I have a somewhat ghetto setup using two 40 watt grolux fluoros and a 26 watt cfl for two plants. After moving the seedlings to the grow space I noticed after a few days that the plants were growing in the direction of the CFL, which were placed in between them. A few days later I then rotated my pots 180 degrees to balance this out, which I now realize is probably one of the worst things I could have done. Now the plant's stems are almost parallel to the soil, with one's leaf structure still pointed up at the light and the other had collapsed completely last I checked. They both still have good color, and I'm hoping the one still standing will make it on its own. I propped up the other one with a support, and I moved the fluoro's WAY down towards the soil cause I realized that it was probably totally inneffective 3 feet above them. I'm hoping both have shaped up by tomorrow. If not is there anything I can do for them, and for my next grow what should I do differently?
To tell you the truth your lighting is all fuked up, but in reality horizontal growing is proving to be a great yielding method.
That's true when the light source is above, so that it is shining into the exposed underbrush areas. If the light is still to the side it still won't get much penetration to that secondary growth. True that the OP has unwittingly, and without use of strings or other paraphernalia, effectively started to LST. Moving the lights above the plants now would be quite beneficial. To the OP, sounds like you are doing what is needed now. Moving the fluoros from 3 feet to 3 inches or so is very good (by doing that you have increased the effective light being delivered to the plants by those fluoros by 144 times). Look into LST for continuing this grow and future grows, it keeps height down and exposes more of the plant to more of the light, resulting in more developed budsites and greater yield.