After poking around, reading, and getting a lot of advice, I decided against the long-term cost prohibitive MH & HPS lights, and getting the HTG Supply 2 Foot 4 Lamp High Output T5 lights (eventually I'll buy a second one). These are primarily for starting seeds, but down the road, I may use them to overwinter. This fixture comes with "Mixed - 2 Bloom (3000K) Bulbs And 2 Grow (6400K) Bulbs," but you can elect to have 4 Grow or 4 Bloom instead. What should I go with? Can You run a mix of these lights simultaneously?
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lighting Okay To Run Bloom and Grow T5 Lights Simultaneously?
- Thread starter UrbanNoir75
- Start date
millworkman
eXtreme
For peppers it seems that "grow" or "bloom" lamps are a farce. Peppers bloom, set flowers, set fruit and grow all at the same time, not due to light color changes like other crops might. With that being said there is absolutely no harm using two of each and it would just be a waste of money to order 4 extra bulbs so you can have 4 of each.
This seems like it conflicts with the notion held by some that you need to alternate between an MH and HPS in those halide/sodium configurations for growth, and then flowering. In any event, as far as T5 goes, it's a relief for me as I can just order this now as is. I'm ready get this show on the road already.
millworkman
eXtreme
You can do a full grow under either type of light, Metal Halide is generally around 6500k and High Pressure Sodium is generally around 2300-2700k. I have an indoor setup with 2 x 4 foot 2 bulb T12 lights and 2 23 watt cfl's. In the T12 fixtures I have one 6500k bulb and one 5000k bulb and the 2 cfl's are 5000k. Plants are blooming like crazy for me under them.
I need Omri in here to talk the science behind them because I don't know all the super special scientific details like he does.
I need Omri in here to talk the science behind them because I don't know all the super special scientific details like he does.
That's true for MH/HPS, but not high output fluorescents. Cool 54 watt T5 bulbs are 6500k and have plenty of light in both the blue and red spectrum, so are sufficient for both. Sunlight is about 6000k in comparison. MH is lacking in red and HPS is lacking in blue, but 6500k fluorescents have a more complete spectrum.
And it's not that HID lights are more expensive to run, it's just that you were talking about running 800 watts of HPS, which would use about 900 watts of power. A 250 watt HID costs roughly the same to run as a 250 watt high output fluorescent. HID are actually more efficient than high output fluorescents in lumens/watt, even though that isn't the best criteria for plant growth since lumens is a measure of light visible to humans, not light used by plants.
A 2' 4 tube T5 light is good for seedlings and some vegetative growth, but the light won't penetrate that far so it wouldn't be that good for taller plants/flowering plants. Those lights probably wouldn't be that good for anything much over 1 foot tall imo. I have a 4' 6 tube T5 light and once the plants hit about 1 foot tall the lower leaves start dropping due to lack of light.
Hi, I use t8's in 6 bulb high bay fixtures 6500k lites for seedlins up to 1ft, bigger plants are placed under a series of 400w mh,7200k plants veged-out,flowered, and produced peppers all indoors on most plants, I haven't seen the reason for hps or any lower kelvin rated lite when growing peppers or tomatoes indoors, other types of plants require lower color spectrum to achieve .....might I say, the largest flower arrangement possible...hmmmm anyways my 7/pots chocolate bhuts, morich's are now outdoors and are over 4ft tall, special spectrum grow lites in my opion are a waste of money!
Not sure what MH/HPS bulbs you guys where using, but there are several lines that offer a "FULL SPECTRUM" bulbs. I personally only use Eye Hortilux bulbs, because other brands never last as long and the eye bulbs relative energy % full spectrum was great overall for both MH and HPS bulbs.
I never bothered with anything other than HID lights because they where just smaller easier to use and a LOT more efficient overall. They did get a lot hotter, but that issue was solved with a cool tube and a small exhaust fan. Plus I had a dual ballast so I could simply switch a bulb and use the same ballast anytime I needed.
Here is a pic of the MH FULL spectrum build chart.
Here is a pic of the HPS
Here is a link to the eye hortilux tech specs for their bulbs.
Eye Hortilux Tech Bulletins
I never bothered with anything other than HID lights because they where just smaller easier to use and a LOT more efficient overall. They did get a lot hotter, but that issue was solved with a cool tube and a small exhaust fan. Plus I had a dual ballast so I could simply switch a bulb and use the same ballast anytime I needed.
Here is a pic of the MH FULL spectrum build chart.
Here is a pic of the HPS
Here is a link to the eye hortilux tech specs for their bulbs.
Eye Hortilux Tech Bulletins
The mix will provide a wider spectrum and will make them look more visually appealing. I switched to all cool white t5ho and switched back just because I didn't like the look of the blue-ish light. Technically, a bluer light might make for a shorter inter-nodal length but that is probably more dependent on light levels and what type of nitrogen you are using (ammonia vs nitrate). Hook up a computer fan to a wall wart for continuous air movement and get the bulbs about ten inches away and all will be good