What should i do with my lights after sprouting? [TOTAL NEWBIE]

A

About400and20

New Member
I looked in alot of threads and blogs across the internet, and most agree that after sprouting, what you are going to do on the plant partly determines the rest of the plants life. Though, some people say that you shouldn't put the lamp up close yet, because the little seedling isn't used to light yet, and some say that you should put it just an inch or two away, also, some say that you should put it on a 18/6 schedule, and some say that you should go with 24/0. What should i do?? My NL seedling is like 1/10th of an inch (2mm) high. I have a 200W cfl lamp, which I am able to hold even after 4 days of not turning it off. It is hot, but not hot enough to burn my hand when touching it. I can feel the lamp's warmth when my hand is ~2 inches away. (Right now i have it 6 inches away because im kind of scared)
 
CFL run a hell of lot cooler than MH/HPS but also suffer greater with the the square law of light effect basically diminishing returns over distance (light energy)

With CFL at that stage of growth 6 to 8 inch should be more than fine & once it has developed a couple of sets of true leafs you can safely adjust to 2 to 3 inch of hanging height distance, ye i use a 125w cfl for same reason & even gone as far as vegging for a couple of months or more with out ill effect for the last couple of years etc...


24/0 i'm not over keen on this, i think it just slows growth down a bit only tried in once & never went back to it...

Plants do benefit from some darkness tho :thumb:
 
20150216_181256.jpg
Personally i sprout my seeds in 12oz plastic cups with drainage holes punched in the bottom and low around the sides in a dark box coset or what have you. I let them sprout til a few inches tall and the first set of leaves pop out. When they start to lean i tie them loosely to a wooden shishkabob stick and put them in a 400w mh veg room with the bulb approx 3-4 feet above them and a small fan blowing between the light and seedlings, not blowing directly on the plants though, and they thrive. Young seedlings do well with temps 80-90 with higher humidity levels. Im sure they will be fine under your cfl. Start higher up and lower it little by little till you find your sweet spot. Cant be 100 percent on the height cuz ive never used cfl'ls but if they can handle 400w im sure they will be fine. This pic is of 12 inch plants under a 400w mh and 2 t5's. This is the same set up i used since they were seedlings except they were in cups when started...good luck
 
@Fuzzy Duck: Thanks for the reply! I've already put the lamp 6'' away by instinct. I set my timer on a 18/6 schedule. If you could find those botany facts and link/paste me I would be more than thankful :)

@downtimej: I put a temperature sensor in the soil and it reads 26.4C (79.5F) after just an hour of the lamp being there. Am i still going to need a fan? I thought the fan was there to actually 'annoy' the plant so it makes stronger stems.

Also alittle bit offtopic, but when i transplanted it earlier today from the container i was germinating in, the seed shell fell right off! I didn't touch it or anything it just ejected itself, revealing a folded-up plant. I hope I didn't damage it or anything!
 
Yes the fan makes for stronger stems, but dont blow it on them yet, just a whisper to lightly shake the leaves. At this point its more to keep your light from forming a hot spot and to keep from getting a dead air zone. Also the seed shell is supposed to fall off on its own, if you help it off accidently, make sure you dont take the top of you seedling off with it. Sometimes i help them off myself when i trasfer them to the light, but usually they pop off by then.
 
20150223_141235.jpg
Yes the fan makes for stronger stems, but dont blow it on them yet, just a whisper to lightly shake the leaves. At this point its more to keep your light from forming a hot spot and to keep from getting a dead air zone. Also the seed shell is supposed to fall off on its own, if you help it off accidently, make sure you dont take the top of you seedling off with it. Sometimes i help them off myself when i trasfer them to the light, but usually they pop off by then. Also im talkin a little table top fan like this.
 
Uploaded a picture so you guys can see what i'm talking about. The temperature of the soil right now is 84F (its getting quite hot).
IMG_20150223_214236.jpg
 
Mmm yes i've done some brief looking around already !

However it does appear that longer lighting hours does appear to produce larger plants but from a natural source from evidence already seen... mainly around the equator & Alaska areas where day light hours can be much longer from what i have read (not directly related to MJ tho) apart from equator regions... but from outside to indoors is another ball game all together, from what i'm aware off ?


