My question is how do you stop stretching during the first week of seedling growth. My plants are very stretchy and i am thinking about starting over. I have a 400 watt hps and is sitting 28" from the tops. Any commments??????
put your hand over the top of the seedling and lower the light just enough to were your hand wont burn but just enough to were you feel it then raise it like a inch for good measures
i kept mine under some small cfls until ithey had their 2nd set of proper leaves(about a week)then put them under the 400w hps with the light 18" above to start with,with a fan blowing the tops of the plants,then over the next week got the light gradually closer to the plants,until it was 12" from plant tops
well my humidity is pretty low tooo(about 30%) and they are all stretchy. im thinking about setting up 2 floros and starting all over again with a humidifier. Will this make them not stretch though??? Also what kind of floros should i use just for the 1rst or 2nd week of seedling stage?
man they are still stretching. Its so weird. They won't grow there 2nd pair of leaves and they keep on stretching. I put the light closer (18") like dude said earlier but they keep on stretching. They are on week one and they are already 4" tall with only 1 pair of leaves? Any comments Welcome???? Could it be the humidity?? or the light is too far away??
you could re pot them into bigger pots and bury most of the stem,then just get ant kind of fluoro or cfl/energy saving bulb and put it about 2" from plant tops until you get new leaves
Humidity shouldn't matter, like the other poster said, get a fan going and move the light closer. Also start them in a small peat pot or cup, then you can transplant them to something a little bigger and bury them up to the 1st set of leaves. you'll probably need to transplant one more time again after this. Make sure your soil is a good, and drains well.
only thing i can think of is maybe the strain. If it has strong sativa qualities it will then grow to be a taller plant then if it was an indica. If it is bag seed it is impossible to be sure what it is until it produces leaves and shows characteristics. If you want short buy Indica.
I have afgani #1. And are using rockwool cubes to start them in (im using Hydroponics sorry if i didnt say that before). I use distilled water and my temp. is 83F (is that too high?). I have a fan blowing on them too that oscillates.
Stretching while a seedling has nothing to do with strain, and everything to do with the plant trying to get closer to the lights. Most growers do not use HPS or MH lights until the seedlings have a few sets of leaves and can tolerate them. Use CFL's an inch or 2 away and you will see better results