Seedlings and Rooting

I am soon to be a first time grower and am trying to work out a couple of lighting situations. I plan to use a HPS fixture for the flowering stage and flourecent for the rooting stage. I don't think I will have enough cash up front for the MH bulb, so I will most likely be using the HPS for the vegitation stage as well.

My question regards the the seedlings and rooting stage. I am going to be using cups and soil to start. During this stage how long is my flourecent bulb on for? Can I run them on 18-24hours like the vegitation stage, or do i run 12/12 like the flowering. And how close should this bulb be to my soil tops.

Thanks for the help,

Steve

Hey DALARAN,

An HPS light will be fine for both stages. You should make sure you have good ventilation so that you can keep the light close to your plants without burning them.

you can keep fluorescents 2-4 inches away from seedlings... especially if you have a fan running gently in the room.. the plants should me moving just a BIT...

yes, run the fluorescents for 18-24 hours....

when you introduce the HPS, you should check on the plants every 30 minutes for the first couple days... just to make sure you are not burning the foliage... which is common with HPS bulbs and new growers.. start with the light 30 inches away from your plants andmove it closer to your plants every day.. maybe 1-4 inches every day..

have the fan blowing the air between your plants and the light at an angle UPWARD!

iloveyou

Yeah, I ran my seeds under a multi spectrum 40 watt flourescent bulb for the first three weeks before transplanting

hi i'm a up and coming new grower and i wanted to
know what Watt strength would get me through both i want the most powerful at the smallest size i only want to harvest 3 plants or so have 3 in the veg room and 3 in my flowering room

thanks for the help guys! straight forward and to the point! what more could u want? im sure you will find me as the thread starter of a few more around these boards by the time im done.

thanks agian,

steve