stretched out plants

So because I was really anxious to get my seeds in the ground and haven't had time until now to get a proper setup going, my plants were growing under 1 42 watt cfl positioned too far away for about a week. They're about 4 inches tall right now, with only the third set of leaves starting and the first two sets are only about an inch and a half to to two inches from tip to tip. Now that I have a proper setup going with 2 42w and 6 23w CFLs positioned nice and close, will they start to get bushy? Is there anything else I can do to help them fill out and slow the vertical growth?

Next question:

I'm poor, so I want to grow max. weed with min. lighting. I'll probably add 6 more 23watts to the setup I described in the first paragraph, and I'll be flowering as soon as they strenghten up a little. How many plants can/should I flower with this lighting? I can put in up to 12 plants, and I want to keep them small if possible to keep it a little bit stealthy. I should also mention they're bagseeds and I'll have to remove males. Would I be able to flower (hopefully if half turn out female) 6 plants with that lighting?

Final question:

I have some 10-60-10 plant food lying around. Will this be useful at any stage in my grow?

Thanks so much for all the info you guys give on this site. I thought I had it all figured out after reading a ton of threads on here, but there's still so much to learn once you get started!


(For the haters: HPS is not an option due to heat, space, stealth, electrical capacity, and funding issues. This is all I will have to work with)

1. look up topping or fimming
2. nah youll need a shit load more cfls 7 will be good for like 2
3. use very very very sparingly at about 3 or 4 weeks
good luck!!!!!!!

I think you misread, I'll have 14 CFLs total, 12 23 watt and 2 42 watters. Thanks for the tip on the food!

can never have enough light my friend, keep adding as they get bigger

Maybe if I find a job

working mans a sucker

Move the lights closer if your plants are stretched out. For CFLs, the bulbs can be placed barely touching the leaves because they produce very little heat.

Yeah my room is nice and cool and i have my setup fixed, so I have them pretty well touching the leaves now. I'm hoping to see the growth really take off the next couple of days.

Don't be mistaken though, cfls can and will burn leaves. Though they won't burn like an HID light, they will get crispy if they are on the light too long. Happens to me when I forget to move my lights up.

Mine got pretty crispy yesterday, they grew about an inch overnight and sprouted a new set of leaves. These are starting to take off a bit now, hopefully I don't screw anything else up. I think I'll start a grow journal soon if they keep growing decently.