Im using a 4 foot, 2 blub, T5, 60 watts light for my 16 peppers but my friend is telling me that thats not enough, is this true? and im trying to grow though out its life but i most likly will change it for flowering.
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lighting Indoor Growing Lights
- Thread starter LucasCarballoHydroponics
- Start date
CaneDog
Extreme Member
What type of fixture do you have? 2 foot or 4 foot length? How many bulbs? 2, 4, 6, ? How many plants are you trying to grow and through what life stage(s)?
A T5 setup should do great for peppers under many circumstances. Where HID and LED outshine T5 in particular is with taller plants where you need more intense light and deeper penetration of the canopy, because with the T5's you're going to need to keep the lights closer to the leaves. This also means your growable footprint under a T5 will be more limited to the footprint of the light fixture. So, you probably want to step up your light game if you'll be growing a taller plant or want to maximize fruit production indoors. T5's are particularly good for taking peppers from seedling to plant-out with the plant height not getting much above a foot or so.
I try to keep my indoor plants compact/short (because I'm growing indoors for breeding or just for fun usually, not production volume), but can bring a pepper to fruit with 2 T5 bulbs directly above the plant (27w per linear foot), though I usually target at least 40w. When I'm growing them taller or dealing with pepper varieties that want to stretch I will usually transition to HID or LED lighting.
Bottom line, there's a lot of variables involved and they may be perfect or terrible for what you're trying to accomplish. How are you planning to use them?
A T5 setup should do great for peppers under many circumstances. Where HID and LED outshine T5 in particular is with taller plants where you need more intense light and deeper penetration of the canopy, because with the T5's you're going to need to keep the lights closer to the leaves. This also means your growable footprint under a T5 will be more limited to the footprint of the light fixture. So, you probably want to step up your light game if you'll be growing a taller plant or want to maximize fruit production indoors. T5's are particularly good for taking peppers from seedling to plant-out with the plant height not getting much above a foot or so.
I try to keep my indoor plants compact/short (because I'm growing indoors for breeding or just for fun usually, not production volume), but can bring a pepper to fruit with 2 T5 bulbs directly above the plant (27w per linear foot), though I usually target at least 40w. When I'm growing them taller or dealing with pepper varieties that want to stretch I will usually transition to HID or LED lighting.
Bottom line, there's a lot of variables involved and they may be perfect or terrible for what you're trying to accomplish. How are you planning to use them?
I can say that when I grew my first year on here, I had made a set up with a 4ft, 2 bulb coral t5 set up and it did great. I had close to 80 plants under it until most were about 5-6 inches tall and ready to harden off and transplant out doors. I have photos of my set up in my first glog. Check it out if you want. Just my experience and opinion but it worked for me.
CaneDog
Extreme Member
alkhall said:
Good point alkhall. I tend to think of "T5" as the T5HO 2-foot 24w and 4-foot 54w bulb fixtures, because these seem by far to be the most popular applications.
These are awesome fixtures. I have 6 bulb and 4 bulb 4-foot T5HO 54w/ bulb fixtures and my favorite setup is the wider 6 bulb setup with the middle 2 bulbs removed so it runs 216w over a 4 x 1.5 +/- grow footprint with the center still getting plenty of light from each side and the reflectors above. This is not only awesome for propagating young plants, but has enough power and footprint that I can fruit 8 small plants simultaneously under this setup (albeit modestly) without issue if I keep the plants in the =< 15" ^3 range. Obviously if one is trying to get significant fruit production indoors, there are far better options than T5's.
6,400K will work perfectly fine for me as the only bulb from starting seeds through a modest harvest, though I will occasionally swap in a warm bulb alongside the 6,400K's at a 1:3 ratio. I probably do this more often with seedlings though, than I do at the bloom.
If money isn't a huge factor, I would be looking at LED as an upgrade. Most of the led light fixtures found in stores & online use Epistar & Epiled led emitters these are a waste of time and money. You might as well just use HID Ie: metal halide & HPS as the efficacy is about the same but HPS has a better spread of light, but these also produce tonnes of heat as well. More money spent on ventilation & power to factor in.LucasCarballoHydroponics said:
I would recommend using Led cobs such as Cree cxb3590 running them softly at 54w this will increase the efficacy & give you a great spread of light with deep canopy penetration. If you want an all round that is suitable for both grow through to flower & fruiting. 3500K does a great job.
Also, Samsung lm301b led chips on PCB boards are great & better again at a high 2.5 umol/joule & these are currently the highest PAR available in led.
Top brands in my books are: Cree cobs, Citizen cobs, Vero cobs & Samsung Lm301b led chips & Lm561c led chips
Stick with reputable brands & if DIY is your thing you can save a lot of money building your own & have some fun doing it.
Peace.