well ima super newb too, i got 2 plantys goin from about 4 or 5 weeks now maybe a bit more. thing is i had em groin by the window and they sprouted fine and all but they got to about your plants size and stopped growing, they have been in what i like to call suspended animation for about 3 weeks now. i placed em directly under a lamp with a CFL and they responded greatly. started growin again fine altho now of my two one has grown significantly lrger than the other.

cant put pics cuz i dont have a cam, but ya basicaly one is almost 3 or 4 times bigger than the other. (i duno what strain theyare as i used bag seeds) and there both right next to eachother under the same lamp (i going to put more planties and lamps next week so this is only temporary.) so im not exactly sure as to why one may grow faster than the other or not.

but ushually what i do to see if they are growin if anything a little bit is always look right at the middle of the plant and you should always see the liiiiittle tny sprout of a new set of leaves. just remember more or less the size of the newly sprouted leaves and compare them the next day. at firsti thought they werent growin but then i started comparing the new leaf sprouts and realized they are deff growin. maybe not as fast as id like but ya.

now for cfl's iv done alot of reading on this. basicaly what you need to check is the temprature of the light that is given off (keep in mind this is basicaly what color light they give off and has nthing to do with actual heat) most cfl's will have all the info listed on the box such as watts lumens and all that good stuff. what you want to check is one that says tempurature or frequency. it will give you a number followed by a K. (k for kelvin im guessing)

the cfl's you want are ones that says 6500K and 2700K. (two diffrent kind of cfl's there are none that give off both spectrums, at least not that i know of) 6500K is the blue ones and 2700 are the redish ones. basicaly what you want is a mix of 6500K and 2700K for vegging and then once you flower cut the 6500K and place all 2700K. so basicaly 6500K and 2700K for vegging and then just 2700K for flowing.

obviusly there are lots of cfl's that lie between those frequencys like 4000K for example. from what i heard if they are any other frequency besides 6500K or 2700K they are basicaly useless. (again ima super newb so im just goin by the info iv found online) so i recomend you check what frequency the lights are in. is they are 6500K and/or 2700K you should be ok for vegging (apperantly you can veg with just 6500K but i heard a mix of 6500K and 2700K is better for veg than just 6500K they should grow a bit faster. but remember once you flower only 2700K)

also keep in mind that for some reason companies that make cfl's can be stupid and not put any info on the box it will simply say somthing like 100 watt warm light............ firstof all it means its the equvalent of a 100 watt incandesent light so in reality it uses like 20 somthing watts and warm light.....well wtf is that. god i hate the corporate world. so basicaly check to see the actual watts, keep in mind cfls ushual are in the 20 or 30 watt range and make sure it dosnet say incandesent equivalent and also look for the temp of the light or frequency which again should be a number followed by a K, and remember you only want ones that are 6500K and 2700K any other range is not good or will be ineffecient.

hope this helps you, unfortunaly iv made some posts here befor and i didnt really get the answered i needed (almost no answers at all actualy) so dont expect people here to really provide all the answers for you (im not baggin on n e one guys but iv had my post up for almost 3 weks now and still no body gave me an answer ) research makes best. but ill drop by now and again to see whats up and any info you get will likely help me and if i learn more ill let you know cuz it wil probably help you. i plan on using cfl's all the way through as well so were more or less on the same page.

Happy growing! :thumbsup: