what do u mean by topping them ?i have an idea on it but just want to make sure and i have also been reading a ton of stuff and another? is how long do u sprout and im talking about for dwc not soil how big should plants get b4 u put them into the dwc im growing 5 each of watermelon,bell peppers,toms,carrots i would just rather start with vegs to see how things work im just a lil cautious to start out but anyways i have a lil greenhouse box with the tray and clear dome type under 2 of the new curled lights u see around now that saves on watts anyways 2 of the bigger ones and they sprout in 1 & 1/2 days i started on june 12 and on the 17th they were about 3 to 4 inches tall with white thick furry roots coming out the bottem of the jiffy plugs from gh around 5 to 8 roots for the watermelon and 1 root each of the others about an inch out so i put into 5 inch pots with the clay balls and i have them under 1000 watt mh about 2 ft above my ? any advice on what to do next/or need to correct b4 i move on and 1 more thing im pretty sure i have hard water as it is coming from a well is there anything wrong with that or is it ok? my nutes are at 550 to 600 ppm and i have my ph at 6.2 to 6.4 im using advance grow with enngy's f1 and growzime or something like that also when i put the nutes in yesterday today i check and everything looks fine but the water smells maybe the nutes+well water cause this or ? i know this is alot of stuff im asking and i have read for about 2 mo now just about everything in here and more but i guess it sounds better when someone responds back to u with info to let u know hey u f'd up or hey ur on the right track thanks