New member, might as well post the GROW

Hey all,
just joined the site, though I've visited and perused many a time. Figured the best way to get started would be to post my current, and first legitimate grow. Though it still has to remain somewhat stealth, this is the first time I actually invested the money and time to produce something worthwhile.

Needing something cheap, cool, and easy to deal with, I went CFL, as I've seen some good outcomes. Researching into this field I came across the different spectrums (2700k, 6400k,...) and studied further to find that it is perfectly possible to do a complete grow with just 2700k fluorescent bulbs. So I got a pair of these 250watt babies:

With that off the list, I got a timer to accompany, and enough foil for everyone.

While my long stored seeds were germinating in some shotglasses of warmed water for a day, I went out for some organic potting soil (NPK .1-.05-.05) and some light (being afraid of overfertilizing) organic plant food (5-3-3), which I've yet to use, because I heard to wait at least 2 weeks before fertilizing. 2 weeks is up tomorrow, though. I also got some distilled water.

SO,
here is my stealth grow area in my closet behind my bed (don't let the mirror fool you):
Perfect, I think.

In the beginning, I used several 14watt standard house CFLs. Quite inadequate, I'd say,
but finally my shipment of 250w grow lights came:
Too close? Too far? You tell me.
The stretching is from when I had three different 14w lightbulbs trying to balance and reach each plant.
I've been watering every three days or so (whenever dryness is apparent) with distilled water, though my tap water is from a well, I think it's too hard and environmental analysis has revealed small amounts of coliform bacteria.

The plants are progressing what seems to me slow for reports of 1-6" a day!

in all their glory
one's mutated as flux, another has a moth bite taken out of it, the tall one's color is lightening it seems, and the short one's stem is real red/purple.
mutant
is this one too light in color? Should I make changes? First time nutes tomorrow.
short one with the dark stem
I didn't photograph the moth bitten one, it looks the same as the tall middle one, aside from the nibble, and it's a darker green.
The moth scared me, that's for sure, swat it down at first sight.
Planning on mixing some onion, garlic, and water in the future to prevent pests.
They had light for 24 hours until I switched to the higher wattage and a 20/4 schedule
Should I wait until I transplant to bury the stretching? When should I even transplant these babies?
Other than the potting soil, there's a layer of sand and then newspaper.
I feel like I've got it almost all under control: neutral pH, ~80degrees F, can easily adjust light/plant height, but advice on previously mentioned questions or observable criticisms would be dandy!

Thanks

Pics no worky.

Gordo here, Sorry can't see any attachments. I'm using the 150 watt mini sunburst, 45,000 lumens and a broad K number spectrum. Also 40 watt cfls at the 6500 K number. Go easy on watering and on adding nutes. Easy to add too much and you can't pull it back. Remember that this is a plant, trying to grow. A growing medium, water, light, and fresh air is what it really needs. A little nutes help it grow taller, stronger, faster. Too much nutes could kill it. I use half the recommended amount of nutes, every other watering. I water every three days. If I really need "to do something" I spray the leaves with plain water from a spray bottle. Good luck.

Yea...pics...should be there now. Sorry for the blur, cell phones the best I got and it's better than my dedicated digital camera!
Haven't added any nutes yet, and will most certainly be careful when doing so.

Update:
Fed for first time today, hopefully for good reason, because my babies are looking real light in color.

The short one still looks fine, but the growth is certainly stunted. I fed the recommended amount of about a teaspoon of 5-3-3 plant food for these small pots, for the first time, so was that a good move? I hope so, but are they too close to the 250w fluorescent? I didn't think it was possible, but I guess so because they are only two weeks sprouted. Advise?

seedlings don't need ferts. next you'll have a thread called "HELP...My seedlings are toast"

it looks to me that the light might not be close enough the plants look lankey put the light as close as you can without burning them use your wrist to juge the heat 'no plant food till after three weeks

IDK why people are telling you the lights are too far away, I guess it is from the stretching you had when you had the tiny lights. That looks like a 250watt cfl, that thing is going to put out a good bit of heat. Remember that the bigger the light is the further the light penetrates, a big girl like that won't need to be nearly as close as a 14 or 23 watt would. You definitely don't need to move it any closer, I would even consider backing it off a bit, I would say no closer than 3 inches no further than a foot. But put your hand the same distance from the light as the top of the plants and feel with the back of your hand, if it's too hot for your skin it is too hot for the plants.

