Seedling stretch ( I read the sticky)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

000StankDank000

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2014
Messages
1,587
Reaction score
23
So I know that light to far away or not enough light will cause stretch. Some strains stretch etc. I am growing Fire OG and it's under a 1000 MH and I'm worried about stretch.
View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1420052934.118531.jpg
Do they look ok or should I move em to hear?
View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1420052957.977653.jpg
They are indica so I don't want tall and lanky? LST my best option?
I also have 5 sativa but they don't seem to be stretching as bad
View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1420053020.820137.jpg

Just looking for input yes I can't leave them alone. You know ounce masterbation has lost it's fun ........

So what would be best action from the Guru 's
 
I only see one stretching. It seems to be reaching for light. Using a 1 k mh on such small plants will have that effect. If you put it close enough that they dont stretch, you will burn them. This is not the worst thing that you could have happen, if it really gets out of hand you can re pot them and bury half of the stem. Consider getting a 4 bulb t5 for your seedlings.
 
Thanks lesso to help ease my racing mind. I do not have any good smoke at this time :( and my mind tends to race and drives me nuts. So I just like some input from other growers as I can not talk to anyone in my real life. It's fun to play pretend .

So no ill effects from burying the stem to much?

The pic you see with Hightimes pics behind it is a T5 4 bulb setup I use for seedlings. I just wanted to run one light now. So I was trying to see if I could get away with the babies under the MH. I am not seeing any real ill effects .

Think I will keep under the MH. I just topped the biggest one in the second pic and plan on topping the others when they hit that height.


I wanna LST my bigger girls that are in veg to try and get them bushier .
 
I only see one stretching. It seems to be reaching for light. Using a 1 k mh on such small plants will have that effect. If you put it close enough that they dont stretch, you will burn them. This is not the worst thing that you could have happen, if it really gets out of hand you can re pot them and bury half of the stem. Consider getting a 4 bulb t5 for your seedlings.

:yeahthat:

I would never switch back to vegging with anything but an HO T5 or a good LED light. I get very little stretch and not a lot of heat output with the HO T5's.
 
HO T-5 rock, you can put them right on the dam plants. I just ordered some 12 lamp fixtures for my new veg room
 
Yes the T5 lights was the first lights I started to grow with. It did a good job vegging my plants but I need the heat from the MH for the heat in my space.

I guess I need to be more patient and keep em under the T5 longer then go MH
 
A decent HO-T-5 fixture can take them all the way to flower, easy.

The only (MINOR) damage I've ever had them do is when my plant's leafs were literally TOUCHING the tube for 8+ hours.

I'd throw some "100w" CFL spirals in if you need heat.
Or some old-school incandescents can dump plenty of heat but wont last too long.
 
The thing about seedling stretching is you can bury the stem up to the first set of leaves when you transplant. I do love me some t5's haven't seen my MH since.
 
The thing about seedling stretching is you can bury the stem up to the first set of leaves when you transplant. I do love me some t5's haven't seen my MH since.

Right rose, I'll take the savings and heat reduction any day, and the ability to tweak the spectrum is a plus.
 
So you guys would run T5 the whole Veg?
Just use a mix of blue and orange spectrum bulbs?
 
:yeahthat:

I would never switch back to vegging with anything but an HO T5 or a good LED light. I get very little stretch and not a lot of heat output with the HO T5's.
Truth.
 
So you guys would run T5 the whole Veg?
Just use a mix of blue and orange spectrum bulbs?

I use mine until i transplant into thier final pot. About two to four weeks in to veg. T5 is great until the plant gets too tall. I like hid lighting for its penetrative properties. I see nothing for you to worry about here.
 
So you guys would run T5 the whole Veg?
Just use a mix of blue and orange spectrum bulbs?

I have always run all blue tubes til now. I have a 4' 4 bulb T5 that has all blue tubes in it and a 2' double tube, also blue tubes. However, I am now in a small cabinet that is 36 x 20 (5 sq ft), so the 4' one would not fit and the smaller one was only 10,000 lumens, so I went shopping. I purchased a 2' 12 tube T5 with 8 blue bulbs and 4 red bulbs to see how it does (I had a choice of bulbs). So far, I am very very happy with the light. It puts out 30,000 lumens and takes up a space about 24" x 18". But the best thing was the cost--$125 shipped to my door!
 
congrats on the new purchase THG.

Yes, i veg throughout with T5s.
 
This is interesting . I wanna get another tent 5x5 for flower and use my 4x4 for veg. That's means I would need a new veg light was gonna go 600watt MH but a big HO T5 might be a better choice.

The LED ones still big coin?
 
Don't know if I said it, but yes, I veg all the way through with T5s, too. I bought my first T5 many years ago and have not looked back. I gave my 400W MH to someone else. Yes, the LEDs are still quite a bit more than other lighting, though it is getting better and I anticipate that the prices will continue to get better and better until they are actually comparable to HID. I really wanted to try out an LED in my little tent (7 sq ft), but was still looking at over $300. I got a 2' 12 tube T5 for $125 (just couldn't justify the difference in cost this time of year Christmas, property taxes, income/FICA taxes, and winter!) and put it into a 5 sq ft cabinet I transformed for growing. A 4' 12 bulb fixture would be great for a 4 x 4 tent. You can get away with an 8 tube fixture, but if you can swing more light, it will be better. The larger T5 fixtures usually have switches so you can run 4, 8, or 12 bulbs. One of the advantages to the T5 is that you put them right down on top of the canopy so that you do not have the light disbursement that you get with other lights that need to be hung higher. You may find that a larger T5 will probably put out enough heat to keep your vegging space warm enough.

I LOVE having separate vegging and flowering spaces. When we started growing indoors seriously (1998), we set up separate spaces from the get-go as we had tons of room and I was making decent money. Now it is hard to image not having separate spaces. If you have the time, space, and money, I think you would LOVE 2 spaces, especially since you now have "The Passion".
 

Latest posts

Back
Top