You know I was just thinking about the Kelvin rating on the bulb a little bit ago and remembered the lower the kelvin the yellower the light, but the better the plant growth. (the bluer spectrum of kelvin doesn't come into play until 12k-20k, at least this is the way it is with Metal Halides, is it different with CFL? I didn't think it was...) I will return the bulb & get the brightest daytime I can get. (hopefully they have these 120/30w bulbs in daytime too) I will try to return the reflector for a smaller one, but I kind of ripped the box, so not sure if home depot will take it or not. I will get another 1-2 6" reflectors with day lights as you mentioned. I assume get the brightest bulbs I can like I did with the bright white one is best correct? What about just getting new bulbs for the 28w T5 fixture? My friend thinks the T5 is better to use because it gives better light spread, but I would assume 2 or 3 of these 120/30w CFL bulbs with reflectors are putting out more PAR than a single 28w T5 unit. What should I do with the seedlings in the dome? Keep them in the dome for now since they seem to be stabilizing in it & just see what happens? I'll be doing the straight coco seedling germination route you do. I'm just worried about night time temps. We blocked the heat vent in the room since it would be blowing in all kinds of nasty shit. We were planning on the MH/HPS to add the much needed heat to the room. Should we get a space heater?
Think of the cfl bulbs like the longer T5 except twisted all up and directed right where you want it. T5 lighting is effective, and could be useful to you once the plant's take up more space than your CFL bulbs can effectively cover. As of yet I haven't found anything more economical or better than CFL bulbs for starting plants in their first 10 to 14 days or so. 12,000K color temperatures are basically UV, not natural light. The way it goes is: There's a lot of variation on these charts but here's a good one for what light the chlorophyll can photosynthesize with. Basically, the range for blue light is between 400nm (purpleish) to 500nm (greenish). Color temperature is a little different but basically you can correspond 400nm to 500nm with bulbs that have color temperatures from 5000K up to about 7500K. The ideal range for Red/Orange light is actually a much smaller window extending from about 625nm to 675nm. The color temperatures this corresponds with best is 2500K to 2100K. The issue with CFL bulbs is that the red ones, aka soft white, are generally in the 2700K range. This means that a good deal of the energy they provide, perhaps as much as 1/2 is not photosynthetically reactive. Many HPS bulbs correspond with the 2100K color temperature for this reason. Thus, the best CFL bulbs to use are Day Light spectrum around 6,500K. This provides the greatest amount of PAR of all CFL bulbs and the plants definitely respond. I prefer the 20ish wattage bulbs because they cast less heat which means the bulb can be placed closer. 30w bulbs are probably okay, I know I'd grab some if I saw them at the store. I just suggest steering clear of those 46w Soft White bulbs thinking more wattage is more better. You get about as much PAR from a 23w Daylight as you do from a 46w Soft White except the 23w bulb can be placed closer which increases the efficiency to even better than the higher wattage bulb. No offense... But your friend hasn't been a wealth of good advice for you... I don't want to be held responsible if that one good Jack Herrer you have dies... But honestly... Don't even worry about it. I have killed SOOO many seeds in my day because I did exactly what you're doing now. But I think I have made myself clear on how I feel about the need for humidity domes and heaters, for seedlings. If you think the dome is going to work then maybe those positive vibes are all you really need. Do what you think is best and learn from the experience, we all have had our growing pains. You need to do a good job of controlling your environment. I don't think I have seen much in the way of a thermostat or hygrometer in your grow space. There is no sense in getting a heater if you don't know how warm the room is going to be. Do everything you can to keep them around 78 degrees and 50% to 60% humidity and they will be just fine. My own seedlings will range from 74 degrees to 82 degrees depending on the time of day. One option is to keep you lights running during the night time as the CFL bulbs will provide some warmth through the cool night. As long as your house stays in the low 70's they should be able to take care of themselves. Otherwise you do need mechanical help from a space heater. Indoor growing is very environment intensive. It isn't just light and nutrients... 80% of what that plant is, it breathes in as Carbon Dioxide, so keeping that process flowing is extremely important for plant health. Outdoors plants are hardened and can handle things like hot days, or cool nights. But indoors we need to treat our girls like the fancy little princesses they are and keep things Goldilocks. Space heaters and air conditioners. Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers. You'll find that each of these items will come in handy over time if your particular climate does not help you out. In Oregon I was able to crack the window to let in some fresh air and to exhaust the heat from my grow lamp down my hallway to heat my house. Not only did I have a lower energy bill than my downstairs neighbor but I also was able to use the constant humidity in OR to keep my room from getting too "dry." In the summer time... things were different and an Air Conditioner was important to have on hot days. It's all about being creative and picking things up as you go.