I felt it might be too close, too. My hand doesn't get too hot, but placing a thermometer at varying heights revealed their position to be a little hot (85-90), I lowered them an inch or two where it is closer to target range.

It wasn't exactly ferts I distributed, but plant food. Much lower in NPK (5-3-3), but it contains helpful bacteria as well. I used the tiniest amount, because I felt with my watering every few days until it runs through has perhaps drained some nutrients from the soil. Probably wrong, but that was my reasoning. Think it could be the opposite and the soil was too rich for them? It did have some NPK of .1-.05-.05, but that seemed nearly negligible and easily washed away to me.

It depends on what water you are using, up to a certain point seedlings can grow on just the mineral content of the water, everything except water that the seed needs pre-establishing roots is all inside the seed, the same way a chicken embryo feeds off it's own yolk while it matures. So even though there may only be tiny bits of nutes in the soil, tiny bits is all it needs/wants at early stages.

I agree with dannyboy602, your plants are way too young for nutes/food
Dr. Jekyll

Shit can the tin foil, this will only cause hot spots that will impact your plants
Mr. Hyde

I am a Newbie also, but my conclusions about light differ from yours. I have one of the same product you pictured and I am very pleased with it. However, I used cooler light (spectrum wise, not heat wise)- 5700-6000) for vegging. Now I am in the third week of flowering, with a 2700 light. I am happy with my grow, but this is the first time I have reached this" landmark" but hope others will chime in about your light. I'm happy with my grow but really have no previous success to compare it with.

*BUDS said:

Bro are you sure your ready to grow and post the grow online? these plants are fucking crap start again after more research, your doing a lot wrong as all beginners do. Also I don't think moths eat dope plants.

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Cool, bro. Here's the bite taken out of the plant by the only pest seen yet

Ace Yonder said:

IDK why people are telling you the lights are too far away, I guess it is from the stretching you had when you had the tiny lights. That looks like a 250watt cfl, that thing is going to put out a good bit of heat. Remember that the bigger the light is the further the light penetrates, a big girl like that won't need to be nearly as close as a 14 or 23 watt would. You definitely don't need to move it any closer, I would even consider backing it off a bit, I would say no closer than 3 inches no further than a foot. But put your hand the same distance from the light as the top of the plants and feel with the back of your hand, if it's too hot for your skin it is too hot for the plants.

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I've been using only distilled water because my tap water, though it's from a well, tastes like iron, and isn't entirely sterile (I'm an environmental science student and have performed biological assessment that revealed coliform colonies). Since I did add that bit of food, do you think it would be logical to flush these a little bit? I wouldn't think so, because your guys' recommended schedule would have me feed next week anyways. It just seemed off that these sprouts were already yellowing. Was the soil really that hot?
Another one just sprouted, too. So hopefully this one, having the strong light from the getgo, will grow un-stretched.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde said:

Shit can the tin foil, this will only cause hot spots that will impact your plants
Mr. Hyde

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I shall. The foil was mainly an attempt at insulation (which proved unnecessary), and an attempt to conceal light, but that too is unnecessary.

i think you need to learn how to use focus on your phone, your photos suck.

but either than that!

you dont need to feed plants that young, youll kill them
good luck on your grow , read lots youll do fine

My advice: don't start seeds in those little herb/flower pots; try and use a better/name brand starting mix. Use a larger container like a plastic Solo cup (16 oz at least) with holes drilled in the bottom. The cups are a bit over 4 inches tall which is exactly what you need. You want to fill the container up entirely, to the top with media- which provides more room for roots to grow; greater volume of nutrients, water, etc.

Avoid using distilled water. There are no minerals in distilled water at all, if anything use bottled spring water. Otherwise it may be beneficial to use liquid or other products to provide Ca, Mg and Fe.

Fullbags said:

It just seemed off that these sprouts were already yellowing. Was the soil really that hot?

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Not entirely sure but this could be a side effect of the light being so close. Plants darken when they aren't get enough light (Darker things absorb more light) and lighten when they get lots of light, bleaching when they get too much. Not sure if that could be the case here, but thought I would put it out there

I thought of light bleaching too. I've made some minor adjustments to their situation, and their condition seems to be perking up. The sprout is growing nicely, and luckily, I actually know its strain to be Buddha Kush. Anyone familiar with growing it?
The distilled water doesn't seem much an issue to me because there are minerals in the plant food, including calcium, which constitutes 3% of its makeup.
When should I transplant these? and should it be into an intermediate container before their final home? I want to finish them in some Viagrow fiber pots (2 or 3 gal)