First Grow 10 plants!

also how close should i put the light to the plants without burning them or makin them strectch like they already have :/

anyone help me out here.... lol

rule of thumb for lights, if its too hot to put your hand under it its hurting your plants.

dammmm, so last night when i was goin to bed, the bulb blew on the metal halide bulb, so i put hps bulb in, and it is ALOT less hot, is the bulb bad? or tat how it is suppose ta be?

you mean is the bulb bad because it emitted a lot of heat? i havent used mh before but my guess is that they are just warm like that. could be wrong, but at least you have the problem fixed

Remix said:

dammmm, so last night when i was goin to bed, the bulb blew on the metal halide bulb, so i put hps bulb in, and it is ALOT less hot, is the bulb bad? or tat how it is suppose ta be?

Click to expand...

The way I read this was that you were thinking because the hps bulb didn't feel as hot as the MH bulb that blew... you think the hps bulb may be bad? I would say no. As long as it is lighting the place up mega bright comparable to the MH bulb then it is good regardless of putting off less heat. in fact less heat is a good thing & if the MH bulb had a problem with it in manufacturing then that could have caused it to put more of it's energy into heat & not into light which in turn caused it to blow out early. If the HPS seems to be putting off alot of bright light then i would say it's good. Also as a note... make sure you're not touching your bulbs & putting fingerprints on them, it's not good. Use a soft cloth to handle your bulb & screw it into the socket.

As for how close it should be. I recommend putting a thermometer @ the level of your plant tops. Adjust the light so the thermometer will read between 70-75 degrees (ideally, it can go higher). Anything over 90 can kill. If you don't have a thermometer then use your hand. if your hand feels uncomfortably warm @ the level of the plant tops then you need to move the light away.

But as long as you can control the temperature then the closer you put the light the better. Light distance from plants works on an inverse square principle. meaning the further away from your plants you pull the light you lose Lumens at an exponential factor. So that is why light cooling is so important. Many times it is more efficient to spend your money & electricity on cooling than it is to spend it on supplementing some more light. Say you can buy a 6" duct fan @ lowes for $30 and it runs around 40 Watts. well if that means you can move your light 6" closer then you are upping the lumens on your plants significantly.

I can't do all the math for ya, but chances are good that you made a great investment increasing your light w/o spending a dollar on additional light provided you didn't already have an adequate cooling system. Anyhow the short answer is the distance of your light depends mostly on the temp of your grow room.

sweet tat helped alot, thanks man
so i can get a 6' ducting fan for only 30 bucks at lowes?

I would have that light about 3 to 4 feet away from those little babies and as they grow ya can lower it. High 80s you will be fine but try to keep temps down.
They are not stretching. When the seed grows it shoots up a stalk. Now it will start produceing nodes.

alright sweet thanks man, i will raise it...its only like a foot and a half and leafs look a little yellow....i was thinkin to low..

New Update...
today marks day 11 of veg, i am new and all to growing, but ive checked out other grows and i think they look pretty healthy....a little yelow tips on some because i had the light to low, but i raised it about a foot and a half and seems to be working great.
one thing i am worried about is im not watering enough, i am trying not to overwater so i been watering every 2-3 days.
which i think i need ta water more for these seedling, it is moist about an inch down, but not that moist, should i start watering more? or is that fine

What size container do ya have them in again?

half gallon pots with holes in the bottom

Ok, Get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it about 3/4 full of your water for your plants. Dunk your plants in the water so it over flows the edge of the pot. Let them sit that way until ya think they are soaked. Pull them out and let the excess water drain out. They will be watered then. You are not watering them enough at 1 time. Then wait until they dry out and water again. 2 or 3 days watering them in that size of pot you are not giving them enough water at a time. It should be like 1 time a week.

wont that drown them if u put the whole thing in there lol, so that will soak the whole soil? and i should only have tat water once a week that way?

It wont drown them it will water them. It takes the guess work out of the bebate if they are watered good enough. Ya can run 5oo gallons threw a plant and it will not drown it if it has drainage.

I guess my point is to water them well. Dont be afraid to water the hell out of them. Ya have the problem of over watering when ya water too often not when ya water too much at 1 time.

my plants are lookin bad, they are two weeks old and havent grown worth shit, i think i burnt the fuk out of them when i had the 400 watt light less than a foot away from them :/
all the leaves are yellow and look like they have burn marks :/
is there anyway i can save them?
i raised the light to about 3 feet when u told me to, but i think it was to late, because they havent grown since then

that is 2 weeks old, i know there is something really wrong lol
because those are small as hell compared to others

What kinda soil do you have them in? I figured they would be larger too. Thats why i told ya to water that way.
I bet ya over watered them.
Damn it! Ya you were on such a roll too. Let them dry out good and i bet ya need to water them once every 2 weeks or so. Because of the pot size and the size of the plant.
Water less.

so you think i can fix it and or i need to start over?
i just bought a 5 gallon bucket and i watered like 3 days ago without it, should i go ahead and do your method right now or wait a couple more days and then do it???
you think i can fix these plants? they are 2 weeks old and this bad looking lol
i kno one of the problems was i had the light WAYYY to low and it burnt the shit out of them and dried the water up quick

They will recover if ya let them dry out and then water.
That small i would not do the dunk thing.
Make sure you are getting all the soil wet when ya water them.
Like i said ya may only need to water them 1 time a week or longer.
Your problem is watering too often not watering too much at a time.
The top may have been dry but the bottom where the roots are were wet.
They can recover.