1st time grower with questions

I just recently got into the idea of growing. So I figured I would give it a go and germinated a couple of seeds. I am using one CFL and using 24/0 lighting.The soil is just some top soil I had laying around. After a week my seeds have sprouted but the stem is pretty thin and I only have a couple of leaves which havent changed much at all. They are small and curl a little.I am curious though, should I try and work with my current materials or scrap my setup and try again with better tools?

I'm a first time grower too but i don't recommend 24/0 try 16/8. The light makes them grow taller and darkness makes them flower out. I'd give it a try for week or two and if you dont see much improvement get a new set up. The only way to grow experience is to give it a try righttt?

I'm not being a hypocrite at all because i started out with basically the same thing as you but i think that you should start over and really plan on what you want to do with your grow and how much you want to produce. I suggest looking around RIU at people's setups and start from there.

I would keep the seedlings growing and let them keep growing till you build or buy the setup that will actually make nice smokable buds........ Once again, i am completely not being a dickhead but thats what i would do.

Are they bagseed? do you have any pics of your setup now. If you post them i "might" could just help you build onto that........

I would keep 24/0 the first couple of weeks then after that they should be switched to 18/6 then when its time to flower the plants 12/12 till finish.......

Z0oted said:

I would keep 24/0 the first couple of weeks then after that they should be switched to 18/6 then when its time to flower the plants 12/12 till finish.......

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Really? everywhere i read it says its bad to leave em on 24/0. I hear no more then 20/4

Strawberry, the light duration debate is a great conversation for another day. If your results are the mental image that I have it most likely is not a result of the light duration but, another problem. You don't give a great deal of detail on what you have done so it's hard to say, pix would be helpful as well.

It's likely the soil. Of course that's just a guess, but it's already the weak link in the system, so a likely culprit. A transplant and some more lighting would make a huge difference, and produce some decent weed if you keep things running smoothly throughout the process.

If they are really thin and fall over and die it is usually a sign of not enough light. You can also pick up a cheap shop light with cool white bulbs, the 4 foot ones and have good results. I've seen better results with the 4 foot lights over CFL's but you can grow either way. That's what I usually recommend for starting out is a four foot shop light and a 400 hps or bigger to flower with if you want to go the cheap route and get pretty good results and as you gain experience you can stick with that setup or change to T5's or metal halide but it is a pretty solid formula to get started with if you have the room for the shop light. Otherwise the 32 watt or 46 watt daylight CFL's will work fairly well for veg if you don't want to order lights over the net and want something you can pick up at the local hardware store.

Thanks for all of the advice. To give a few more details, I have everything in one of those coolers you see at a convenience store. The ones that are full of ice and have a lid. I just recently added a fan to help strengthen the stem and today I noticed the inner leaves begging to form out of the oval shaped ones. Its looking like I could be doing o.k. right now. I should have pics up tomorrow.