feb 17, 2012)

Growdude said:
			
		

> 7" would last me about 7 days not 5-6 weeks.
> 
> And IMO T5 will not vegg your plants shorter and tighter nodes than HID.


I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but if you look at my "stealth cabinets" grow journal at the last few pics, you can see huge difference in an experiment that I did with T5 versus Metal Halide. I have 4 different strains and I have them split so that I have 1 of each strain in each cabinet so that I could measure the effects on multiple strains. The T5s are 6500k and are putting out 40k lumens in a 10sqft area, while the MH had 2 250w in the same sqft and producing about 56k lumens. I haven't tried this with HPS and I haven't done this experiment in multiple ways to say it is empiracly proven. But in this test at least the T5s kept the plants stretch considerably shorter even after 1 week of flower schedule.  

Drifting: I think they will definitely get root bound in the cups but if you switch them at that point to the Half gallon containers, they may make it to 5-6weeks before getting root bound again. We did this successfully with the "micro-grow" challenge, so I feel like you can do it. It could get a little tricky, You just have to make sure they are cared for carefully and fed well.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 17, 2012)

Hushpuppy said:
			
		

> I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but if you look at my "stealth cabinets" grow journal at the last few pics, you can see huge difference in an experiment that I did with T5 versus Metal Halide. I have 4 different strains and I have them split so that I have 1 of each strain in each cabinet so that I could measure the effects on multiple strains. The T5s are 6500k and are putting out 40k lumens in a 10sqft area, while the MH had 2 250w in the same sqft and producing about 56k lumens. I haven't tried this with HPS and I haven't done this experiment in multiple ways to say it is empiracly proven. But in this test at least the T5s kept the plants stretch considerably shorter even after 1 week of flower schedule.
> 
> Drifting: I think they will definitely get root bound in the cups but if you switch them at that point to the Half gallon containers, they may make it to 5-6weeks before getting root bound again. We did this successfully with the "micro-grow" challenge, so I feel like you can do it. It could get a little tricky, You just have to make sure they are cared for carefully and fed well.



I also found that I got tighter internodal spacing with a T5 than a MH, which is why I switched.  I was also running less lumens with the T5.  I think the fact that the light is spread better and you can get the plants within inches of the light makes the difference.  I did my two grows in different closets, but they were the same sq footage.


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## drfting07 (Feb 17, 2012)

I think ill ditch the solo cups and go with 1/2 gallon pots to start. Looking for a low profile pot with more width than height. That should give me much more room to work with as far as height and still have plenty of medium.


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## drfting07 (Feb 20, 2012)

so general consensus is they will be root bound in solo cups by week 3 or 4. Ill look for something more suitable for root growth and transplant outdoors before it becomes a problem. When they go outdoors they will be transplanted into their final flowering pots. 15 gallons with 5 gallons of nouvelle's super soil and 10 gallons of amended pro-mix.


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## Roddy (Feb 20, 2012)

I usually start mine in solo cups, leave until they grow a few inches....about a week or so, I'm guessing. I then transplant to a butter tub or something of that size, let them get their roots going good and then transplant to final container (7-10gallon pots). This allows for growth while not allowing the roots to bound up AND is giving them fresh soil every couple weeks or so until final container.

ooops, you're going for outdoors....but would still do about the same, just not moving to final pot.


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## drfting07 (Feb 20, 2012)

Butter Tub is a good idea! Thanks rod.


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## drfting07 (Feb 21, 2012)

They will be in pots outdoors* Roddy*

Going to run 6 disposable beans with the same idea and see how it works out.


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