Light distance advice please...

[jimbojones5678]

Well my first batch of seeds have cracked and they are now nestled in their rockwool cubes about to go under the 600W HPS - can anyone offer some advice on the distance I should place the light away from them?

 

Cabinet is 1x1x2.4 by the way - exhaust system is installed...it was a ripe bitch of a job but works real well.

 

Jimbo

[Ozzy420]

If they are still seedlings have the light at least 100cms away from them to start with as u dont want the heat from the globe frying ya plants and as they start to get bigger and get use to the 600w.

 

Slowly bring the light down to them until u can hold your hand palm facing down at the top of the plants if you can leave your hand there and it dosent get to hot to the point were u have to pull your hand away that should be at about the rite hight, if it starts to burn your hand it is to low and could burn the plants...

[Stoney]

hey there jimbo

 

what ozmade said is spot on the only thing i have to add is i would keep ya seedling under a fluro or 2 for the first week or so then put them under ya light

 

i usually wait till the second set of leaves are lookin good then under the light

 

cheerz :Dj:

[jimbojones5678]

Got no fluros sadly...

[SukonmiSkunk]

FUCK flouros... they are NO good for seedlings... youre best to raise them under the light ya going to grow them under.. .

 

ive done a seeding tute , its pinned in the propagation section... might be worth a read...

 

OZ is on the money... have the light a between 2-3 feet from the canopy... they wont stretch to the light.. thats a myth... they will; grow just the same.. and as OZ has mentioned.. just lower it a little day by day... but even seedlings.. I still wouldnt have the light closer than 2 foot from the canopy.. theres no need.. they will grow just the same...

[pacificrim]

i have to agree w sukonmi...................i would have only used flouros had i not read his germing tute that said "stick em under the 400W, no piss-ant flouros for me"........or words to that effect....

being an indoor/hydro n00b , i wasn't sure whether to use flouros or HPS so i've tried 3 seprate times using exact same conditions for flouro & HPS, HPS always wins out.

even ppl who have never seen weed grow (like my olds) say the HPS ones look much better(for what that is worth...)

 

i have 4 foot flouros & a 400w HPS.

when germing seeds under both at exactly same time in exact same conditions the HPS always gives thicker stems, fatter/longer leaves & said leaves start growing closer to beginning of stem than w flouros.

(hope that makes sense->for example, the leaves start growing at 1cm stem when the flouros start at 2cm)

the flouros didn;t give super thin stems nor were the leaves super small but compared to the HPS there was no competition.

i put the seeds damn close to the flouros coz heat was no issue, almost touching the light, but it pissed me off that they would never yield same results as an HPS over a foot away from seeds.

 

i found heat to be no issue w the HPS if i have plenty air blowing across the seedlings.

i was suprised at how close i could get the seeds to the HPS without even coming close to burning them.

from now on in i'll only ever use flouros for clones coz i can;t see how u get the seeds looking as good as u can w an HPS in same amount of time w' exact same conditions (water/medium/etc)

 

i don;t doubt ppl get solid results from flouros coz ppl here who're more experienced than me use them but they just didn't give me the results that one 400W HPS did.

[Ozzy420]

The one good thing starting seeds off under fluros and getting them going is it can save u a few $$$ on ya power bill,but it is true u cant beet a hid for growing from start to finish...

[pacificrim]

word, can't deny the power bill suffers w HPS.

i don't do 18/6 either......i do 20/4 or 24.

but like i said, there's ppl here who are much better growers than me ,w' grow diaries to prove they know their ish, they do the flouro thing w' wiked results so who am i to argue?

[jimbojones5678]

Well the $$$'s are not an issue at the moment - I'll take the bill on the chin as long as I end up with my buds.

 

The seeds have begun to show today - they are stretching out in a little curl - sorta brown with a ting of green in them. 5 are showing, 3 still to poke their head up.

 

Stay tuned...grow diary about to commence.

 

Jimbo

[Ozzy420]

If the extra $$$ on the power isent a prob go the hid all the way...