Can I set my seedlings next to a window giving direct sunlight for a few hours a day or do the storm windows and glass block the good stuff??

Go for it they will love it. Plants like sun.

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-- just a thought--

if the glass is really cold it will shock your plant if it makfs contact

That will do when your plants are seedlings. However when they get bigger you will have to get more adaquate lighting. By either placing them outside, or getting some cfls... hps... mh or some indoor lighting.

How many hours of direct sunlight does your window recieve a day?

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The only difference between what your doing and what im doing is, im doing it right.

I have cfl's above the seedlings in the mornings and evenings, also have 2 1000 watt hps for flowering, just needed to know if I was wasting my time putting them near a window for a few hours a day. Some of these seedlings may be picked for my 1st outdoor grow, but I have some "outdoor seeds" waiting to be germed.

3 or 4 hours, maybe five if I'm on top of things, the sun moves along the floor, sometimes I move the plants along with it.

if your going to try to use natural light indoors then i would say you have to make sure the plants keep in the light if not that will throw things off and i've had friends that ended up with hermies doing this, i would say just keep them under the cfl's if you cant be there all the time or put them outside if its warm enough.

just buy a hid. Natural light through a window wont do bugger all good.

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