I am a newbie and just started growing under lights last year. I bought two 2'x4' 6 bulb T5HO fixtures and, i think, each bulb requires 54 watts. I grew plants from seed and was burning seedlings when the fixtures were inches from the plants. I had been accostomed to starting plants indoors with T12 bulbs and they had to be right up close to seedlings. As the plants matured i wound up settling on keeping the T5 fixtures about 15" from the top of the tallest plants. If leaves browned up i assumed it was because i had the fixtures too close to the plant but you say they can be only a couple of inches from the plant.
I will read my books to see what the difference between SOG and SCROG are. What you had looked beautiful and i would love to imitate it. But I would like to get legal now and in Vermont, with medical marijuana, you can only have 7 immature and 2 mature plants. What you had (in another post) looked like many small clones. I was planning on trying to stay reasonably legal and start 7 or 8 seeds and keep whatever females i identified at around 3 months and then switch to flowering. I have done it for two years now with t5's and had mixed successes with plants that reached to about 4' from bottom of pots - always keeping the fixtures 12" to 15" above the tallest plant. Could the browning of leaves at the top be more the result of poor circulation, heat or other deficiency than from having the fixtures too close to the canopy?
i just put up a post in the "grow room design" forum asking for ventilation assistance descibing what I am trying to do. I would appreciate any suggestions you are willing to offer.
Thanks......