seedlings starting under cfl grid couple of quick questions.

hey started the seedlings under a 2.5 ft by 2.5 ft 12x 26w 6500k cfl grid today. the first seed (the freebie lemon skunk) just popped through this morning. how far away should i keep the light grid from the brand new seedlings to start? i know once they are a little bit a long i want to put them as close as possible but don't want to hurt the girls as they open their eyes to the world.

also its a bit cold there and i got a cheapo electric space heater from walmart to warm the area a bit is this ok or is there something about electric heaters warming the air around seedlings that i should know about?

thanks everyone!

The electric heater works fine... I have a halogen heater and I put it behind my fan sometimes to circulate warm air through my grow room.. I can easily raise the temp in my room from like 71-80F in about 3-4 minutes.

Also, the CFL grid I would probably wanna keep about 4" from the seedlings.... maybe 5.... and then after they start developing their first sets of leaves you wanna get them down as close as possible

Supgee3 said:

The electric heater works fine... I have a halogen heater and I put it behind my fan sometimes to circulate warm air through my grow room.. I can easily raise the temp in my room from like 71-80F in about 3-4 minutes.

Also, the CFL grid I would probably wanna keep about 4" from the seedlings.... maybe 5.... and then after they start developing their first sets of leaves you wanna get them down as close as possible

Click to expand...

awesome thank you for the help! i forgot how much fun this is

id even put the cfls further away then that if they have just sprouted 10 inches maybe then everyday move then down a tad.

12x26watt u should get abit of heat off those , whats your grow room like

smallclosetgrowr said:

12x26watt u should get abit of heat off those , whats your grow room like

Click to expand...

it's just the basement of a house sectioned off basically. they're the 26w daylight cfl from ge at wal-mart they really don't seem to give off much heat i can hold my hand on there i dunno. i am definitely watching closely though. i have an in room heater keeping the temp 76ish and the humidity 60ish for them (i have a temp/hydro meter).

i have nl, pp, ak, dieselryder, & the 5 attitude freebies going and most of them have already popped as of the last 24 hours now.

k if you have any more advice let me know! thanks!

thought of a good question i've been meaning to ask. so there will be 18-20 feminized seeds going in to flower. how long (estimate of course) will i need to veg them from popping through the soil before they will be big enough to use 2000 hps for flowering, 3000 hps for flowering? i know you can use as much lighting as you want its just a matter of how long you veg them for but would like to weigh my options, will it take another month of veg to utilize another 1000 watts? thanks!!

just a little update highly recommend attitude seeds, all of the seeds i bought from them now popped through (freebies as well) except one of the ak-48's from nirvana which is m.i.a. oh well 24/25 aint bad thats for sure.

the dieselryders are taking off like crazy sending out a huge tap root it looks like and stretching a bit but nothing the repotting won't handle. they're getting plenty of light i think, cfl grid 8" or so away and they are growing up to it.

peace.

3 inches away, dont want them stretching too much. i start in dixie cups so i can transplant down to the first set of true leaves after the seedling stretch phase. 1-2 cm from the top of the soil and not have to go to my final flowering container right away. 2-3 weeks in i move em to gallon pots then 3-5 gl a week or two b4 flower.

Hey I'd love to see a picture of how you set up this grid if you don't mind. Even if it's just a shot of the grid with the lights off, no plants, it'd help a lot of people out I think. I'm still scratching my head trying to arrange CFL's for my current indoor tomato crop. Or if you wanna just describe your setup that'd be awesome too. Thanks!

hey i need answers...i have 2bubblegum plants under 4x100watt cfl but der only 4000k i was told to avoid dem but i cant get any 6000k bulbs anywhere im in ireland and i have limited options...my plant are looking ok der 2 and a half wseeks old...what effect does using the 4000k bulbs hav on vegging..plase help tanx...

i keep my floros 2 inches from the top.
i keep my plants 12 inches from my amazing no heat 600 watt hps...i think im the first person to not have a heat issue with my hps lamps. its weird

whitenirish said:

hey i need answers...i have 2bubblegum plants under 4x100watt cfl but der only 4000k i was told to avoid dem but i cant get any 6000k bulbs anywhere im in ireland and i have limited options...my plant are looking ok der 2 and a half wseeks old...what effect does using the 4000k bulbs hav on vegging..plase help tanx...

Click to expand...

its fine, dont worry yourself over it if you have no way to get 6500k bulbs, but why cany u order online or have one of the stores near you special order some for you? i personally use mostly red spectrum during veg now, i used only red spectrum bulbs first time and only blue the second time and noticed no difference, however with a mixed spectrum imo they grow faster and bushier,with not nearly as much stretching.i found that out when i decided to grow with ALL the lights i had to give as much light as possible, using the same setup for both veg and flower of 2 2700k 42w for every 1 blue 6500k 42w and have been so happy with the results ive done it ever since.

forgot to mention-lots of people will use an hps for both flower and veg and have no problems too

vtguitar88 said:

Hey I'd love to see a picture of how you set up this grid if you don't mind. Even if it's just a shot of the grid with the lights off, no plants, it'd help a lot of people out I think. I'm still scratching my head trying to arrange CFL's for my current indoor tomato crop. Or if you wanna just describe your setup that'd be awesome too. Thanks!

Click to expand...

if you show me a few pics with relevent details about your dimensions and how big you plan to grow em,etc i'll try to help if i can

hey i just used a thread on here about power strip cfls. they sell these little plug in adapters at home depot/lowes/wal-mart (walmart is the cheapest but home depot for sure and maybe lowes will price match them on the same kind of item if wally is low or out of stock as they were here).

i wouldn't recommend the way i did it to be honest its very on the cheap make shift. i'm sure there are better threads. i just cut a 2"x4" into 4, 3 ft. "feet" and screwed them in to a cheap piece of square 3 ft. by 3 ft. board. to lower the lights with this method you either need to cut the feet or raise the pots. i then took 6 power strips and spaced them evenly underneath the board and screwed them in. then i put 2 bulbs on opposite ends of each strip and you have your grid. again this is not very professional i'd only do this if you want something super cheap and simple.

hope this helps. i am going to wait until the 2nd set of leaves before i put the cfls down as close as possible next to the seedlings. they are in different stages right now and i don't want to overexpose them to light. i am pretty sure they are getting all their little pair of baby leaves can handle (i think).

also i'm only going to use the cfl for a couple of weeks and then they'll go under hps. i'll continue to use it for clones and mothers though i might even turn it in to a nice little ventilated box. cfl's are really fun the 26w wal-mart bulbs you can hold your hand indefinitely on the bulbs without burning your hand. maybe i'll even flower some plants under some one day too. led's & cfl's are truely the future. they just aren't there on a usable cost/benefit high wattage level yet, but soon.

Hey thanks for that explanation, that's helpful cause i've been looking into power strips. I may have to try something like that...