First time grow, CFL Orange Bud

Hello all,

I am a first time grower with no experience with any type of gardening. I have read countless posts and articles for research purposes and have decided to ask the experts for some advice along the way. Here is my setup.

Seeds are Orange Bud
Currently at 6 CFL's in a hanging shop light setup.
I am using Expert Gardening potting soil.
I am using white garbage bags for the moment until my Mylar comes in.

Ok so here is my time line thus far.

6 September - Started 5 seeds in ph balanced water soaked paper towels on a plate covered with a bowl.

7 September - Checked seeds 24 hours later, one seed had cracked and was showing its taproot. No cracks in the others.

8 September - All seeds had cracked and were showing taproots. I decided to plant them. I used clear plastic party style cups.

10 September - Seedlings sprouted.

15 September - Transplanted seedlings. I read a lot about root binding and didn't want that to happen, probably not the best idea, but I am learning.

Now today I took my first pictures of the babies (girls, hopefully). They are attached. I have also attached some pictures of my setup. Some of the seedlings look like they are stretching to me.

I am looking for any comments on my setup and I will keep this journal up to date on a regular basis.

Thank you very much in advance for any comments or concerns you may have for my first grow.

welcome to RIU i'd would just say that if you've got mylar to cover the walls of your growspace, then take those metal hoods off, buy a " y " splitter for each socket you have, and get 2 lights out each one. that'll up your lumens big time. personally, i leave lights on 24 hrs during entire vegitative stage. also, make sure you keep those cfl's 2-3" away from plants at all times to avoid stretching. good luck and keep up the good work!

Each hood has a y splitter in it. There are 6 bulbs in total there, sorry if I did not specify that before. There is one of each of the following in each hood.

Bright White CFL 125 Watt Equivalent (30 watt) 3500k

True Color Daylight Spectrum 100 Watt Equivalent (27 Watt) 5500k

Ok I keep thinking about more information to add to give as much information as possible. The temperature in the room is around 76 degrees. Humidity is 65%. I wait until the moisture gauge reads dry until I water. The PH is sitting about 7.0 in the soil.

Do all of these conditions seem proper? Does anything need to be changed?

Have any of you had any experience with the Orange Bud? The site I got it from says that it is a 45 sativa, 55 indica.

Day 11

I am starting to get excited now. The plants have had the two fan leaves and the two dew drop leaves for what seems like forever. But today I can start to make out what looks like new fan leaves forming.

Day 12

I got up this morning and watered them and when I watered the largest one, it kind of just fell over. I frantically pushed soil over to support it. Is it already getting top heavy? I am planning on using Uncle Buds Topping method described on this site, but do I need to do something else in the meantime? Any help would be appreciated.

Day 13

Growth rate seems good. I may have to stake the two larger plants, though. Anytime I leave them overnight, they either droop to one side or just fall completely over. Suggestions?

Ok, so I found out that there is a local hydro shop and went there on Monday to take a look around. They had FF Ocean, so I bought a bag and transplanted my 5 babies into it. Please let me know how you think they are doing. It is day 16 from germinating so do you think they look puny or healthy or what? Any advice would be appreciated.

Looking good. Take a look at my journal to get an idea of what healthy seedlings look like. I had explosive growth at first, and things got slowed when I let my babies get root bound. BTW, the link to my journal is in my signature.

And about your buddy that fell over, its pretty common that a seedlings stem is too weak to hold it up. Put a fan on them to shake them around and the stems will harden up.

Back to business as usual. All plants seemed to have recovered nicely from the transplant. I am seeing new fan leaves on all of the plants, and the runt has grown about 1 inch in a day!!!

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.

Well, its day 24. Slacked off on the pictures there for a couple of days, but since no one is subscribed I guess that doesnt matter

I am getting concerned about the growth rate of the plants now. I see a lot of posts on here that show 3 week old plants that are twice as big as mine. The last pic is showing the height of the largest plant. Should I be concerned? I mean by going through my journal, they have been put through a lot of stress. Replanting 2X, white flies, low light, and very recently nute burn.

Started 1/4 strength nutes again today. Not much to report, just waiting for 12/12. I am thinking maybe 4-5 more inches worth of growth before I start flowering them.