Do I need to put seedlings under lights as soon as they've broken the surface of the soil, or do I wait until they get their first true leaves?

put a light on them. i had 5 pop soil yesterday. right now i just have one cfl about 4 inches away from them. in a couple days i will add much more lighting.

I have 2 seedlings under 900 LED's at the moment....

So should one CFL be good only for the first couple of days from seedlings?

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DADE COUNTY 305

I've heard with CFLs you can put the lights much closer, like an inch away from the tops of the plants. Apparently the light loses strength the further away you get, so the closer the better. With a CFL you can get pretty close without having to worry about burning the plant, because the bulbs don't get very hot.

I put my new sprouts under the light, because that seems to be the general concensus on how these things are handled.

you wont burn or overheat your plants (well, unlikely) using cfl. Put them under there pretty much at any time.

You need to make sure they get their 6 hours of darkness per day as well.

6 hrs plus...i leave mine on 24 hrs a day, but six will work also. I just feel that time off from lighting gives the plants that long to stretch more than they have to. one cfl will be fine for now, but you will need to put some more on them within a couple days.

and yes i keep my cfls like an inch away as well, just not in the first couple days, but that is just me. good luck