Stretching seedlings. Light distance for LED in seedling stage

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
You just have to adjust accordingly. Every strain/pheno is different. Some will stretch no matter the manipulation in light. After cross breeding this plant for decades, there has been a DNA drift.... nothing is as stable as it was 100, or 1000 years ago. Same thing as humans. The human race was once pretty stable outside of disease. Now, we have defects and mutations. I've had the same strain, but different phenos do fine, but the phenos are completely different...I had one pheno from a mother (5 babies) that just died mid flower from the same mother (never finished the mother), but they were all from M5 of that strain. I try to explain it like this. You have 2 parents that have 12 kids... are they all going to be identical?.. no. Some are going to to be short and fat, some skinny and tall, some retarded, some smart (good structure), or just die..... just like humans. This is why pheno hunting is important these days. You want to find that one kid from the parents that is smart, structurally sound, healthy, .....snip....,
We always did (have defects and mutations), that's natural evolution. Another explanation is there are a lot more of us and communication tech puts that constantly in front of us, referred to in philosophy as recency bias. That is one thing I hope this technology brings us, the ability to finally see this plant isn't a scourge and get the world to start dealing with it like they do wine which evolved with us too ;D

To know for sure if mutation was happening at a higher rate than previously we'd have to do causation studies. I have not specifically look but I know last time I practiced this wasn't a concern.

However the point is you are right, different strains carry different genetics.
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
At the equator the PPF is 2000umol. So seedlings at the equator are regularly exposed to 2000umol. And at high altitude, its even more.

Ive used 1000w HID since they came out in the 70s for everything from Seedlings - Flowering. I also veg on 24/0, unless Im trying to slow them down.

I found no downside. I did switch from 1000w Metal Halide to Hortilux HPS when they mixed in a bit of Blue in the 90s I believe it was. I do have really really good outside air exchange. And there is no added CO2 at the equator. I believe the main thing to using high umol is air exchange, if not using CO2.


2000 µmol/m 2 /sec
At the equator, the sun’s intensity gives us a Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF) of 2000 µmol/m 2 /sec of light, which is roughly equivalent to 10,200 foot candles or 108,000 lux.
Ok... I did a bit of research to and I think I can push them more than I did before.

Also they stretch towards the light... so that is also a sign they need more light and I can push them further. Otherwise they would stretch and grow healthy...

So I increased to about 420 PPFD right now... Still looking good... Will se how much the latest seedlings stretch... if they still stretch to much I will increase + start higher right away in my next round of seedlings.


I would also run 18/6 and as mentioned you would adjust your dli if there tired lookin.

In flower I would like to push 9-1000 at the tops.
This would be a gradual transition but once there’s something worthy on there I’m pushing.
This is not plug and play hps.

Good luck with your grow.
Ok I see! That's what I wanted to do. Right now they don't look tired... They are growing well and im at 420 PPFD right now... With lower they were still stretching... I'll keep an eye on them.

View attachment 5284921

View attachment 5284921
These are 3-4 days old. They are 24" away from an HLG 250W Veg Pro dimmed to 10%, no stretch. My PPFD is 263 at their canopy height.
hmm at 250 ppfd my plants stretch a lot... idk

Thanks for your input!

You just have to adjust accordingly. Every strain/pheno is different. Some will stretch no matter the manipulation in light. After cross breeding this plant for decades, there has been a DNA drift.... nothing is as stable as it was 100, or 1000 years ago. Same thing as humans. The human race was once pretty stable outside of disease. Now, we have defects and mutations. I've had the same strain, but different phenos do fine, but the phenos are completely different...I had one pheno from a mother (5 babies) that just died mid flower from the same mother (never finished the mother), but they were all from M5 of that strain. I try to explain it like this. You have 2 parents that have 12 kids... are they all going to be identical?.. no. Some are going to to be short and fat, some skinny and tall, some retarded, some smart (good structure), or just die..... just like humans. This is why pheno hunting is important these days. You want to find that one kid from the parents that is smart, structurally sound, healthy, gets a PHD and becomes a brain surgeon, and clone her.
Makes sense... Thanks for explaining! So maybe they are leggy phenos lol

Slightly off tangent.
I'm ~ 3800 miles north of the equator and on a rare sunny day I can squeeze over 2300 umols from the Sun.
This was picture taken around miday ~ 21st June a few years ago.

View attachment 5284999

The sun is out right now so I nipped out and took a measurement, it read 2600! That's in April Go figure
Wow... seedlings grow in nature too so I think 420ppfd I use right now is not a lot LOL

I can see why they are stretching!
 

McStrats

Well-Known Member
This is what works for me. The seedlings go under a 40-watt CFL to stop them from being too leggy. I keep it just a few inches away. I end up with a plant with a pretty even structure.

This Alien Vs Triangle wasn't topped but she had a very even structure. I started her under a CFL.
 

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GorillaSeedBank

Well-Known Member
something like this will help
seedlings require lots of light and they will do what they to inorder to get it. having a a bright light at the very start thats close will really help.
Germ boxes like the one linked can help with this.
let me know what u think
 
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