somethings wrong, please help

Hey im new to growing and it seems like everytime i plant a new seed the same thing happens. The plants grow great for the first week or so, but then they start to shrivel up and droop over and even the steams bend in half at about 10 days - 2 weeks. I dont know whats up, the plants grow really nice, about 5 inch in the first 6 days but the plants dont really grow leaves, they have the 2 inital ones, and 2 like little sprouts of more leaves. Before the 2nd set of sproted leaves happen the plants just give up. Usually happens during Light phase after i wake up to check em out. I started out watering them once a day with a spray bottle for the first 6 days or so and read a lot posts reguarding watering them once every couple days and keeping the soil dry so i stopped with the water bottle and using the finger test down a couple inch's. Any help plz? Im tring to get some pics up but other then that, they are sitting in 2gal pots with a 300 watt UV light. I had the light about 3 feet away from the pots but after reading up i moved it about 1 foot away. Havn't tested PH yet and ive only soaked the pots once after i stopped using the spray bottle. Hope this helps, any additional tips would help me out a lot. thanks.

I'd move to smaller pots and switch over to CFL's for 2 weeks, also you should give them more water when they're little, I don't let my topsoil dry more than 1 inch before watering in the first month. Be sure not to get any water on the leaves when you water them.

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Yeah, ive looked pretty much everywhere on the site for info on my problem. Only thing i came close to was that the light was too high and the plants were streching to reach them. They sproted the 2nd set of leaved but after that nothing, and the leaves are still really small. At first i thought i was over watering but in a 2gal pot i can see why i would need to water them a little more. Think it is underwatering? I moved the light down yesterday to about 1 foot and totally destroyed them...is that too close for a 300w UV? any tips would be much appreciated.

Also - If i do get some CFL lights, how high the wattage and how close should i put them to the plants? pretty much working on 2 plants 2 gal pots.

Desired User Name said:

I'd move to smaller pots and switch over to CFL's for 2 weeks, also you should give them more water when they're little, I don't let my topsoil dry more than 1 inch before watering in the first month. Be sure not to get any water on the leaves when you water them.

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water on the leaves is bad??? why?

If you put water on the leaves it will magnify the heat from your light and could burn the leaves up pretty easy. The watter just acts as a magnifing glass.

oh so for outdoor growth water on leaves is fine?

ya sounds to me like your plants are stretching, id move your lights a little closer and see how it goes, good luck