wobbly stems

[llamaman666]

my plants are about 18 days old and are 3-4 inches. They have one set of leaves (and one set of pre-leaves). Today they started tipping badly, i had the mon a fan for a while, and now I have the m atached to a paperclip, should i just not worry and let the m get stronger or take action
My setup is one 400 watt HPS (14 inches above the plants, a 60 watt floro (I started them on this), and potting soil.

llamaman666 Reviewed by llamaman666 on 08-18-2004. wobbly stems my plants are about 18 days old and are 3-4 inches. They have one set of leaves (and one set of pre-leaves). Today they started tipping badly, i had the mon a fan for a while, and now I have the m atached to a paperclip, should i just not worry and let the m get stronger or take action :eek: My setup is one 400 watt HPS (14 inches above the plants, a 60 watt floro (I started them on this), and potting soil. Rating: 5

[dHazed]

The plants probably are tipping away from the light. They went from the flouros to the hps and they were not prepared for the increase in light intensity. If you ever have to support young plants pipe cleaners are great for this as the are easy to work with and have fuzzy stuff to prevent damage to the plant. Next time you move plants from flouros to a HID be aware of this phenomena and keep the light high enough to prevent it (normally 2-3 feet)

[Greenthumb Seeds]

Your stems are 'spindly' because you started under the fluoro. You can start under fluoros if your light balance is ok, but I prefer to start right under a HPS...and close too. They can handle it and get off to a good start.
Does the fluoro have a "daylight" balanced bulb in it? It is oK to use (one)1 cool white or (one)1 warm white fluoro bulb for every (one) 1 daylight balanced bulb; but using cool whites or warm whites alone by themselves is not a good idea and the stems 'elongate' because the light balance is not correct.

http://www.drgreenthumb.com

[wcpacatte]

Next time you start seeds only fill the pots three quarters full. Then when they start to droop add the rest of the soil to hold them up. Works like a charm.