Check out my set up...I have a couple of questions and am looking for comments. TY

Ok, this is my first time really growing anything from a seed, pot or otherwise. I am not a dummy, but have successfully killed my first batch of seedlings, and am looking to see if anyone can add anything to what I have learned from that experience.

These seeds germinated in damp towels and were placed with tweezers into 16 oz plastic beer cups with slits in the bottoms consisting of 1:1:1 vermiculite perlite peat with a little bit of garden lime for buffer. The medium was moistened with bottle water with a pH a little above 7. Everything is looking a-ok after two days (as it was before) and I am seeing vigorous sprouting and embryonic leaf display from their little humidity domes. The seedlings are in my custom built cabinet under 3 30W 100w equivalent 6400K CFL approx. 8-10 inches away. The ventilation system is OFF.

Ok, so here is what I did last time. I got to this point, and then decided that it would be a good idea to remove the fragile seedlings from the humidity dome, blast the cabinet's full light (a total of 292 CFL watts, ~1000w equivalent, ~20,000 lumens) at the same distance, and turn on the intake and exhaust fans. It is no surprise in retrospect that the tiny plants died.

This time I plan to wait until well after I see the first REAL leaf set come in, keep the same light they have now, mist regularly, and gradually increase the light and ventilation as the plants grow.

My question is basically is if anyone has any ideas as to how I should stage the introduction of more light...as I would imagine that I definitely eventually want to be giving them as much light as I can.

Thanks for reading and any input,

Matt

having all those cfl lights on will produce a good bit of heat thats prolly why your last batch died, you have to keep the temp at 75 or somewhere around there
cfl lights should be 2 to 4 inches away from your plants not 8 to 10 inches
if you keep your lights that far away the plants are going to stretch a lot , so put them closer
dont worry about turning on all the lights, just make sure you keep the temp low and you will be fine

nice ass setup for cheap you got a good amount of light in there esp if your only growing 3 plants

You might give up the small lights for one larger. I have a plant under a 100w cfl. But I don't think this one plant would fit in your box.

vanhalen is right on. lights are too far away. also, i'd be using y splitters in each of those sockets, or as many as i could. also, the ph level of water you used (7) is too high. the ph should be no higher than 6.8 - after that, plant cant absorb nutrients. i would be using store bought, high quality soil, such as fox farm. i would not mix up my own unless i was a veteran grower. i would also plant seedlings in something more than a cup, as you'll have to transplant real real soon with the cup, and transplanting seedlings is always dangerous. hope all works out. good luck

Thanks everyone for their input. I lowered the lights a lttle bit, but really want to do that slowly as the plants get a little stronger. This is b/c of the heat, it is already about 82 F under just three of my ten lights. I wonder what it will be like when they are all on. Also, I am going to work on the pH.

i have seen people rant and rave about not needing humidity domes because the sudden shocking change in humidity kills. but its all heresay so far, so meh.