Splitting the flowering time with T5 and HPS

[Hackerman]

First, some groundwork.....

Since flowering takes more time and more room than vegging, I always seem to find myself overcrowded and undertimed on my flowering space. I don't really have the room to do what I want (add a flowering room) so I am trying something a little different.

I generally flower in a 4x4 room with a 1000w HPS.

For this experiment, I am using one of my 3x5 vegging tents with a 10 bulb T5 light in it.

From the posts I have read, the down side to flowering with T5 is...

A. Added stretch (less penetration)
B. Fluffier (and smaller) buds. Generally, less yield.

OK, now to my situation....

My flower room is full and won't have room available for 4 to 5 weeks.

My veg tent has Satori that are almost 12 weeks old already and are still in veg (this wouldn't normally be possible but this pheno of Satori is REALLY short). Anyway, the plants are ready to flower and I won't have room for another 4 to 5 weeks.

My solution......

Rather than let these veg for 4 to 5 more weeks, I swapped out bulbs to a 25k bulb (Kudos to HTG service and shipping) and set the timer to 12/12.

In about 4 to 5 weeks, I'll be able to put these in the flower room with the 1000w HPS. However, for the first half of the flowering cycle they will be getting only 360w (8x45w bulbs [I think these are 45w aren't they?]) vs the 1000w HPS I normally use.

You're opinion.....

So, what do you think? I am saving 5 weeks in overall turnover. The first 2 weeks of the 12/12 cycle are spent stretching and changing chemistry. I'm not so sure a little less light will make a big difference during that time.

Buds really start to pack it on after 3 or 4 weeks. That, would seem to me, to be the time that you want the maximum light.

I definitely am going to loose a little yield. I can live with that. It's worth the time savings for me.

And, I wonder just how much difference the lessor light will make for that first half of the flowering period.

Just tossing it out.

 

[Rosebud]

I think you might as well try that Hackerman... You can' t veg any longer or you will have trees.. Did you trade out the spectrum for flowering bulbs? I think your logic makes sense and you don't have much of an option. I like it... do it and let us know. There are folks here who have flowered under T5's, I think it is weedhopper.

 

[Hackerman]

Yeah, I am hoping to hear from the peeps who flower T5. Thanks, Rosie.

 

[WeedHopper]

Here ya go Little Brother.


http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showpost.php?p=958981&postcount=1

 

[bud88]

Hack, I think a lot will depend on the height of your Satori... if you could hang a couple more fixtures sideways in the front and back of her so that you could get more T5 lighting down below she would probably do even better.
Here's the link to my T5 grow. They were autoflowers so the yield wasn't expected to be that large to begin with and I only dropped back to 20/4. You also have more lighting per sq. ft than I did as I only used an 8 bulb fixture in a 4 x 4 tent. I would defoliate prior to flipping(I did even though it isn't recommended with autos) so that you can get as much direct light to the bud sights as possible.
The density of the buds in the top 2' of the plants was pretty darn good. It was the lower stuff that ended up on the fluffy side.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72775

 

[Hackerman]

So far, it doesn't look like I am going to suffer much at all.

I am running a couple experiments in my current grow. Half the plants are untrimmed (well, mostly untrimmed). The other half had all the branches removed up to the last 4 or 5 sets of nodes and are totally bare below the canopy. They are in week 5 of flowering and I can't see a real difference, yet. We'll see if the final harvest from the neck up is the same, or not.

 

[hippy59]

Ive wondered if this would work well so now we will see what happens. keep the info coming.

 

[WeedHopper]

Ill be watching . Love to see T5 grows. I really enjoyed mine.

 

[JustAnotherAntMarching]

Hacker I ran T5s for flowering for years in a 2x4 tent in a closet... kept my jars full with nothing but T5s... I ran 10 4' bulbs in a 2x4 tent and found mixed spectrum to provide the best all around results... I ran 6 bloom and 4 veg bulbs for flower... the added blue helps with stretch and resin production... :48:

 

[WeedHopper]

Yesser,,,,i thought you ran T5s JAAM. I loved my T5 grows. My nuggs were fairly dence and very nice. Filled several jars that lasted me after i moved from Florida to Louisianna. Yehaaaaaaaaa

 

[Hackerman]

Well, it's been 1 week and I can definitely tell the difference already. The plants under the HPS had some pretty decent buds already at 1 week. These only have a few white hairs. The big difference will come in week 2. The plants under HPS had very nice buds by the second week. Only 3 more weeks and I will move these T5s to HPS.

