First CFL closet grow, pure power plant and white widow/nl/skunk

[purplehaze11]

First indoor grow, right now seeds are germinating. Light set up is 4 4-bulb sockets for a total of 16 bulbs. Cfls, 26 watts and 1600 lumens each for a total of 25600 lumens. The grow space is roughly 22'' by 3', or 5.5 square feet, so about 4800 lumens per square foot. After germination they'll go into jiffy pots and transplanted in a couple weeks. There is a small fan which will help cool them down a bit, and eventually an exhaust fan will be installed to circulate the air throughout the whole closet. As of now there are two of those car reflector thingys surrounding them but mylar will be put in there eventually.

Pic 1 is of the setup as a whole
Pic 2 shows the chain supports, they can easily be raised and lowered
Pic 3 is a view from inside, incredibly bright in there
Pic 4 shows the small fan for cooling in the corner
Pic 5 is the seeds germinating, white widow/nl/skunk on the right, ppp on the left

[purplehaze11]

Couple of questions:

Should I build some sort of reflector shield to put above the lights?
How high above the plants should I put the lights?
Any and all comments welcome as this is a first indoor grow.

[purplehaze11]

Update:

All 3 of the pure power plants germinated and one of the white widows so far. Those 4 went into jiffy pellets, and under the lights. As of now only half of the 16 100 watt equiv. CFLs are on, as I dont want to give them too much heat until they break soil. Should I be worried about that? The lights are about 4 inches above the top of the jiffy pellet tray dome. Now have a second fan in there to help lower the temperature, its about 8 inches. Both fans in there and only half the lights on its 81.5 degrees fahrenheit in there. Will post new pics once the seeds have broken soil.

[edub325]

above and below

[purplehaze11]

Ok big problem...

Its now been 15 days since the germinated seedlings were planted. They've been kept at a humidity of 48% and 75 degrees Fahrenheit on average. As of now, all three white widow's have sprouted to the point where the seed cap is visible on top of the soil however, no plant material save for the seed cap is visible. The plants have been watered approx. every 8 hours with just enough water to make them damp. After 8 hours had passed, the soil would still feel damp, and I would water accordingly to make the soil consistently damp. The airflow is good (449 cfm exhaust fan). Each plant is directly under its own light, approximately 2 inches below. Two of the pure power plants that were planted into the jiffy pellets, never sprouted, and we dug them up and found no root structure at all (couldnt even find the original seeds).

Should we ditch the jiffy pots in favor of seedling starting soil?
For the plants that have a seed just protruding out from the soil (its been roughly a week since they were first visible and they haven't grown), could those possibly be transplanted?

I really need some help because we dont want to lose our plants... we only have four unstarted seeds left and really want to save the ones that have already been started too. Seed origin is definitely legitimate. Any and all suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated. Please need help from experienced growers.

[jasonlouisiana]

nice set up...much nicer than mine..lol...i cant give u much advice on the growing part as i am doing mine for the 1st time right now...about to switch to 12/12 next week sometime,as soon as my hps lamp arrives,but i dont remember watering that much in the begining...i want to say i would only water about once every 3 days...but i by no means have any right to offer advice as all this is new to me too...good luck with it hope they come around for ya...

[r00tdoctor]

Sounds like your drowning them , do you have more seeds left? if so start over. germing in paper towels is the method I use also (just keep them in a warm) dark place and the paper towels dont need to be overly moist. When the taproot starts showing and is around 1/3-1/2 cm protuding out the seed ,now its time to place them in soil. Pre-moisten the soil then place them in soil. (use something like walmart's perfect mix organic soil cheap and works good). Dig a tiny hole by pushing a pencil or something in the soil and barely cover the seed with soil taproot pointing down. They should pop threw the soil in a couple days (2-3). You dont need to water during this period unless the soil somehow gets dry (it shouldnt). Also make sure you are using good water to start your lil seeds like spring water from the grocery store. Also you should try to keep the ph around 6.5. So if you dont have one already get a ph kit , the water you use to start the seedlings should be ph'ed also. you probally are going to need to upgrade your ventilation if half of the cfl's are already giving you those kinds of temps. Those cfls should give you some lush bushy growth during veg once you get your problems worked out. ***also use 16ounce or bigger containers of soil to start the seeds in.

[purplehaze11]

Thanks for the reply, we still have four ungerminated seeds left, as well as one seed we just discovered in some dank:rastasmoke:. Think there's anyway to save the seeds that have already been started. Ill get some new soil soon and ditch those jiffy pellets, and water less.

[GoldenGraham84]

hey, just want to say that those 16 bulbs use more wattage then a 400W HID light. so, if you're not just growing for personal usage, i'd try to get some $ from your harvest and buy yourself a digital ballast grow light. there's complete kits for 299.99. these include digi ballast, 1 MH bulb & 1 HPS bulb, air cooled reflector, fan, light mover pulleys, timer, and other stuff. here's a link.

Sunlight Solutions Hydroponics Systems (http://www.powerplantkits.com)