Morning GC. Just a quick question. It seems that the general consensus for vegetating plants is about 100W per plant. I assume that's for the duration of the vegetative stage. I was wondering whether young plants, a couple of weeks old only about 3" tall, need that same amount of light? I have 5 of these young plants, with 4x30W CFLs; so 120W for 5 small plants. I plan on getting more lights when I can afford, but I was just making sure that's gonna be enough light for the stage that they're at. May as well ask another thing that's on my mind. I have a decent sized fan, maybe 11" in diameter. I'm running it on half power at the moment, and it seems to be doing fine. Should I put it on full power? Can it become too much for young plants? Thank you very much for the help guys, peace.
Sup L Rag? You're definitely going to need more light, 6500k spectrum of course I like to use 3 43watters per plant for some real happy plants But with 5 plants maybe you want to look into getting something like a T5 light setup. And the fan definitely doesn't need to be full power now, if ever. A slight breeze will do your plants just fine think of it as exercise for them. You don't need to have them blowing all over the place haha (also do not have the fan blowing directly on them) You'll probably notice some stretching real quick with the amount of light you currently have. And stretched seedlings are probably the worst thing cause the stem is that much younger/weaker.
Thanks heaps dude, much appreciated. So stretching is a product of having too little light? They're actually looking pretty good, quite dense and not stretched at all, though it's only been a couple of weeks. I'll move the fan away from blowing directly on them, as that's how I had it set up. I just assumed it'd be better that way. Thanks again, man.
I'm running 128w t8 fluoro tubes and 385w cfl (7 55watters picked up at walmart for $13 ea. They are 200w equivalent. My ladies are loving it in their 2x4' room. I Also have an 8" fan that has 3 speeds, but doesn't oscillate (My closet is really only 20" wd. so I can still hit all plants. Gonna wall mount it next grow)
Yes, insufficient lighting will cause stretching. Sometimes you actually want them to stretch a little bit if they are too dense (yes it's possible! haha) but I doubt you'll need to do that. Can we get some pics?
Sweeeeeet. Thanks mate. Might get new batteries for the camera and start a journal, although it's pretty inconvenient since I don't have internet where I'm staying, and I'd feel a bit weird uploading pics on a mates computer or something. Bought a couple more lights today, upping the ante a bit, should be good Oh, and checked out your harvest. Freakin legit, dude, good shit. And that was your first grow? Gives me hope...