Question regarding lighting from beginner: I've read about sodium and high discharge lights. Too expensive for me. I bought a 2ft fluorescent unit. Now my question is this, The bulb types. They had 3 different bulb types. Plain jane regular bulbs. Garden/Growing bulbs and then the third, "sunshine" bulbs. I ended up buying both the garden/grow bulb for the vegitative stage and then the "sunshine" bulb that is orange colored for the flowering stage. It's still really early in the stages here and the plants just sprouted out of the soil 3 or 4 days ago. Any suggestions? thanks!
Here's my setup. If anyone can help me on the above post regarding the types of flurorescent buls i'd really appreciate it!
See what the package says about the spectrum or color temperature of the light. Usually "sunshine" would equate to "daylight", which should be blue spectrum. Your plants are way stretched for light. Re-plant them with the stem deeper down in the soil, add more lighting, and keep the fluoro lights only an inch or so from the tops. And what is that other light in there? Incandescent? Halogen? You probably want to get that out of your grow.
well i just added that 2' fluoro light yesterday. I started the growing with that small light which had a heat lamp bulb in it. I've removed the small lamp and will put a 1/2" more soil into the pot. Thanks for the reply...i was thinking they were growing too tall too fast also...
Actually i'm headed out now to get a 3 or 5 gallon pot to replant them. What is the best way to replant these guys without hurting them? Should i just stick my hand into the soil and pull out as much as i can? should i use a tool??
Personally i would dont replant them right now they are very young and you can really stress them and could very eaisly kill them. I would see if you can add soil to your current pots or even build a little mound of soil around the plant to cover some of the stem and wait for them to grow more and transplant when bigger before getting root bound. then add more light. in regards to your lighting you wont get very good growth and wind up with some stuff not even worth the time or smoking if any at all. its kind of a standard of 100 watts per plant. you may be able to grow for a little while but for getting some "weed" you are going to need more light.
Hmmm....Well before I saw your post I had already replanted 2 of them under a dual 2' fluoro setup. 1 of the fluoro's is garden/growing rated and the other fluoro is sunshine rated. I'm going to drop the lights even lower to make sure they get maximum light. If these guys don't survive the transplant then i have 3 of seeds that are germin' right now waitin to get their chance. I'm not expecting huge gains. This is my first grow and I'm just going with trial and error and trying to go by this forum's suggestions. Here's the pics of my new setup:
To replant do not dig up the plants or disturb the roots and soil. What I do is squeeze the sides of the pot they are in around the sides, bending the sides in a little, which loosens the roots and soil from the inside of the pot. Then, put your hand over the top, with the stem between your fingers, flip it upside down in one smooth motion, smack the bottom of the pot with your other hand, and the entire soil and root ball should slide right out into your hand. Put that in your other pot and gently fill soil around the sides and on top. You can get that light even closer. Looks like still about 4 inches from the plant tops, aim for 1-2 inches. Remember that light intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, which means that if you move the lights from 4 inches away to 2 inches away you will double the strength of the light being delivered to the plants.
yea i did drop the lights...the bulbs are about 1/4" above the top of the pots and 2" above the plant tops themselves so it should be alright. The first set of pots i used were clay pots and it was a pain to get out the small flower for replanting. I honestly don't think i did a good job but i got it in the new pots with plenty of water and hit them with the lights right away. I'm hoping they'll recover after a day or so.
yeah, you might want to buy about 4+ more of those lights, tinny bopping around aint gonna really get you any were. I might suggest atleast 1 cfl for each plant, each about 1600 lumens. not muc but will definitely produce a better growth. I started veg with cfls and even with those 2" from the tops, the plants didn't really grow so well. If you're smart, you'll do what I did and save for a mh/hps. start of with a 200w if you ain't got cash... my babies are growing from germination to their third set of leaves in a 4 days time. Good luck
I've actually read a lot of other forum posts saying this cheap fluorescent setup i have should be just fine....but i was just looking on ebay for a HPS lamp fixture thats CHEAP. Any recommendations? they look to be about $100 for a full unit with bulb on ebay, 150-200watts. I'm only tryin to get 1-3 plants going here. I can't find these HPS lamps anywhere else at like lowes, walmart, etc. i started this process not wanting to spend a lot of time or cash but it's gettin addicting!
Check out http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProducts.asp?ProductFamilyID=3 $39 for a 150 and $80 for a 250...... krlt
Yea i'll think about that unit. Here's a picture about 5hrs after transplant. Doesn't appear to be any discoloration and i've got those 2 24" fluoro's on them just 1"-1.5" away. You think they'll make it?