I do have something weird going on. I am loosing live, green leaves. I run my hand up the plant and I can pull 4 or 5 giant green and healthy fan leaves right off in my hand.

The only other time I have ever seen this is with extreme over watering. The leaves get droopy and soft. And, then they fall off. That is what these are doing. However, I know they are not over watered. And the leaves are not drooping. They just fall off. They are, however, a little "soft" like when over watered.

The only thing I can imagine is that the roots have swallowed up all the dirt and there's nothing but a giant ball of roots in the pot. These Satori are incredible rooters. I had a cup FULL of roots in 2 weeks with I cloned. And, now, the roots are growing out of the bottom of the pot. LOL Never seen a plant root this much.

Still, I need to resolve this problem.

The plants are really way over crowded. I have 6 (2 gallon pots) in a 3x5 tents and they are wall to wall. I think I may trim then up today and see if more air flow stops the leaf falling.

Anyone ever have fresh green leaves fall from anything other than over watering?

I'll get a couple pics today.

 

[WeedHopper]

Waiting to see pics. Yehaaaaaaaaa

 

[Hackerman]

Well, the pics are really bad but they will, at least give us a comparison. The difference is huge, already.

The greener pics are the T5. The plants have been 12/12 for 12 days. The yellow pics are the plants under HPS for 23 days. We'll see what the others look like at 23 days.

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[sMACkaddict]

lookin nice and happy! What about gettin the t5's closer? You got a lotta green under those t5s and they arent going to penetrate the canopy. Maybe some lollipopping/trimmin?

 

[oldfogey8]

i have been flowering under t5's for several years. i am finally convinced that i really need to upgrade or at least try an hps lamp. my buds are ok at the top but the further down you go, the fluffier they get. also kinda cruddy yields(half a gram per watt). i also mix the spectrums. and the blue do prevent stretch or minimize it. my plants are always compact. this will be very informative to see how switching plays out. i wonder if you will need to harden them off before exposing them to full on hps light. i was also getting a lot of my big fan leaves below the canopy that were falling off this grow. i think i was too crowded. below is the link to my journal...

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72820&page=5

 

[Hackerman]

You know, I must say, I am impressed. This T5 performed better than I expected.

2 variables. The T5 plants in the following pictures are a different pheno than the HPS plants so it's not a 100% comparison. The HPS pheno is a much larger plant to start with. However, buds are buds and plant height is not all that important in yield.

The other variable is that the T5 is an 8 bulb. So, that 360 watts. The HPS is a 1000w turned down to 750w. Still, twice the watts.

The first 2 pics are the HPS at about 20 days. Same ones I posted a few posts up. The third pic is the T5 at about the same 20 days (taken today). Not all that much difference considering the difference in lighting.

Now, the density might be real different and the final yield will really tell but to the eye, they are not all that different.

The 4th pic is just an overall of the 6 plants under the T5.

The 5th is just a shot of my (always) overcrowded flowering room. Darn Sativas really fill a room in a hurry. LOL

The rest of the shot are the Skunk that is coming down at the end of this week (9 weeks and a couple days).

IME, the buds don't start really packing it on until the last 4 weeks anyway. The first couple seem to be mostly the plant adapting to it's new chemistry and getting ready to flower (stretching, etc). Then, the buds develop and then the plump. So, this may not hurt the final yield and it saved me a bunch of time.

I would like to leave a couple plants under the T5 and finish the rest under the HPS so I can get a good compare but I don't know if it's going to work like that. I need the tent so I may have to rotate all the plants in a few more weeks. We'll see.

However, in summary, so far, I have not seen a gigantic difference in the 2 buds under these (very different) conditions.

I must say, I am impressed with the T5.

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[oldfogey8]

very impressive hacker. i think high output t5's are 54 watts so if you are using h.o.'s that would be 432 watts vs. 750 watts but that is still pretty close to half. that being said, the t5 looks leafier to me. i know my t5 grows are pretty leafy too but all i have to compare with is looking enviously at peoples hps grows where their buds look like your hps buds with so much resinous calyxes that there is no room for leaves. thanks for the update.

 

[Hackerman]

Oops, yep, you're right. They are 54w, not 45w.

Sometimes my backwards dyslexia see I will . OLO

I'll snap some new pics in about a week when I pull the skunk out and move some things around.

 

[hippy59]

getting a bit interesting, tho not scientic as you stated but still interesting.

 

[blondlebanese]

I have been growing 12 plants in my room. 1000 hps won't reach all the plants so I added 8 t-5 ho54w. they cover 4 plants. those four plants get the benefit from both lights. in my four grows like this those four plants have always have had better looking buds.