Seedlings drooping, too stetched?

Not A Game

Well-Known Member
Being a noob grower you can only imagine I am a little paranoid and want to get this done right. I have 6 plants. One is a little taller than the rest and a little droopy. So I ask, are these seedlings droopy and too stretched? Also how far from my light should seedlings be? I have a 400W HPS at about 3 1/2 feet away. I know they're more susceptible to burning at this age, which they are only 4 days old. Also using a "bubbleponics" system. I cut the water last night. They're still wet now in the morning so I figure I was overwatering them.

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slonez47

Active Member
Being a noob grower you can only imagine I am a little paranoid and want to get this done right. I have 6 plants. One is a little taller than the rest and a little droopy. So I ask, are these seedlings droopy and too stretched? Also how far from my light should seedlings be? I have a 400W HPS at about 3 1/2 feet away. I know they're more susceptible to burning at this age, which they are only 4 days old. Also using a "bubbleponics" system. I cut the water last night. They're still wet now in the morning so I figure I was overwatering them.

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They're stretching for sure. I used a 125watt CFL about nine inches above mine to veg and it works great.
 

wheels619

Well-Known Member
probably to much water. are u giving them any nutes yet?
the hps will make them stretch more so than an mh or even cfls will just becuz of the color spectrum. i was rockin a 1000 hps that was about 18 inches or so above them. but with glass and a canfan to vegg mine. came out pretty awesome so far about 2 feet tall now at 7 weeks and bushy as hell for not being topped. try moving the light closer. give it a better footprint. just be careful not to burn them babies up. do the hand test. if the back of ur hand gets uncomfortably warm ur too close. lol.
 

wheels619

Well-Known Member
They're stretching for sure. I used a 125watt CFL about nine inches above mine to veg and it works great.
cfls are a lot cooler than an hps. be careful not to burn them with the hps. cfls would be ur best bet for vegg right now.
 

moash

New Member
they look fine....
put a breeze in there to strengthen the stalks and get a mh bulb for this phase of growth...
 

Not A Game

Well-Known Member
Gotta work with what I got unfortunately. I guess I'll try moving them a little closer. Haven't added nutes yet. Was told not until they have 4 new leaves not including the 2 round ones. Was this good advice? I also plan to use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow and later the bloom version. The guy at the hydro store recommended this to me as a noob. Less susceptible to nute burn than other brands he said. I've seen around here that people like it as well.
 

wheels619

Well-Known Member
Gotta work with what I got unfortunately. I guess I'll try moving them a little closer. Haven't added nutes yet. Was told not until they have 4 new leaves not including the 2 round ones. Was this good advice? I also plan to use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow and later the bloom version. The guy at the hydro store recommended this to me as a noob. Less susceptible to nute burn than other brands he said. I've seen around here that people like it as well.
it was good advice. when u start give the, 1/4th strength for about a week then up the dosage to 1/2 strength for about 4-7 days then full strength depending on the size of the plant by then.
heard good stuff about the nutes u r using. harder than most others to screw up. lol.

oh and add some sort of airflow over them nothing to crazy tho. it will help strengthen the stalks like moash stated.
 

slonez47

Active Member
Gotta work with what I got unfortunately. I guess I'll try moving them a little closer. Haven't added nutes yet. Was told not until they have 4 new leaves not including the 2 round ones. Was this good advice? I also plan to use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow and later the bloom version. The guy at the hydro store recommended this to me as a noob. Less susceptible to nute burn than other brands he said. I've seen around here that people like it as well.
If you use a medium that has sufficient nute you won't need to feed for a month or more. Just watch your plants. Lower leaf problems generally mean a mobile nute problem. Learn to recognize the little changes and make small adjustments and then just let her do her thing.
 

*BUDS

Well-Known Member
What droop? they look good, dont worry under the 400w the nodes will tighten as they grow,hps can stretch plants a little more than mh. Put the light 2 1/2 feet away and most important dont overwater.
 

Not A Game

Well-Known Member
What about this one now. It has one drooping and one sticking straight up. A couple of them are like this. A little blurry.

DSC00050.jpg
 

*BUDS

Well-Known Member
With the 400w you can have it 12" away once they are growing so 3 1/2 feet is too far , bring it down to 2-2 1/2 feet and see if they like that.
 

Not A Game

Well-Known Member
With the 400w you can have it 12" away once they are growing so 3 1/2 feet is too far , bring it down to 2-2 1/2 feet and see if they like that.
I have it at 2 feet now. Just stacked it on top of another bin lol. Gonna pick up some of those adjustable grow light hanger things soon.
 

