Please help! Seedlings falling over! Can I use my 400W MH? When should I transplant?

Hello,

This is my first grow, I have 6 seedlings in soil that have sprouted over the last week. Two are very small (recently sprouted) and the other 4 that sprouted earlier range from 3" to 1.5" in height.

A couple of my taller ones are starting to "fall over", I assume this is from the stem stretching too fast, while looking for light. I am currently using two 26 Watt CFLs.

I've read about saving seedlings that where falling over by replanting them and burying some of the excess stem and by moving your lights closer. My CFLs are already positioned 1"-2" from the plants, and I am using a osculating desk fan to create a light breeze to help strengthen the stem. In the last two three days I have seen no improvement, and their leaning/falling over does not seem to be improving, but worsening.

Can I put them under my 400 Watt Metal Halide that I have for vegging, or would that be too much for them at this point?

Also, would replanting the from the small plastic inserts that I am using now into 1 gallon pots, and burying some of the stem be a good idea at this point?

Thanks in advance for any advice you might be able to offer! I am rather worried, I paid over $200 for the seeds and would hate to throw the money down the tube!

You could put them under it, you would just have to keep the light high or indirect. Like, 30" high.



I don't know about the replanting.

yeah id replant it and bury it up to the cotyledons......
if they just sprouted then i wouldnt put that light on it yet....those cfls should be enough for now

DirtyPirate said:

You could put them under it, you would just have to keep the light high or indirect. Like, 30" high.

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I considered that, but wouldn't it cause a lot more stretching of my plants if I did that?

ns420 said:

I considered that, but wouldn't it cause a lot more stretching of my plants if I did that?

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Can anyone comment on this?

ns420 said:

Can anyone comment on this?

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just replant to first leaves and put the 2 cfl's..they are fine...just keep them close and ventilated

it is generally a bad idea to put seedlings in a big pot the reason is it tends to stay wet way longer and also get over watered as a result

1st 3 or 4 weeks in a small pot is better

also I would agree that you should stay with the cfl's till week 3 or 4
my advice would be to have one cfl for each plant the 26 watters (6500K) are great and 1 to 2 inches is spot on

check my nutes budget sig link there are pics of a plant at 5 weeks that was under just one 26 watt cfl

So it would be better to run 6 23W CFLs? I picked up some Y light socket adapters (to run 2 bulbs on each socket), clip on project lights, and a 6 pack of 23W 6500K CFLs today at Lowes.

ive got six plants that all stretched too quick because my light was 2 far way. i buried around 3" of stalk( just added more soil to the pots) moved the light closer (2 x 55watt cfl) added a fan. to give them a push and supported them with toothpicks and the outer cover of balllpoint pens. around a week later ( still on 24/0) they hardened up. i'm now at four weeks of veggin on 18/6 under 600 watt hps and they're great lookin. i feel they could be a bit bushier but i think thats just over protection on my part, lol.

oh, if its cfls keep them close(1 or 2 ") no real heat to worry about as long as ur box/area is big enuff.

Put 5 of the CFL's on the plants last night, today (about 16 hours later) the plants all have turned towards the nearest CFL, and picked themselves up considerably. All of the plants have seen a considerable increase in leaf growth (including the start of the 3rd and 4th real leaves on the two larger plants), however have not seen any noticeable increase in stem length in any of the 6 plants (including two that are under 1" high).

Seems like adding 3 more CFLs and improving the positioning of my plants under them has eliminated the stretching and has already has them getting leafier! I think I will hold off on replanting them into larger pots now that they seem to be much healthier and stronger looking in such a short period of time. Thanks for all the pointers and advice.

We have our seedlings under a 400 watt MH conversion... seem to be doing fine but is this too much light? I was under the impression you couldn't have too much light if the heat was under control... are we going to kill them this way? Like I said they seem fine though... here is a pic from the biggest one 3 days ago and then yesterday. They were germinated a week ago.