Hey guys I am new on the forum and I just thought id show you whats up. I have 7 little seedlings in some rapid rooters. I started germination on June 6th. They germed and sprouted out of the rapid rooters by June 8th. here is a picture of them right now witch is almost 5 days since they sprouted. I was wondering how long I should leave them under CFL before putting them under a 600w hps? I also heard that if the tap root is about 2-3 inches and it's coming out of the bottom of theRR that its time to transplant, but I also heard you should wait until roots come out of the sides as well. In anycase I was thinking about giving them some nutes. a mix of liquid karma, great white bacteria, rhizotonic, and black strap mollases. not a high NPK but just some beneficials to help with root production. Here is a picture of how they are coming along. tell me what ya think.

I would say no to giving them nutes this early on, it might/probably will kill them, or at least burn them some and slow grow for a while. Also, they are streching very badly. Lower the CFLs to within 2 inches of the tops of the plants. This will help make the plants grow more compact, with each node closer to each other, allowing you to be more efficient producing bud in you space. I personally only grow with CFLs, because Im strapped for cash and dont wanna dish out money for the nice bulbs, so I really cant answer your question about that. But definitely lowere you CFLs until you do transfer them, and I would recommend against the nutes

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Weezy

My First Grow-CFL

they look to be stretching pretty bad imo

yes i agree with them, get light closer, and get a fan on them to help strengthen the weak stems.

also dude, you might as well go ahead and set your little dirt piles in a pot full or organic soil. your plants will outgrow those little things resulting in their growth being stunted because of having not enough root space. i like to veg in 3 gallon pots. its good to keep transplanting to a minimum. and with unlimited root growth comes faster all around plant growth.

but exactly how many cfls do you have on them? and how big?

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When i die burry me deep with a bong at my feet, put some bud on my bed and ill smoke while im dead.

Thanks for the reply's. I was afraid they were stretching. I moved the the light to within 2 inches. I am using two 36 inch 40w bulbs. One is a cool white and the other is a grow lux. TBH I have had the CFl's for a while in my garage so I don't have the boxes. I looked for the K rating on the bulb but i couldn't find one. I was afraid that the bulbs were incorrect, and they very well may be. was just trying as an experiment, but I think i may just throw them under the 600w soon and trasnplant them into the fox farms ocean forest. The rapid rooters seem to be a fairly decent investment, but I may just try some peat or rock wool next time. aparently the rapid rooters are mad out of organic composted tree bark and they promote your beneficial bacterias.

EDIT: honestly I just realized that CFL means compact. I am sorry for posting this thread about CFL. I am using a normal flourecent lamp. disregard this thread or delete it. I must have just had a huge brain fart. those normal lamps must not even be close to enough.

dont worry bout the no cfl thing. at least the are flourescent. they look healthy. stretched a little. to fix that just repot in some dixie cups. something like the picnic red ones. put the plant a little low in the cup and fill dirt up to the leaves as close as you can. this will fix the stretch thing and now you back to normal bro. i would keep under floros at least two/three weeks from seed. then you can transfer them to the hps. a rule of thumb is one month veg. and two month flower depending on strain. fat leaves mean indica and thin long ones sativa. indica is shorter flower and sativa is longer flowering time. but i have seen ppl put them in flower from seed or after clones root. this is for limited space. do you have that problem. props.

Thanks that's a really good idea about re potting it and covering the stretched stem. I lowered the lights yesterday to about 2 inches above to reduce any further stretching. Yes after the 2-3 week seedling stage I plan on vegging them for a month and flowering for 2. thanks for the info chasenuggethed

Plant and bury them up to bottom leaves... get fan on them.....

Stay with CFL's for a while.... I'd do two+ weeks before HPS.. even more .... unless you have a HPS like a 430 with more blue spectrum.......

Forget the nutes till a month old..then just a veg nute at 1/4 strength to start.. you don't need all that shit yet...

Molasses only at start of flower.... Luck..

Hey before you transplant, you might want to go ahead and go to your biggest pot. 5 gallon bucket will work best. minimizing transplants will help lower stress levels. and the reason being you dont want to transplant to small cups right now is that they are indeed stretched, and even if you fill the cup soil your roots will be at the bottom of the cup in order to cover up and the stretch from the stem. and with the roots being so low if not on the bottom it will give them no where to expand thus restricting the growth of your plant. so go ahead and transplant them to a bigger pot that you will be able to keep for a while. also giving the roots more room to expand helps speed up the veg process.

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When i die burry me deep with a bong at my feet, put some bud on my bed and ill smoke while im dead.

yeah. if you have room go ahead and plant em in 3 gallon buckets. 5 is too much for inside and will take up a lot of space but if you have room do what you need too. the less you transplant the less they will be stressed. but if you are super gentle with a green thumb you can wait till they get rootbound but not too long and turn it up tap the bottem and replant and cover with dirt around sides , make sure to leave an inch of the old dirt above and you will have no stress at all. the inch above helps the roots get maximum oxygen to recover and spread the roots in new medium. good luck

peace