New grower, got sprouts, have questions

The story so far:

  1. a week ago, I put seeds in water for sprouting.
  2. after 1.5 days, the seeds were mostly sprouted and went into Black Gold seedling mix.
  3. sprouts pushed through the soil after 2 - 3 days.

I’ve had the seedlings this whole time under a ≈ 75 watt grow lamp my wife uses for her orchids - mostly because I don’t know I’d get enough natural sunlight for them this time of year. The grow light runs about 12 hours a day.

The seedlings are also getting about 1 tablespoon of water twice a day.

I’m a little concerned a couple of them are getting really tall really fast with just the seed leaves on them.

Should I move them out from under the lamp?




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Looks like they are stretching looking for more light.

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I’m going to revise the grow light wattage to 50W because it only has 2 light bars on it. I thought it was 3.

Should I move them over to my tent with my the big lamp or take the plastic covers off? Or just raise them vertically, closer to the light?

That light isnt giving them love. Maybe fillin around that stem by topping off the little pots? Are they auto? Can buy a good little light to getem through till have a good 1. On the cheap a 100w board is under 80 for decent…an HLG not much more. If auto your time to correct is minimal. If photo just keepem going till set up and they will do fine. Stop the stretch. That stem gets to long and thin it becomes an issue. Not insurmountable but a pain. Just my thoughts. Also do not turn over the pot with your lemon seedling. They die…lmao. Had to put in another bean.

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Three of the four are autos. The tallest of the four is a photo.

I have a dimming 200W light board. I just worry about cooking them if use it when they are this young.

You can use it for sure. Just turn it down to 25-30% and mind the height.
I’m at 27 in from the my seedlings.
(Sf2000 at 30 % ).
:v::call_me_hand:

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Use that 200 30 inches up and dim it. Better spectrum. Can turn up till they respond with lateral instead of all vertical growth. Just my thoughts. Have to start them soft i think till they adjust. What has worked for me on auto. Only beans i drop now. Almost all clones for photo…well all clone photo at the moment. I am running 6/2 in clone/auto tent and they love it.

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Thanks to everyone.

Will I need to increase the watering frequency & amount with the bigger light?

Also, should I start it on the 18-6 hour light cycle?

yes, yes, and yes.

but you should water when your soil is dry. try to gauge it by weight when it is saturated. then when it’s lighter you will know it’s time to water. indoors in soil i’m typically watering twice a week

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Cool. I’ll move them over tonight after dinner.

I think for now, I’m going to keep them in these seedling cups and let them get a few more leaves before transplanting them into their permanent 50-50 coco-perlite mix.

Moved them over to the tent, topped up the soil, and gave them a little bit of water to moisten the new soil.

I set set the lamp 32” above the soil level in the pots because the tallest sprout is just over 2” tall. I dimmed the lamp about as low as I can get it. Im guessing ≈ 25%.

In the pictures, it’s seedling soil inside the coir pot and coco-perlite outside the coir pot. When they are big enough, I’ll just tear the coir pot off and take as much seedling mix with it as I can.


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Looking great. I would lower your light to 24" top of highest canopy.

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I just peaked in on them. They certainly have greened up a bit.

I think I’m going to leave them where they are at for a day and see how they adjust before dropping the light closer.

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Peaked in again this morning to water before work and they are looking better & they are all growing a second set of leaves now.

I dropped the light to 24” because the one photo looked like it’s still trying to stretch. It’s the last picture. You can see how it’s kinked over a little.




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One bit of advice, your seedling roots will penetrate or grow onto the sides and bottom of that peat cup. I left 2 in a similar cup that stated that these can be kept and placed in medium with the plant. It really impacted growth and harvest :love_you_gesture:

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Thanks.

My plan is to take the pots off in a couple weeks.

Checked on them tonight, after 24 hours in the tent with the grow light & they are doing fine. All sprouts have four leaves on them now.

Two sprouts still look like they are stretching a bit, so I turned the dimmer from ≈25% to ≈40% strength.

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This is after a day & a half in the tent. They definitely look like they are putting more effort into leaves.

Unless you all think otherwise, I think my crisis is over.

The white widow and golden leaf are the two that stretched the most.




They are definitely happier now. This is Sunday (before the move) vs. today on the white widow:


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Definitely getting greener by the day, looks like you topped of the medium to support the spindly stem from the stretching. Your call and grow, but I would get those out of those peat pots in a couple of days. They’re around day 4-5 above ground?

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