hey i have a couple qeustions about when to move them to the metal halide. i have already put the starter plugs into 3in rw cubes and the roots are now showing out the bottom of the 3in rw is it time now or do i wait till theres more then one or two roots. also the couple of roots on the bottom look like there burnt from the heat pad. should i wait to take the heat pad away and the roots will be fine or should i put something under the rw and the tray so it wont do anything?
As soon as I start to see roots coming out the bottom I would transplant into final pot and put into veg
You could have had them under the MH from the very start if you had it far enough away from the seedlings. If your seedlings are rooted you no longer need that heating pad (ya didn't really need it to begin with, honestly). Right now it's a question of cost to benefit -- are your seedlings big enough to need the additional lumens and penetration from the HID light, or would it be more efficient and cost-effective to continue vegging until that point with fluorescents? That's a choice you have to make given your own situation. Also, I would be careful and make sure that what you see as "burnt" is not the beginning of root rot, as I am assuming this is going into a DWC or E&F system, right?