We’re starting our first grow in a few weeks and I have a question about lighting. The light is a T5, 2 foot 8 bulb and it came with 6000K bulbs. Should I get red bulbs (2700K or whatever I can find) for the flowering stage? They don’t seem to be that expensive. Eventually (if we stick with this, LOL) I would plan to put in an HPS light for flowering but for now what we got is what we got. We’re only going to grow two plants this time, and they’re smallish feminized autoflowering ones. I think I can keep the lights quite close to them. Thanks!
New Grower Reddish T5 bulbs for flowering?
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Waximus
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Howdy, Chanvremec 
When I was using T5s, I would swap out half of my 6500k bulbs with 2700k bulbs, when I put plants into flower. Always seemed to work great for me.
Best to you, and your grow!
When I was using T5s, I would swap out half of my 6500k bulbs with 2700k bulbs, when I put plants into flower. Always seemed to work great for me.Best to you, and your grow!
Thanks, Waximus. Anybody whose handle manages to refer to Gladiator gets my vote, LOL. But why only half as 2700K? I thought the idea was to get a more red spectrum to try to emulate summer/fall light.
Im curious about this as im awaiting a supplemental t5 to go with my full spectrum led. Since my led supposedly covers all parts of the spectrum, and my plants are just beginning to flower, I was also thinking of picking up a full set of flower bulbs, but may run 50/50. I also plan on having plants at different stages under the light eventually.
Waximus
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These T5 grows were all autos, and in the research I did, I had read that some growers prefer to keep the Metal Hydride bulb running full grow for autos, as they seemed to dig the extra blue spectrum. So, I just figured 50/50 mix would be a low level "full spectrum" in T5s... It worked great, and on my 2nd grow I kept all 6500k lamps in until day 50 (laziness, not science lolol) and the plants seemed "lanky" compared to the earlier run. I think if I used my T5 fixtures again, it'd be as side fill, and I'd still keep it at 50/50. Now, if we were talking photoperiod plants, I'd only put one 2700k bulb in a fixture (mine are 4 bulb, 2 footers), as they DO crave the red more than the autos I've grown. I've wondered if its because of the ruderalis crossing in autos, that makes them more Blue-addicted?
