August 20, 2010 – Some people who grow medical marijuana don’t even realize that you can use fluorescent T5 grow lights during your grow to 
help save energy and still get great results. Fluorescent lights, as everyone knows, run on a very low amount of energy, especially compared to HID grow lights such as Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium grow light systems. These T5 fluorescent also operate much cooler than HID lights to help keep your growing climate at a favorable temperature for your flourishing medical marijuana plants.
Most medical marijuana growers that use T5 lighting systems, use them during the cloning and/or vegetative stage of growth. This is because the plant needs much less light energy during these phases of growth. A fluorescent T5 grow light system can offer the amount of light needed to these plants while using much lower energy. It is a little hard to compare a fluorescent light fixture to an HID because they are such different lighting systems, however it is easy to compare the output you get from using either one and the energy used to get there. Most 4′ T5 light bulbs are rated at 54 watts. The most popular T5 grow light system is the 4′, 4 light ballast. So using 4 lights, you are looking at using approximately 220 watts to give light to a 2′x4′ area. If you were to use an HID light for the same area, most growers would decide to use a 400W MH light. This system would obviously use at least 400 watts, if not more and will produce much more heat. This increased energy use adds up on the energy bill!
To help you understand why the vegetative or cloning phases are the best times to use a fluorescent light I have included the maximum light requirements for medical marijuana plants in these different phases (via Jorge Cervantes):
Growth Stage Foot-Candles Lux Hrs. of Light
Clone 375 4000 16-24
Vegetative 2500 27000 18
Flowering 10000 107500 12
You can see by the illustration that flowering plants need a drastically increased amount of light to flourish. The much lower amount of light needed for the vegetative phase can most of the time be met with a T5 grow light system. Start saving energy today and switch to T5 fluorescent lighting ASAP. Source.
2 responses to “Medical Marijuana Growing – T5 Grow Lights”
while T5 does well if you have not heard of induction grow lights I invite you to check out our youtube video on Inda-Gro. These lights are amped up flourescent fixtures that have more then double the lumen output and no iinterior electrodes. They run on high frequency 2.65 kHZ generators, no ballasts, so they do not get as hot either. You can touch these lights while they’re running.
These are full spectrum lamps which peak at 300 and 700 nanometers allowing veg-bud under the same lamp. With many satisfied users I would welcome your questions or enquiries.
I agree that using t5 lights can really cut cost while providing the amount of light that your plants need. You can also use such lighting fixture on other hydroponics plants like peppers, tomatoes and lettuce. You can get the same great results just like what you can get from using MH lights.