Undercover Cop

Active Member
They're streching trying to reach the light, but not getting enough of the energy to actually grow very well. I just started up again after about 10yrs, and had forgotten all my techniques. I got some bad advise, and after I first germinated a few, I kept the lights too far away (was told to let them get used to the world before blasting them with any light) so they used all the energy contained within the seed to stretch as far as they could towards the light, then 4 of 8 spontaneously died (Im assuming they were just exhausted trying to reach the light and were just spent) and the remaining 4 were stunted and never fully recovered, after a month they were still spindly and I had to kill em off to make room. Since then Ive been starting my seeds into rockwool, once the seed is in the hole I gently pinch the rockwool closed over it so it can push through and sprout just like in nature. And I give em full strength 6500k cfl light at about 3" right off the bat. They push through short and fat, with thick strong stems and stay squatty and bushy, about half as tall as your seedlings with 4 internodes already. The proper temp light (6500k) and strong intensity will promote short bushy growth, HPS temp (2100k) will encourage stretching. I understand financial restraints, but a few 26w cfl's will do much better than your 400w HPS simply due to the color temp. Your 400w will kick ass once they've been able to veg for a couple weeks. But for now, they're babies and you gotta baby em, I'd reccomend a few $7 GE 26w cfl's for now, and make a reflector for em with cardboard and aluminum foil, or a reflector w socket are $7 at home depot. The nute advise is good, use 1/4 strength until you can see visible growth and new leaves developing, then slowly increase the strength until they're established. If youre using a bubbler you wont have to worry about overwatering, overwatering is simply oxygen deprivation. If you have sufficient air bubbles in your solution your roots cant drown, eventually your roots will grow into the solution and be constantly underwater, but the bubbles will let them breathe. I see you're in rockwool plugs with hydroton surrounding. Fill your reservoir until the water level is about midway up the plug, and let it get down to the very bottom of the plugs or a little below before refilling. Hydroton doesnt wick water very well so if the level is below your rockwool, it can dry out (will take a while though because the inside of your bubbler is very humid and the rockwool will absorb moisture from the air inside for awhile)
 

Not A Game

Well-Known Member
They're streching trying to reach the light, but not getting enough of the energy to actually grow very well. I just started up again after about 10yrs, and had forgotten all my techniques. I got some bad advise, and after I first germinated a few, I kept the lights too far away (was told to let them get used to the world before blasting them with any light) so they used all the energy contained within the seed to stretch as far as they could towards the light, then 4 of 8 spontaneously died (Im assuming they were just exhausted trying to reach the light and were just spent) and the remaining 4 were stunted and never fully recovered, after a month they were still spindly and I had to kill em off to make room. Since then Ive been starting my seeds into rockwool, once the seed is in the hole I gently pinch the rockwool closed over it so it can push through and sprout just like in nature. And I give em full strength 6500k cfl light at about 3" right off the bat. They push through short and fat, with thick strong stems and stay squatty and bushy, about half as tall as your seedlings with 4 internodes already. The proper temp light (6500k) and strong intensity will promote short bushy growth, HPS temp (2100k) will encourage stretching. I understand financial restraints, but a few 26w cfl's will do much better than your 400w HPS simply due to the color temp. Your 400w will kick ass once they've been able to veg for a couple weeks. But for now, they're babies and you gotta baby em, I'd reccomend a few $7 GE 26w cfl's for now, and make a reflector for em with cardboard and aluminum foil, or a reflector w socket are $7 at home depot. The nute advise is good, use 1/4 strength until you can see visible growth and new leaves developing, then slowly increase the strength until they're established. If youre using a bubbler you wont have to worry about overwatering, overwatering is simply oxygen deprivation. If you have sufficient air bubbles in your solution your roots cant drown, eventually your roots will grow into the solution and be constantly underwater, but the bubbles will let them breathe. I see you're in rockwool plugs with hydroton surrounding. Fill your reservoir until the water level is about midway up the plug, and let it get down to the very bottom of the plugs or a little below before refilling. Hydroton doesnt wick water very well so if the level is below your rockwool, it can dry out (will take a while though because the inside of your bubbler is very humid and the rockwool will absorb moisture from the air inside for awhile)
Quite a read there lol :p My plants are top fed via feeding tubes pumping water directly into the rockwool cubes so no need to fill the rez that much. As you can see here:

DSC00040.jpg

Guess I'll have to invest in some more equipment. Particularly vegging lights ;)
 

Undercover Cop

Active Member
Quite a read there lol :p My plants are top fed via feeding tubes pumping water directly into the rockwool cubes so no need to fill the rez that much. As you can see here:

View attachment 1873054

Guess I'll have to invest in some more equipment. Particularly vegging lights ;)
The setup looks good, and the hps wil do wonders for flowering, just get a few cfl's for seedling stage. Hps (2100k) will work, but 6500k is optimal = peak daylight in summer. Cfl's are pretty cheap to set up since your babies are still small. 3/4 cfls at 7$ each (I recommend GE mini's) and make your own reflector. Check my grow log (sig) for ideas :)
 
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