Spent about £75 on the cfls - but I already had the ballast for the one envirolite and the hanger for the cfl was only about £6
This is a real tricky one. As they're auto flowering everyone was telling me to plant them instantly into the final pot rather than transplanting... I would have transplanted otherwise... with having only one light on, the close you place the light to 2 of them (bearing in mind the big pots), it stops the light reaching the others, hence the second light. Also, with them being auto flowering, I felt it would be beneficial to have the 300W dual cfl in there early to offer a little red spectrum early on. If you have a look at my journal, there are already 2 sets of small leaves and a 3rd set on one of the plants though small. Will having the extra light not be good for them?
Grow space is less than 5ft (I'd say about 4ft if that) considerably but i chose white widow as they were as described 'small and bushy and ideal for someone growing with limited space'.... thanks for the visual help here - sounds like I may need to do this - really helpful, ta!I agree. That's plenty of light for a seedling. Pots are fine. Might take a sec to get rooted. What size is your grow space? If it's less than 5 feet consider some training so it doesn't grow to tall. Start early. Like 5 nodes or whatever. Similar to below.
They are just babies. May need more light later on but for now, in my opinion they can't use all the light you're throwing at them right now.
no problem. Just to be safe I would do some LST. Can't count how many times I ran out of space in my 4 foot cab. Your pot takes up maybe close to a foot, and if you hang the light above the plant, well that's more space used up as well.
So you'd say, definitely lose the 300W dual cfl and stick with the 200W envirolite for the short term? I can't get it too close to them as it's not long enough to sit directly over all pots, so feels as though the 2 end ones are slightly shaded... I rotate them of course which helps (meaning switching inners to the outer and the outers to the inner.
This is how I start, but I only grow one or two plants. Windowsill when they are really tiny seedlings like yours. At night I put under a maybe <20 watt cfl in a desk lamp. A couple of nodes I move them under a 65 watt CFL. Then under a 150 HPS eventually using older Blurple LEDs for supplemental. I think you will do fine with your high powered CFL. those babies can only absorb so many photons at that seedling stage. The rest is just wasted electricity. But, your fine. It will work. And later on when they get all bushy the 300 will come in handy. You're fine bro. Relax. Be patient and let it do its thing.
You've just made this noob very happy! This is the first time I've attempted
Totally, will do some training once they're big enough. Too small at the moment though. You're right the pots and reflector take up valuable space.
I wasn't trying to call you out on anything, was just trying to offer some advice about what i would be looking out for in your situation. Small plants like that are very susceptible to small doses of under or overwatering, and their light requirements are very low. Anything that small i would have under a fluorescent tube or on a windowsill like GrowUrOwnDank suggested. Your setup looks fine but you are going to have to be diligent till they get established in those pots. The extra lighting is just going to dry out the soil making you have to check the plants more often since the roots probably havent grown much yet. This isn't a problem either, just something to keep an eye on.
On a windowsill in which country? I'm in the uk btw! Am monitoring them every 4 hours or so at the moment... They seem small to me for a week and don't seem to be gaining much height.
Yeah my impatience is getting the best of me. It's only been just a week yesterday so let's see we're they are next Monday... What I did notice today when checking them was the smell from the leaves when touching them gently... They smell amazing! Patience is a virtue. Checking them this evening they had all sprouted up a little so am hopeful. Watch this space.
