In my first grow I didnt put lights on the plants early enough and they stretched a lot. It was my fault and i completely misunderstood when they were suppose to get light. This time (3 white widow, 3 blue mystic) i germinated them in a paper towel saturday night, monday night put them into 1.5" rockwool cubes. gave them 1 day in darkness, then wednesday morning went right to 3" away CFL bulbs 18 hours a day. Yesterday evening (i check on them 2-3 times a day) they were standing up fine growing quickly. This morning when i woke up and checked on them one had fallen over. I had to cut up a straw from mcdonalds and wrap it around it to hold it up, while i was at it i put straw around all of them as a precaution. Is there something i'm doing wrong? How can i prevent this on the new grow?
(1) you didnt say much about your setup other than your using CFL's on 18/6, 3" away (which for CFL is perfect distance) (2) a picture says a thousand words.. its hard to tell you whats happening when we cant see.
Sorry i should have included the pics the first time. Currently there are 4, 23w CFL bulbs 5000k. As you can can see in the one picture i have made a little light system so i can raise and lower the lights easily. I have 3 boards like this that each will have 6, 23w CFL's. Is the 4 bulbs good enough right now? I figured it was ok since they are so small. I can get more bulbs in there no problem. http://i.imgur.com/xVEoyA7.jpg http://i.imgur.com/vFxTdYR.jpg
Any help on this? Today I was going to put them in soil after work and when I got home one was leaning over on the straw. It looks like it was half way broken through the middle of the stem. I placed it in th soil with the soil above the break. Do you think this will survive?
It's hard to say if the one that broke will make it. Hopefully she'll pull thru. Usually when I get some stretch with my seedlings I bury them in the soil til there's only an inch or so sticking out. That way most of the stem is in soil. Throw your lights on them and you're good.
Put the pots directly under the bulbs. Looks like they are bending outward to get to the light. Get a higher power CFL. What you have is ok for starting seedlings but will not be enough to grow more than one plant. There is a 65 watt CFL which is 300w equivalent but they are expensive. Get some of those and that will give you 3x the power you have now. Also, make that box reflective with mylar or white plastic/paint. I personally don't recommend CFLs for more than vegetative growth.
There are many more bulbs in there now. There is actualy 18 bulbs that are 23 whats each (414 watts total). In that picture i only had 4 bulbs on because they were so tiny it would be hard to get to many bulbs very close to them. I will not be using CFL for flowering. My flowering tent is a 3x3 secret jardin with 400w HPS bulb, with supplemental VHOt5 bulbs on each side and the back for getting under the canopy.
