starting seeds under 600 watt hps

I recently tried to find out info on starting sprouts under a 600watt hps.I found conflicting answers,and decided to try for myself.i started some seeds in some rapid rooter plugs.when the sprouts were 1/4" tall i put them under the hps light.My light was almost 3 feet away,and my sprouts have taken off.
Why do people post what they dont know for fact.One post said "never start sprouts under hid lighting,it will burn them up"One post said "it might be ok just make sure the light is 4' away".another one said to start them off under floros and grow them out a bit.well under floros the sprouts try to stretch too much and almost always fall over.under the hid they dont try to stretch to the light because there is plenty of lumens.so if you are trying to mimick outdoor conditions then your seeds should start off like they would outside.You dont start seeds under a florecent light before you plant outside,so why would you do it for an indoor grow?
just my two cents

i do start mine under CFL's but earlier this year i started from seed under my 600w HPS, had to keep the light over 2,1/2 feet above my plants but it work very well, and i did not get all the stretching, that i was told id get under an HPS.

hey,

im literally brand new to all this so excuse my noobfag-ness. But I've started 3 off under a 600w HPS and after 7 days (since germination) they are all this big:

I can only assume that HPS is working okay? You can see how far from the light they are....

It all comes down to personal experience and thats why there are many conflicting answers...i had same prob as OP with all the different opinions and in the end i saw that it came down to how the grower makes use of whatever light he/she uses.....my lil input?

You have to realize that many factors are different between different grow areas. If your grow room is really hot, you may need to keep the lights either closer or further away in order to provide your plant with optimal growth. Some people have really good experiences with floros too. With the new High Output T5s, some people even successfully use fluorescents to flower their girls in a ScoG setup. Another factor that causes differint opinions is each person's different equipment quality and age. If somene buys an HPS light off eBay that's already a year or two old, their lights are giving off way less light than someone who bought the same model of HPS light brand new, or someone who bought new bulbs for their HPS. All these sort of differing factors cause people to give differing advice. Advice can be really helpful, but your best bet is to take cultivation advice with a grain of salt, and try to verify what works for you in your setup.

i don't know but i'm getting stretching from my 400hps, i even made a thread about it looking for people who veg with hps and had success. You say you have your light at 3 feet away, thats how far i have mine and i still get stretching, i just lowered to 26 inch, well see if this helps.

Your babies look good. im now day 19 and mine are 3.5 inches tall working on there 3rd set of true leaves.just watch your leafs and dont over fert.Oh and ive moved my light closer,but i also have a cooling intake fan that actually pulls air through my house central air return,basically 77 degree air being blown over the tops of my plants,allowing me to move closer.If you stick your hand at the hieght of your plant tops and your hand doesnt start to burn after a couple minutes you will be ok. if your arm burns to any degree you are to close especially for babies

if you have the extra room it's fine, waste of energy & light if that's all your using it for is seedlings.

Penni Walli said:

i don't know but i'm getting stretching from my 400hps, i even made a thread about it looking for people who veg with hps and had success. You say you have your light at 3 feet away, thats how far i have mine and i still get stretching, i just lowered to 26 inch, well see if this helps.

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As far as i know its not the hps that is causing the stretch.Its could be one of a few things.If your plants are in veg state then you should be able to put your 400 to almost 1-1.5 feet away with good ventilation to the light.This is one way to slow down stretch.
The temp of the nutes and root system are a factor as well.If the temps are a little high (close to 80 degrees) you will get stretch.If you can controll temps in the root zone (I.e. nutrient temps closer to 70 degrees )this is another way to slow stretching.
If its in the plants genes to grow tall. there is really nothing you can do short of toping and pruning.But its not because your using a hps versus a Mh.

wiseguy316 said:

if you have the extra room it's fine, waste of energy & light if that's all your using it for is seedlings.

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I get better results growing my seedlings under a hps so far, than any floro system ive seen.And noone ever said it was just for seedlings,but you got to start somewhere,not everyone gets to start with clones, and if you got the light why not use it

yo so can i put seed in soil under 400 watt hps will it work or to hot

weed1990 said:

yo so can i put seed in soil under 400 watt hps will it work or to hot

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depends what kind of ventilation you have homeslice. If your hood is glass sealed and air cooled, you get the light as close as you can without burning the plant and leaving a little room for the plant to stretch it's legs. very very simple sir...don't over think it. On a proper glass sealed air cooled hood, you should be able to touch the glass....just me 2cents

sweet thanks man

putting clones under HID lighting too early can cause wilting and in extreme cases death. seedlings can go right under a 1000 watts and be perfectly happy. i personally put my seedling and freshly rooted clones under a T5 fixture for a week or 2. clones need this transition period but i do it with seedlings because i dont think they can make much use of the additional light of the HID's until they have a bit of a root system. im sure you fella's already know this, hps will veg just fine but metal halide is more ideal... my in my experience plants tent to grow bushier under metal halides.

kane

Why not start your seeds under 23 watt cfls? So much more efficient. Starting under HID is just a waste of energy and light. CFLs keep the internodes on the seedlings really close together as well. CFLs can be cooled with only a small table fan.

I have a 600w but I start my seeds under CFLs and will start cloning under CFLs here pretty soon.

These are mine after 8 days under a 600w HPS.

Strain: Blue Dream x Snoops Dream
Medium : Botanicare Coco Coir W/ Growstone Gs2
Environment : 4x4x6.5 600wHPS 78° on 68° off and 55-60% RH
H20/NpK : 5.8pH 400ppm + 12-6-6 (30% strength) of my own homemade nutrient line I'm perfecting and about to release.

I start em under 24w LED. Why pay for 600w when 24w will do?
I go 24w LED propagation
approx. 100w LED Veg.
600W HPS flower