I'm starting 10 seedlings in peat pellets and have two 42 watt Cfl's about 14-16 inches above the lid of the tray. Is this too many/ too little watts for the sprouting seedlings and is the distance okay? Also when I hydrated the peat pellets I never squeezed out the excess water which I'm not sure (I'm assuming) i was supposed to do. The pellets don't seem too soaked even though they are a little muddier then I would like. I have a heating pad on low under it with hopes to dry them up a little too. Any advice/ comments are appreciated.
Really? Okay thanks.. They just seem really bright last time I just used a fluorescent tube last time it seemed much less bright. Can't see much but here it is anyway.
Yeah cfls may look bright but they barely penetrate past a few inches, also do you have a fan? Once they sprout your going to want a breeze on them for circulation and also to strengthen them up
Yeah I have a couple fans ready to go.. I am picking up a bubble boy tent from HTG that comes with a 400 watt hps, a fan, and an inline fan, and a carbon filter for my flower room and my two closets for mothers and clones with Cfl's and maybe a metal halide soon if my friend follows through with trading a 400 watt mh/ hps conversion with both bulbs for a quarter oz. lol if not I will look into buying a metal halide or just stick with Cfl's for veg because my closets don't have amazing ventilation and I can't cut a hole in my door.
I think 2 42w bulbs would be fine about 8-12" above them. You should really rig up some sort of reflector though, or get some of those spotlight reflector thingies.. did you fluff up your peat pellets at all after they expanded? it will help loosen them up and the roots can grow through them easier...just be real careful not to damage the roots if they've started to grow. the heating pad probably won't do much to dry them out..but it will speed up sprouting a little. I'd put a towel in between it and the tray though so it doesn't get too hot.
Okay, thanks a lot. I have some of those spotlight reflectors but someone told me they were bad for some reason. When I get to the veg state do you think it would be better to use reflectors or just hang a shit load of Cfl's all throughout the closet? I have a ton of them with sockets and clamps. Also, thanks for all the advice it was helpful.
i have 5 40 watt cfls for only 3 plants, 100 actual watts for a single plant and add 50 for each extra plant. You might wanna look into HPS and MH lighting, or up the amount of your CFLs Nvm you are... haha happy growin sir!
Get the lights literally as close as you can without to much heat, no more than 4 inches away, I would do 2 inches if I were u.