It may appear that 20/4 lighting cycle could prove good or 24/0 or any other variation... but i have seen very little documented evidence to prove such or at least on any form of forums debate with a side by side documented grow.

It would appear that a longer light cycle should in theory speed up veg ?


I'm not sure myself, as people have opinions on their methods used, so it is 1 vs another so to speak & environmental conditions grown under...

Which most of our conditions differ from one to another in less in a controlled environment at cost, one would be able to conduct such an experiment !



Mmm any botany stuff i can dig up will be non related to MJ in less i find some words by Jorge or Ed himsilf :thumb:
 
Oh my, i thought your sprout was bigger than that. You should leave it in the dark until its at least an inch or 2 or even 3 out of the dirt. Put it back before you fry it! Dampen the soil and check it daily till it gets a little taller...
 
Also, when you put it back under the light (after its grown a little!) Raise your light up. Your soil temps shouldnt get that high...i wish i had a pic. to show you but i only have clones right now. Oh, in the picture of the fan, those are fully rooted clones a few weeks old thriving under 2 t12 bulbs set 18 inches from the tops.
 
i would get that membrane off, I just did this on mine. This is how i did it. Got a toothpick(use whatever) and dropped some saliva on it then put said saliva on top of the seedlings membrane, apparently the enzymes from your saliva eats away at it without harm. Moved saliva around a bit with toothpick until had enough membrane to pull of with tweezers, should come off and allow the seedling to open up and get some light. I put under cfl at about 4" water once and let it do it's thing.
 
As far as I know from personal experience with non MJ plants, plants do different things on days and nights. So the 18/6 would make more sense to me than a completely unnatural 24/0.

I just rewired my second fan to double the CFM's and turned off the lamp.

So should i leave this little guy in pitch black darkness until it grows alittle? (It's definitely NOT photosynthesizing right now, it doesn't even resemble a plant) Would it matter if i put my little 15watt lamp in the box somewhere so i can see what is going on inside? (I have a camera connected to a CCTV server, i can see the soil and the temps from there)
 
18-6 is fine after it gets a little bigger, if you dig that thing up right now its probably 1/2 inch long. It doesnt have enough root to even process light yet. Yes, complete darkness for another inch or 2.
 
downtimej said:
18-6 is fine after it gets a little bigger, if you dig that thing up right now its probably 1/2 inch long. It doesnt have enough root to even process light yet. Yes, complete darkness for another inch or 2.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of that 1/2 inch long thing too when i was about to transplant it, it was in a container with 1 more seed that hasn't sprouted yet, so i had to move it, to my surprise, when i lifted the soil up, i could see a root dangling underneath it. I didn't measure it, but i would say that the roots are about 1 1/2 long right now, I myself wasn't expecting them to be so long, i planted it straight in soil (no pre-soaking, nothing) 3 days ago, and now its that long???

Cruizer said:
I tried the 24/0 and after seeing my power bill went with 18/6 instead, something to think about
Click to expand...

I did some calculations before i even started this whole grow box project, and it turned out that i would pay 25 dollars for 3 months, 200W is next to nothing. So I only care for the plant right now, not my wallet.
 
Okay that makes perfect sense to me. Lights off and i'm gonna wait until the cotyeldons open, then 18/6. Thanks for the replies everyone. I hope this guy makes it, I had 25% germination success which really got me quite dissapointed. As for the membrane, I didn't even know it existed until i took a very close look, and yes it seems like it's there but it already has tears on it and its probably going to rip soon. I don't want to do anything else on it yet, cause im the kind of newbie that can destroy everything in a matter of seconds.

Anyway thank you and see you in ~a week in another [TOTAL NEWBIE] thread.
 

Similar threads

M
My Seedlings
Replies
16
Views
2K
chevy-boyzr1
C
A
Why is my plant sick? Total Newbie
Replies
10
Views
1K
Cruizer
C
N
What's wrong with my sprout?
Replies
3
Views
1K
CannaVince
C
S
How high should my light be?
Replies
4
Views
1K
SmokingGood61
S
The Dawgg
What should I do?
2
Replies
31
Views
2K
NOOOBIENOT
NOOOBIENOT
Back
Top Bottom