light finally came and first grow is underway

[doco]

Jacks right, that light is too far away and thats why they are stretched...in my first post I suggested you have the cfl inches away and I didn't mean 18 inches. I used an 85 watt (actual) cfl on my seedlings at about 3" - 4" and its perfect.

The yellowing is likely from over watering. They should not need watering daily, even if it looks dry on the surface. You should transplant those into regular 6" pots now and saturate them when you water till you get runoff, then allow them to dry thoroughly - water no more than every three days (if needed), once a week after they have rooted a little better. (This varies of course based on many conditions - its just a guideline). Feel the weight of the pots when they are dry and then again when they are saturated ...soon you will know by feel when they need watering.

Depending on your ventilation you should be able to spark up the 400 watt in a few days....start it 3 feet away and see how the plants take to it...adjust as needed. My current grow has 400w cooltubes and I am able to get the plants about 6-10" away from the lights with zero problems.

All of my early problems were either over watering or using nutes too soon...avoid those pitfalls and you'll be well on your way. Good luck and happy growing.

[JonDro]

thank you everyone.. i lowered the light to about 4" away from the plant and tommarow i will go get some soil so i can transplant the bigger one because i noticed the roots are coming through.. this weekend i will probably get some legit ventaltion and re-construct my closet a little bit and worry about the nutes later on.. i really dont have an idea on type of soil.. but i want to use a mixture of perlite, or perlite and vermiculite sense i have those laying around the house, if anyone has any suggestions on soil that would be great, sense i dont have too much knowledge of the ph scale and things of that nature yet.. and again thank you for the advice so far, and i will keep postin as my babies grow..

[JonDro]

things are not looking good.. doesnt seem like they grown that much. severe yellowing and the tips look like there burning.. havent messed with nutes.. just watering when they are dry, undersides are purple and im keeping them on 24/0.. should i give them some darkness?? i transplanted the bigger one with patio plus and perlite and turned the hps on (400w) trying to keep the soil moist, seems like they dry out really fast in the peat pellets.. im thinking they need some nitrogen, but i couldnt find a nurserie or any other source of N.. maybe one of you guys could figure out what im doin wrong?? thank you..

[BongHitBoy420]

Ive use alot of peate pellets, and I must advise you as well, its best for them to be very moist at all times, they do dry fast outside of the dome. Im serious because too long = baby roots dry up fast.

Also keep an eye on the roots. They can push out some but whem you start to see multiple white shoots pertruding the faster you can get them into soil the better.

Also, I agree with everyone else, low to mid watt cfl's is idea for babies and you can keep the light nearly on top of the plants. Higher blue and the cool whites promote stocker stems.

good luck on your grow. :thumbsup:

[BongHitBoy420]

PS, yellowing occours when the light it too intense, nitrogen depro, lack of air circulation, dry roots in peate, root bound.

if you got air moving, the lights not close, repot and add water. most babies dont really need food early on only water. if you do feed only give them a lil. at this stage a little goes a long way.

again good luck

[JonDro]

heres an update.. plants a lil bigger but yellowing is just getting worse. i transplanted and added a little bit of 10-15-10.. i know its not good for veg but i felt like it needed a little something.. ph seems good, i got fish emulsion 5-1-1 that i will use next water..