Long And Skinny

[badhabitsau]

Greetings fellow 420'ians..I have reciently experimented with some new seeds and new red/blue led grow light ! So far so good, after only three days they have sprouted but my problem is that apart from the small leaf at the top the stem appears to be huge almost 2" then no other leaves. I realize it's only early days yet but have been told that this sometimes means that they are searching for more light. Is this because of the L.E.D's or as I have started them from seed just need to be a little more patient ? If it is the lack of light, I have lowered the light pad but is there anything I should do at this stage to help with the growth ? PS The seeds are from a reliable sorce on the net and should be extra good, fingers crossed...Could anyone advise me as this is my first attempt at being self seficient:)

[Naycha]

Some pics would help a lot but yeah I'd say not enough light.

 

You could lower the led as far as possible but you'd probably be better of with fluros. You would definitely be better off with a HPS.

 

Naycha

[nufnsus]

hey man,

 

yeh, sounds like your stems stretching, due to lack of/ insufficient light.

don't worry, I had the exact same thing happen when I germinated my first ever seeds not long ago.

Since you're using a low-heat emitting light source (LED), try to get that light as close as possible to your lil' ones (~5cms).

(to check if ok, place your hand over the top of your seedling & hold for a minute or two. if your hand starts to feel hot, raise the light source)

 

What wattage is your LED?

Maybe considering adding some more light sources in the form of CFL's or Fluro-tubes. Worst case, gather up all your clamp-on light fittings & desk lamps, screw in some tubes/ cfl's and blast them at your seedlings for the time being, until you get a better grow-light.

 

to stop the stems from toppling over/ breaking, give them some support.

I'd recommend getting a thin drinking straw, cut to length of stem, slice vertically on one side (so it 'opens') and wrap around your seedlings.

 

Good luck with it all!

 

BTW: Use 'Cool' temp cfl's & tubes, i.e. 6400Kelvin or similar during veg.

or, as Naycha suggest, bite the bullet & get yourself a HPS kit, which you can use for the entire grow, providing bucket-loads of lumens for your precious green!

Edited October 21, 2010 by nufnsus

[Frazz]

plants need light spectrum and intensity comparable to daylight

led's are great for torches but you cannot successfully grow plants with torch lights

if you are serious about growing weed get grow lights specifically for growing plants

 

[The Hash Nibbler]

Someone say LED's? .

Geebus badhabitsau =) You gonna need more than LED's especially cheap panels. Can't wait till the day these things actually do the job for a resonable price. If it's not using at least Cree 2W LED's it is shit, personally I wouldn't use a system with anything less than 5W LED's and some sort of focusing lense such as Parablend etc. And that is 5W each LED and you would want like 50+ of them in about 4-5 different light spectrums adjustable for Veg and Flower cycles. I don't know why people think these are the way of the future, if you want to see the real future, check out PLasma lighting

 

Way of the future and now they have grow specific ones, more efficent than fluros, cheap to run. These guys are the leaders in this technology, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwHrCa3ie88

 

I rest my case. Gh72

Edited October 21, 2010 by Grasshopper72

[smashed1]

just by some proper lights dont waist good seeds bro