watering and sunlight

I planted my seeds about a week ago and they are about an 1" 1/2 high. They get sunlight from 7 a.m to about 4 or 5 p.m. Is that a good amount of sunlight. When should i be watering them it seem like the soil is dry by 2 in the afternoon?

That is good amount of sunlight, the sunrise is the most important for them, so thats good that you are getting that. My outside plants need water every 2-3 days, about 2 gallons or so. Make sure you feel down into the the soil to check for moisture, because the top will dry out alot quicker then where the roots are. I would just reccomend spending 10$ and getting a moisture meter at home depot, or lowes. Do you pots have drainage holes? Perlite? and how big are the pots?

Good luck buddy : )

Spade, during vegging you want 18 hours of light ideally. What I did with mine was after they got about 10 hours of natural sunlight, I brought them inside under my CFLs and supplemented with 8 hours of artificial light. Now they are in 12/12, so I rarely have to put them under artificial light (weather or risk of discovery). I also water every 3 days but I think I need to shorten that cycle since it's getting hotter here. Like Jack said, add perlite to promote good drainage and you want to make sure you transplant to a big enough pot. Mine are in 3 gallon pots. Good luck.

right now they are in half gallon containers, i wanted to keep they in smaller pots until later because i have to keep them hidden in my closet at night. I would like to switch pots maybe in 2 weeks or so until thye get a little bigger. Is that a bad idea?

Half a gallon should be fine for now, When you transplant I would strongly reccomend getting a high P solution to help minimize the stress from transplanting. I just transplanted, and mine is having a tough time. But switching from pot to pot is much easier then ground to pot. Hopefully you have read the FAQS on transplanting. Are you going to double pot? or totally transplant? If they have superthrive near you, I would get some for the transplant, helps the plants alot during transplanting. They have it at wallmart, lowes, and homedepot. Good luck man : )