My T5 Idea, any suggestions?

Hey everyone. I have an idea and wanted to throw it by people who are more experienced and ‘in-the-know’ then I am. I recently started researching High Output T5 Fluorescents.

Lets say you have two 4 foot fluorescent lights giving roughly 5,000 lumens ea. = 10,000 lumens total. Now lets say you train your plant to grow horizontal, by using tie downs, strings, weights what ever. See what I’m getting at? When I see examples of people using T5’s their plants are growing regular (vertical) but the penetration of these lights aren’t good at all. So if you plant is 3-4 feet tall, and growing vertical you can actually maximize those 10,000 lumens (per plant).

I’ve read on a few boards that outside at sea level the sun averages about 10,000 lumens per square foot. Now I know that my idea above isn’t in a square foot area. However this idea on paper seems to be VERY efficient. Or am I forgetting to factor in something?

Here’s my actually question I guess:
If one plant receives:
~10,000 Lumens of 3000K during flowering and
~10,000 Lumens of 6500K during vegetative
Growing vertically under a T5 light (literally directly above the plant)
Wouldn’t it grow fat delicious nugs all over?
Is this a good idea?
I would like to hear any thoughts and/or suggestions. Any and all are greatly
appreciated.

Check out my grow journal I am using a combo of three footT5s and CFL's
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/11295-flourecent-closet-grow-9.html#post125892

I am familiar with your grow mattso101, actually after doing alot of reading up on T5, reading your journal is where I had my idea. very good journal too i might add, keep up the good work. in my resaerch of T5 growing now one has ever tryed what Im thinking of, anyone know of why not? what do you think of training to grow vertical along the light blub to maximize the lights output?

Dr.G13 said:

[Lets say you have two 4 foot fluorescent lights giving roughly 5,000 lumens ea. = 10,000 lumens total. Now lets say you train your plant to grow vertical, by using tie downs, strings, weights what ever. See what I’m getting at? When I see examples of people using T5’s their plants are growing regular (horizontal) but the penetration of these lights aren’t good at all. So if you plant is 3-4 feet tall, and growing vertical you can actually maximize those 10,000 lumens (per plant).

Click to expand...

Okay you lost me with this, I think I know what you mean but I'm not at all sure.

You say "lets say you train your plant to grow vertical, by using tie downs, strings, weights what ever. See what I’m getting at?" No I don't see what you're getting at. You grow your plant vertical but use tie downs? Are you suggesting growing your plants vertical or low stress training them so they almost grow horizontal to your lights, not vertical to them? Or are you suggesting using tie downs to stop the plant from growing too high vertically?

Firstly, you need to forget what the sun produces outside in nature - it bears no relevance whatsoever to what goes on in indoor grows for the simple reason that the sun is not restricted by the Inverse Square Law of diminishing light intensity. In other words, the suns luminous flux or intensity or number of lumens it produces if you prefer does not diminish according to the single point light source of Inverse square law. So the number of lumens the sun produces at the top of the plant is exactly the same as the number of lumens at the bottom of the plant.

Your T5 fluoro IS subject to the inverse square law so your 5,000 lumens at 1 foot distance becomes 5,000/2x2= 1,250 lumens at 2 foot distance, hence the need to keep the light as close to the plant as possible. The other thing you need to bear in mind is that the Inverse Square Law applies only to single point light sources, therefore you cannot add the lumens from 2 T5's to create 10,000 lumens with regards to diminishing light intensity - only for light spread over a distance - not penetration down.

But yes, the theory you put forward is a sound one - low stress training the plant to keep it either low or growing horizontally would work with two T5's.

In my opinion though, T5 lights are best used in SOG style grows, Sea of Greens where you flower lots of small clones as soon as they're rooted to keep their height to about a foot and simply grow lots of them.

Babygro
haha know what? vertical is up-down huh? you're the first to catch that. my idea is to keep everything as "flat" as possible. sorry for the confusion. Tied down to grow perpendicular to the lights. Your post on light and lumens is great. The diminishing intensity of light is the exact reason I came up with this idea. The T5's will be practically on top of the plants. I've pondered SOG but am guessing the time to train her to grow sideways under light would be easier and faster. What do you think about that?

If the two lights are directly (like an inch or so) above there would be super minimal light diminishingness (that a word? Haha) AND the entire plant gets to be that close to the light not just the top of the plants.

Can T5’s produce a lot of bud? dense bud? What about if it grown like this?
What’s your opinion?

Would you happen to know where SOG T5 grow information can be found? Id be very interested in learning about that.

Thanks for your interest… looking forward to your next post.

-Doc