I've recently started my first run growing a set of plants. I'm approximately 10 days in. I started out with 7 seedlings, but I only have room for 4 plants right now, so I pulled up all but the best looking 4 plants.

I have 2 plants that are growing quite well, albeit a bit tall.
The third plant is small, but doing well. It has some discoloration, which I've tried to help by lightly spraying the leaves and base of the stem with a Miracle Gro (higher nitrogen) water/fertilizer mix.

The fourth plant has sprouted a lot of leaves, but has looked withered for some time. I also sprayed this plant with the Miracle Gro mix, which seems to have helped a bit.

For the potting mix, I used Scott's potting soil and Perlite. I water every 3-4 days with tap water (on a well). I have two 9" high-velocity fans blowing down on the plants at an angle to help with the stem strength.

One of my main concerns is that I don't have enough light on the plants. I have a 26W 6500k CFL approximately 1" above each plant, with an 8" dome over top of the plant.

Is this viable for growing for now? I realize I'll need more lights as the plants grow taller, but right now they're around 3-4" tall and it'd be difficult to position more lights above each plant and keep them close enough (1-2" inches away from the tops of the leaves)

I would also like to know if the pots that I'm using would support a 2' tall plant or if I'd need to transplant to a larger pot down the road.

As far as improving the light, I thinking about putting all four plants in a box together (maybe tupperware or something similar) and positioning the lights above all of the plants.

I'm only trying to grow enough for personal use, so I'm not looking to grow huge plants. Maybe 1-2' at the most. I've been reading up somewhat on organic nutrients like guano, but I wasn't sure if it made a significant difference over occasionally using the Miracle Gro. I hear it's less likely to toxify the plants, so that would be a nice benefit.

I'll include some pictures that show my set up. I'm using a closet at the moment, with lights hanging from shelves on the wall. The plants stretched a bit early on when I had a different light setup and they were further from the light. I am current doing a 16-8 light/dark schedule and am thinking about switching to 18-6.

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that light is plenty for this early of growth..just keep it close. but plan on getting alot more watts when you get into vegging or flowering (like 8-12 inches tall or so) like probly ~75watts per sq foot for veg and 100+watts per sq foot for flowering (those are cfl #'s, actual watts not equivalents) look for those "Y" lightsocket splitters at HD or an improvement store.., just don't go over board with them, see how many watts your lamps are rated for and don't exceed that #...like there should be a sticker or something that says "rated for 60 watt bulbs maximum" or something like that, then dont exceed 2 of those 26 watt bulbs per lamp.

Thanks. I appreciate the info.

Plants are looking good....keep up the good work!

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