moving from cfl's to mh problems

hello,

i have two weeks old seedlings that do realy great and i want to move them from the cfl's to 250w mh. i know it is sound very normal but i had bad exprience from last year. what happned is when i moved them from cfl's to hid they streched so much in few days , it was horrible. only the main stalk was streching , it got so thick but in the bottom it was still verry thin ( under the coty leaves) , so i had to seport them . also , side branches didnt grow at all ( allmost at all ) so i had 2 or 3 feet plant with no side branches that couldnt seport it self. now i know it is wrong because till than i had them under cfl's all the way ( 4 or 5 weeks) till the 12/12 period and had great results. now i want to move them to mh but im afraid its gonna happen again . actually , i did move one of them to the mh cabinet 3 days ago and so far it looks it goes the same bad way. i want to mention that i have them under the cfl's 24 / 0 and same thing with the one under the mh. other than that they all do great and basicaly i know how to grow but for sure i miss here something that make me do some kind of mistake.
thank you in advance for any help or thoght and im sorry for suck a long thread.
peace and love,
eezee.

How far away is the light? sounds like they are reaching for it

unless you have a 6500 K MH bulb (unlikely) that's to be expected. A standard MH has a 4000 K bulb, almost useless, stick with the cfls or switch to HPS for finishing.

I have no problems with my MH. As mentioned it might be because they are too far away from the light and they are stretching for it. Perhaps your bulb needs replaced?

I wouldn't say useless, I would use the cfl's with the MH. I was very supprised at what my last grow produced with a 250 mh and about 200 watts of cfl's

I agree its probably to far away. I try to keep it around 10-12" away. Oh and mine is not air cooled either...

thanx for the help guys. i have the 250w mh about 2 feet from the plant. i will try to move it closer, sounds like it is the problem . about the 4000k it sounds right but at the other hand , most of my cfl's are 4000k so i hope it is not the problem. its my only mh.
i would keep them under cfl's till flowering but since i have to replant them in bigger pots i will have to get three times more the cfl's i have because they gonna take much more space and this is not an option. combining cfl's with mh is allso imposible cause the mh , even one feet away will throw light on the cfl's hood which are about 2 - 4 inches from the plants. thanks again for the help.
eezee

Pictures would help a ton, I have a 150W HPS @ about a foot away, with some 23W CFLS for side light, I'm also growing out of a rubbermaid container so my sq footage isn't too large. My plants stretched at first when I was only using CFL'S & I used pipe cleaners to support them and gave them a little bit extra potassium now their doing okay.

#1 sticky under cfl growing..
Color Temperature

You might see a lot of different labels when shopping at the store for CFL’s. Label’s including Soft White, Warm White, Cool White, Bright White, Halogen White, Daylight White, Full Spectrum. And also label’s like 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K, 6400K, and 6500K. These are all the color temperature of the light you are using. This is a measure of how warm or cool the light given off by a lamp appears, with warmer colors having a yellowish tinge and cooler colors being tinged with blue. What confuses some people is that the warmer a color is, the colder its color temperature is. (ex. Warm White = 2700K). Bulbs ranging in the 2700K-3000K spectrum are usually labeled Warm White or Soft White, bulbs ranging in the 3500K – 4000K spectrum are bright white or cool white, 5000K is labeled Full Spectrum, and finally 6400K – 6500K is labeled Daylight. You can grow an entire crop with CFL’s if you chose the right spectrum of bulb’s. For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000K . The reason being, throughout the year the plant’s outside receive more 6500K light because the day’s in summer are long and hot and as Autumn/Winter get’s closer the day get’s shorter, and gradually receives less 6500K light and more 2700K light as the plant flower’s. Do what you can to avoid bulbs within that 3500K – 4000K because they emit very little light that Is useful to your plant. Notice here the difference between the CT of these lamp’s

replace the 4k bulbs.. i did the same so dont feel bad, i actualy had this printed and in my wallet cuss i kept forgeting the store names for the diff brightnesses.. good luck

how about Mercury Vapor lights? they offer a 5700k temp that seems ideal?

eezee said:

thanx for the help guys. i have the 250w mh about 2 feet from the plant.

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that is your only problem. you should have it no more than 10 inches away, probably even closer. It's not the "wrong type" of mh as somebody said, it's just too far away from the plant for the feeble light it puts out. I use a 400W and I keep it about 10" away.

Justin00 said:

how about Mercury Vapor lights? they offer a 5700k temp that seems ideal?

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give em a try, I've used them for flowering, made super potent tight buds. I'd use that before I'd use those half assed standard MH.

eezee said:

most of my cfl's are 4000k so i hope it is not the problem. its my only mh.

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they'll work but you will get 5 times the growth with 6500 K lights. Don't knock it till you've tried it all you nay sayers.