Ok a little update in this thread and then I'm going to start a grow journal in the next few days and Pm you with the link. Today after assessing the situation We ended up trashing the dome, tray and the last couple of seedlings that were barely hanging on. It just wasn't worth any more energy or grief to try and save them. One even looked like it was growing a dandilion fuzzy mold on it. I bought four 6" clamp on reflectors with a 4 pack of 100/23w day bulbs. I'm going to get a shallow rectangular rubbermaid tub and the square plastic starter cups like you had in your pic and get an even better coco mix and start fresh and add a light to each side of the tub. Also grabbing a temp/humidity monitor to help pin point everything more. Keep you in the loop. Thanks.
The coco I always use for germination is Botanicare CocoGro. I expand a brick of it with tap water, and then run a healthy bit of water through the coco after I fill the cups. This helps compact the coco a little better which prevents root shearing later on. Those rubbermaid tubs are pretty handy as drain trays. I have a couple of them and have even filled them edge to edge with party cups for a kind of impromptu E&F system. Really though, it's just a convenient place to collect the runoff. The temp/humidity monitor is crucial. I'll try to catch your thread here soon.
We have this sunleaves coco brick at the moment: Sunleaves :: Image Viewer Is that stuff pretty good? You think it's pre washed? Should I rinse it a few times? Can I use straight tap waterrelight out of the faucet or does it need to sit out for 24 hours? I just want to make sure I make zero mistakes this next time with the last batch if seeds. I'm going to add perlite this next time which we didn't for the first round of seeds. What about adding bat guano? You think it's worth it?
Id leave the bat guano out, I germinate my seeds with tap water pH'd with some superthrive. then I place them in coco with 300ppm feed(tap water is 150) You can use straight coco or coco/perlite to sprout in, it's not going to make a significant difference at this point. Germinating seeds and growing seedlings should be very easy, as long as you keep track of temperature humidity and lighting and don't over feed you shouldn't have any problems Nice thread guys, Ive been taking notes This is a good Q&A I'm growing in botanicare bricks using H&Gcocos(I'm a first time grower and after more research I feel like I got suckered into buying H&G). I'm not growing organically but this thread definately still has lots of good info for me. One thing I plan to do is mix Dyna-Gro with my H&G during flower to achieve a NPK of 4-7-7 Does that sound like a good NPK for Coco? it looks alot better to me than the 11-7-18 from the H&G I've come to the conclusion that all the raving about H&G comes from the fact that most people who use it never had a clue how to grow anything and it made it easier for them. Great stuff for the dummy grower, but I think I can flex my brain a little have better results Post up that link of your thread Johnny science so I can follow along
Save the perlite for the mixture that you transplant them from the tray into. I have used Sunleaves before. It seemed like decent stuff although I would play it safe and probably rinse it a little before planting the seeds. I always rinse my coco these days, I prefer to wash out the "pre-charge" that coco companies tell me I need and charge the coco myself as the grow progresses. I don't think you need the guano. Definitely not for the seedlings.
Just wanted to let everyone know we've started a journal & have our new setup for starting seedlings, come check it out: http://forum.grasscity.com/hydropon...-600w-bare-bulb-halos-w-co2.html#post13884415