seedling problems and transplantation!?

Hey! I am extremely new to this field but have setup quite a setup considering my first time. Steady air temp of 76 - 80 degrees and soil temp ranging from 72-74. I am growing 10 x fem church, and a variety of 5 diff strains ranging from arjans haze #2, euforia, and a.m.s. all fem. The lighting is a 400 W CFL system and originially the seeds were wayyyyyyyyy too far. But in the past 2 days after noting the extreme stretching and the falling of 2 long stemmed babys, there is B-vitamin solution and a low dose of fertilizer + in the water which goes into a germination kit and is absorbed directly into the soil.

How do I know when to transplant them into a hydroponic system, and what distances do they need to be apart considering I have never done hydro and am hoping to flower most of them and pick a mother at some point (most likely a church). Waiting anxiously for some help

you really dont need a germination kit! you can throw some seeds on a paper towel and put them in a zip lock bag and put them some where dark and they will sprout in about 2-3 days once they sprout you can put them in soil or rockwool cubes if your growing hydro id prfer the cubes if you dont have them put your sprouts in some soil keep your lights a few inches from the top of your plant so they wont strecth when they get about 2in tall go ahead and transplant them to your system you need to carefully rise the dirt off the roots so you dont damage them! them place in your resv. you really need to go to the hydroponic forum they can really help you out! good luck bro! you plants are streacthing cuz your lights are to high! lower your lights so they wont streatch

you can transplant them whenever they have roots

So, what kind of lights exactly DO you have? If you are using cfl's, you need to put your lights within 4 inches or less of your plants. Thats why they are stretching so much. If you want, carefully repot them, but bury the stem in dirt!! This will eventually grow roots, so don't worry about hurting the plant. Just be carefull when you are handling roots.

Also, IMO if this is your first time growing, you should grow in soil. Growing hydroponically is a bit more involved, and you don't have soil to act as a buffer in case you fvck up your nutes.

Also, don't give ANY of your young plants ANY nutes/ferts anytime soon, you're going to kill them!!

yea, I will be very careful with the nutes. I am currently running 4 x 100 W CFL bulbs with a reflector hood but there is extremely good ventilation in the system and I am pretty sure that they are fine now within the 8" of the light. I will move them closer and let you know how that goes!

Also, as for hydro, I will look in the hydroponics in the section, but should I wait until the plants are a little further along until I transplant because I want to ensure they are healthy enough / wait until the stems become more ridgid so they do not fall over ? (ps, if it helps in your decision, I am using a drip irrigation system with hydroton pellets).