Anyone using T5HO / CFL for Vegging

[Chemichael]

I currently use a 2 foot T5Ho for my veg area. I added some CFL for more spectrum and additional light on the outside zone recently. I see tiny growth nodes forming along the sets of branches. Is that what people really shoot for with this low heat close to the plants lighting?

What other advantages am I getting plant related? I am using a LED for my main tent right now and considering getting another LED and stick with that- perhaps use the T5 for vertical or lower areas / side areas in the tent. Any other neat ways people are using T5? Or am I just too freaking 10 yrs too late

 

[kingfish]

No Chemichael you are not 10 years late. I use 4ft. T5 for vegging exclusively. I have tried using them as supplemental light in my flowering tent. Found out I was just wasting electricity. Just could not get them close enough to make a difference. 1000w HPS is enough all by itself I don't know if you can mix LED light with regular florescent lights. I have a 6 tube T5 and found it to be all I need to grow my 4 plants with plenty of room for training.
If you are getting new growth between nodes, you are well on your way. The close you can get CFLs to the plant without burning them the better off you are. With T5 you have the option to move your lights away from the plant thus giving your plants room to stretch if you chose.

 

[Chemichael]

I noticed that they are not getting much taller but getting heavier in flora. Ill raise that up tonight- get a little stretch going so I can start training. Good news about the light. a bit of a pain to get situated but now I seem to have it working to how I need it.

 

[insomniaczzz]

We used T5's 6400K exclusively during veg. With some full spectrum cfl's in those metal cone shaped fixtures (I don't know what they are called pointed at the side growth once they started getting taller. Very very happy with our veg growth except we were too dumb about the matter to do any LST or topping. Next time that will be different but will still use same light set up.

 

[Chemichael]

Ps how did yesterday go

 

[NebulaHaze]

A lot of the time side lighting isn't nearly as effective as adding more light on top, because the plant naturally puts more energy on the top/highest buds. They can actually tell the difference between up from down, and they can also tell which buds are physically the highest on the plant. That's part of why we train plants to grow several buds at the top of the plant at the same height as each other. I wrote a little about it here if you're interested

Example: even if you give a cannabis plant the exact same amount of light from top to bottom, like with these old-fashioned Phototrons, you can see that the buds at the top get far bigger than the ones at the bottom. That is just how cannabis plants roll