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Ok, I know I could have gotten a better light but for now I got stuck with a 120W "growing" light. It gets pretty hot so when I have it close to the plants they swivle up and die (1 out of 3 died in 1 day) But if I have it too far they stretch and tilt over. What can I do to make the stem get thicker? I already have a fan blowing on them and I think maybe it's helping a little. I appreciate any help given.
The fan will help a little bit... you can also try propping them up with a wooden dowell or something like that. Stretch is better than death, but until you get a REAL light your plants are not going to make it very far.
Same thing happened to me my first grow.
Sorry dude to hear of the death of your loved one.
Your fan should not be just blowing on the plant. Your fans should also be blowing across the bottom of the bulb yet on top of the plant. That thin space between the 2 is what you want to blow away and evacuate from the grow space. The plants should blow in the wind, but you also want to MOVE the air.
Perhaps you have a wussy fan?
Bottom line is heat issue. If its a long tube light, you'll need a stronger fan.
If its one of the round lights like a wheel shape, they get hot and you will need to move that air fast and constant.
You can get the lights close, just move the heat off of them. Especially newborns.
I attach a pic of my lights. The far left lights are an inch away and these are 125W 6400K CFL. The canister fan I have is a 250 CFM pointing at them from the right.
Up top I have another fan taking the hot air out.
You can see my monitor hanging right at canopy level and its 63 F inside all day.
Move the air and get the heat off the plants.
Good luck
Well right now the one that died is gone (RIP :() but i replanted a seed in its place. The other 2 are recovering since I moved the light a little higher up and watered them more since the heat from the light is making them need a lot of water. The fan actually is TOO big of a fan as apposed to a wussy fan. Its a fan on a stand but i made it be a little further away on a low setting and its making matters a lot better in my opinion. A question I have though is if HPS bulbs get really hot, how do people make the plants not stretch toward them but still not get burned? I need to find a smaller fan taht I can put really close to my system so that I can move my light back but till then I'm gonna have to hope ths tretching still allows them to grow properly. Im thinking about just doing what a lot of other people are doing and get a few CFL lights. I also put the alluminum foil around the area the plants are in and I think that probably helped a good amount. How long does it normally take till the plant gets a second pair of branches? I'm doing everything I can to get my babies to keep on living.
You might wanna plant more than one new one.
The others may have also suffered enough to sustain damage that you dont yet see. Like, stunted growth from here out.
The seconds set of leaves will come once the first set has allowed the roots to stabilize and the tap root is well developed.
It could be as long as 7 days on some poor overheated and streessed out seedlings....
Get a real light.
People who use HPS during veg cycle will get some stretch, but usually its bright enough so that it still provides ample light even though its distance from the plant is extended.
i put a 4 foot grow fluro up the wall in my veg room , it seems to keep the plants from stretching n lets me move the metal halide a few feet above the plants if i need too.