First Grow Attempt

Hey guys,
I'm new to all of this, I've done some researching on the site but I still don't get somethings. I was wondering if I can just ask a few simple questions and get answers here. Well, I planted my germinated seedlings on oct. 3rd. I have two atm. They both sprouted about two days later. I have them in separate pots and sitting in a bin with a lamp just a little bit above them. I'm only using one light bulb and it's a small 13w cfl light bulb. The plants are growing pretty fast, but the problem is, only the stem is growing. I still only have the 2 leaves that popped out at first, and I see no new leaves coming in yet. But the stems are getting really long. One of the plants stems are about 4/5 inches if not longer the other is about 2/3 inches, but the plant is not growing any leaves other than the ones it started with. It's only about 4 days old though. Also, they are in a garage for now, which gets pretty cold overnight. And cfl's do not produce much heat, so I guess the plants are freezing. I am switching them to a warmer place, but I can't do that until in about a week. I also have a 500w incandescant light bulb. Which I understand produces much, much more heat. So should I just switch the light bulbs for now, so my plants don't freeze? They seem to show no signs of being affected by the temperature, unless that's why the stems are super long. Also, when I switch the location of my plants, I'm going to have them in a heated room, with a fan blowing at all times. And the walls will be covered with foil or painted white. And I am planning to add more lights. I am really not looking to increase my electric bill, so I'd like someone to give me ideas on how to make this cheap. As of now, I am only growing two plants, but when I can get them out of the garage I plan on adding about two more. So can someone let me know how many light bulbs and what kind would be good enough, and cheap for two plants, and then for four plants. Also will one fan be enough? If you can, please send links of cheap bulbs that are good enough for growing. And are my plants ok with the stems like that? I will try and post up pictures tomorrow. Thanks to whoever can help!

EDIT*

Ok, so I switched locations sooner than I thought. I now am growing in a very small hidden room in a shed. I still did not buy any new lights, but I will do that soon. I will show you guys pics of my setup, and of my two babys. Please give me suggestions on how to improve my setup. And also let me know what I'm doing right/wrong.

Some of these pics might not be very clear, it's from a camera phone.
(My setup)

(Long stem plant)

(Is this stem too long?)



And here is just a lil' something I drew.

get a veg spec flouro, your plants are definatly reaching for the light and this will cause them to stretch. put your light closer, get more light, get a small fan blowing over them and use a stray and twist tie to support them for now. Good Luck

80watts of flouresent lighting.

what they said it give it some time the true leaves should appear in a bit not all plants show these leaves right away so just be patient and indeed your plants are stretching for the light so putting them closer will curb your stretching problem about the temps how cold are you talking the light should give a little heat to keep them warm so freezing should'nt be a huge problem
remeber one of the best nutes you can give is time lol

for sure they need more light.. but everyone already told you that.. happy cfl shopping

What kind of lights should I get? What wattage? And how many light bulbs for 2 plants and then for 4 plants?

I have two 48 watt cfl's on one. It seems to be working

I added some pics, can anyone let me know how I'm doing? I am planning to add some more cfl's maybe two more, and definitely adding a fan really soon.

Anyone want to comment?

Oh btw, I am adding two 40w cool white lights. They are the long tubular ones, and I'm going to place them right above the plants. Should I eliminate that lamp light, which is a 13cfl. Or should I just keep using it in addition to the cool whites?

Would anybody be kind enough to help me out?

If you are going to go with CFL, figure on about 4-5 lights all only about 3 inches away from the plant. Don't go with the tubes unless they are T5HO.

Lots of the things you want to know are general growing knowledge which can be found all over in the internet. I have the same number of posts you do, which means rather then asking lots of questions, go to the CFL section of this forum and research.

Are cfl's the cheapest to use?

Well, for around 100 dollars you can grow with a 2 bulb 2 foot T5 fixture. This is all you would need to spend until you went to flower, you would have to buy 2 flowering bulbs to replace the 6400k that come with the light. You would use the 6400k for pre flower. This setup and the practice of LST(SCROG) would give you good results.

A 150watt HPS light cost about 99 bucks for a dependable one. With that comes heat problems you must address with more money.

CFL bulbs would be about 60-100 dollars depending on how thorough you wanted to be. They would generate more heat then a 2 bulb T5HO, so light heat issues would have to be addressed with a little bit more money.

In my honest opinion go with the T5HO setup because it is something you can always use in the future when your grow level advances. There are no real uses for a 150w HPS once you gain in skill. Floros give you something to sprout and clone with so the fact that it is a low power setup will not take any from its usefulness.

also if u do choose cfl's its said to have at least 2 bulbs per plant i use 26 watters and have gotton good results but its up to you g=to choose the t5's do sound good though less heat is always great

i do outdoors, but did alot of looking into about indoors originally and some about cfl's. With bulbs you want a balanced spectrum. During veg. you want all cool white and maybe one warm or soft white. it is better to google your grow questions first before you start a thread about something that can be so easily resolved with a simple search and read instead hundreds/thousands/millions of people just want a quick answer, but with experience and time you wont need to rely on anybody else and you can truly learn. Back to cfls get the ones with the most lumens!!!! And use Google for the rest

and for goodness sakes, GROW OUTDOORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially on your first attempt

what he said lol
if you want to go to jail

I am currently growing 2 plants using cfls. However, i vegged for 6 weeks using only 2 4ft t5s. The t5s work great because they give off little to no heat meaning they can be as close to the plant as you can get them. These are very cheap to purchase and to run. For flowering i switched to cfls. I am using about 300 watts of cfls around the two plants. Mine are close to 2ft tall so you wouldnt need anywhere near this much light. CFLs are also very cheap to purchase as well as to run. I purchase all my cfls at walmart. They usually carry anywhere from 13watt to 55watt lights. At this stage you are probably ok with what you have. Make sure you are using lights in the correct spectrum. You want 5000k to 6500k. The more light the better though. Good luck!

Crew20 said:

I am currently growing 2 plants using cfls. However, i vegged for 6 weeks using only 2 4ft t5s. The t5s work great because they give off little to no heat meaning they can be as close to the plant as you can get them. These are very cheap to purchase and to run. For flowering i switched to cfls. I am using about 300 watts of cfls around the two plants. Mine are close to 2ft tall so you wouldnt need anywhere near this much light. CFLs are also very cheap to purchase as well as to run. I purchase all my cfls at walmart. They usually carry anywhere from 13watt to 55watt lights. At this stage you are probably ok with what you have. Make sure you are using lights in the correct spectrum. You want 5000k to 6500k. The more light the better though. Good luck!

Click to expand...

that sounds like a nice cfl grow crew..