T5 for indoor plants

[dutch27]

Has anyone repurposed reef lighting for indoor gardening? I have a 36" T5 laying around and am considering trying to grow a couple of tomato plants indoors for kicks, as the deer, rabbit, and ground hogs eat everything I put outside. The real question is what actual bulb would be needed? I'm assuming a single low kelvin bulb would be plenty? It's an ATI fixture, so it creates a ton of PAR.

And yes, I actually mean tomatoes/vegetables, it is not a metaphor for anything else, lol. I'm thinking of growing the basics of a salad for kicks, and maybe using it as a way to start flowers from seed and/or propagate cuttings of some of my plants.

 

[Clinton]

Of course they'd work and with less research than reefing ;). Just go to Amazon look up vegetation t5 bulb. Then look up fruiting t5 bulb. Use veg at the start and fruiting when they produce some flowers :)

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

We use 6500k bulbs for our seedlings and orchids. It matches sunlight. :)

Hope this helps!

 

[TheGreatWave]

It's about the wattage. 1000W grows 1.5lbs of tomatoes every 90 days. You can split the wattage up into a 3-light rotation and harvest every 30 days and get a half pound of tomatoes. Light=yield.

That being said 400w-600w is is the minimum amount required to have a successful harvest. The minimum amount to grow a healthy plant in that short of time. You can of course "finish" with much less, but the plant will run out of light before it finishes flowering effecting quality/yield. (In a 3-light rotation, one veg tent supplies each flower tent every month. Flower tents are on opposite cycles)

1000w in the above example is the finishing light, plants are vegged with half the wattage. Seeds and cuttings only need a T5.

If you do it right, you can't tell the difference tasting a tomatoes grown with a T5, LED or MH.

So it sounds like you may have to add bulbs for veg depending on how many watts you have now, you would for sure have to add bulbs for a dense flower.
You could of course just try it for kicks and see what you get, you won't hurt my feelings.