LED light intensity

I'm new to growing with a cob led fixture. I'm a little concerned about some seedlings a friend of mine has in my box. While it seems that they are experiencing a little stress from being transplanted into soil, all 6 of them appear droopy.

How intense should the light be? I've got a 200w citizen cob light from Timber and when the seedlings got stretchy, they came to me that way actually, I lowered the light to about 12" to 14" and turned up the intensity to about 100w from about 50w to try and combat the stretch.

I've got two seedlings that are mine that are growing slowly and a little stretchy but not too much. They aren't droopy at all. I'm trying to eliminate issues with my friend's seedlings as they all seem to be reacting differently than mine.

Water has been very light but regular. Temps have been from 72 to 85f. I've got a seedling heat mat in the box to keep soil temps up.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Are you using 4000k? 3000k? 3500k?

They shouldn't be droopy at the original 14" 50w so I'd be hesitant about blazing the sun over head. When you say they had a transplant, was it just from paper towel? Honestly, you'll need to show pics of what you mean by droopy cuz it sounds like they're less than a week old.

You'e done the right thing lowering the light and upping the wattage.
Any pics would be helpful

Viceman666 said:

Are you using 4000k? 3000k? 3500k?

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3500K

psychedelicdaddi said:

They shouldn't be droopy at the original 14" 50w so I'd be hesitant about blazing the sun over head. When you say they had a transplant, was it just from paper towel? Honestly, you'll need to show pics of what you mean by droopy cuz it sounds like they're less than a week old.

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They were in those pod things. You stick a seed in and it germinates. I left the pod intact and just put it in the cup with soil. Pic coming.

Moflow said:

You'e done the right thing lowering the light and upping the wattage.
Any pics would be helpful

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Thanks. I've been growing a while but just clones so the seedling thing, indoors anyway, is a little stressful as I've not done it since the 70's. I'll get a couple pics.

Thanks folks..

I measured with a par meter under 5 cobs around 110 wall watts 2ft away from sensor reads 300 umols, if that helps

Think we call them expandables here, the wee peat pucks you soak and they quadruple in size.
I'm in the same boat with doing clones and just the odd seed. I usually bury the stretchy stems.

Here's a pic. My next course of action was to be to get them in 1-gallon pots and soil up the stems so they aren't leaning over but when I saw them stressed, they look marginally better today, I decided to hold off stressing them any further.

Moflow said:

I measured with a par meter under 5 cobs around 110 wall watts 2ft away from sensor reads 300 umols, if that helps

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That's cool...thank you. I've got 4 cobs on my fixture though but it's all good. I turned down the light a little and upped the height just as a precaution.

They should be ok prop them up with a lollipop stick

shite, you let them get too dry and they had too little light where they germinated.

I keep repeating this, use 23W CFL or 10W LED bulbs in cold white about 2 inches away to light new germs.

ANC said:

shite, you let them get too dry and they had too little light where they germinated.

I keep repeating this, use 23W CFL or 10W LED bulbs in cold white about 2 inches away to light new germs.

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I didn't germ them, they came as you see them. As I said, they belong to a buddy of mine who grows outdoors and just needed a place to put his seedlings for a couple of weeks. Thanks though..

giantsfan24 said:

I didn't germ them, they came as you see them. As I said, they belong to a buddy of mine who grows outdoors and just needed a place to put his seedlings for a couple of weeks. Thanks though..

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My advice will be to not let the leaves touch the ground.. they will die..

I sub the advice to bury them up higher in soil + staking.

Just stake them and get the lighting in order...
Burying them is asking for stem rot at that young tender age and there is no way those cups are root bound. (We flower plants in cups after all)
No more transplants till they are big and strong

I would use some bamboo skewers and stake em up for awhile.. It would be a delicate transplant at best...

HydoDan said:

I would use some bamboo skewers and stake em up for awhile.. It would be a delicate transplant at best...

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That's the idea I was looking for. Thank you!

I wonder if those still have roots.
I'd burn a few more holes in the bottom and sides for water to get out, then soak those whole cups, and put them on something they can drain through.
Don't water again until they are dry, should be about a week or so.

repot them and bury those stems.

Get a blurple and let them recover. Once they are decent size then give them the white light.

Seedlings are most happy under 20-50 umols usually. 300 for veg and increase from there as the plant will take it. You can tell when you hit the max (eg DLI) once the leaves start to droop towards the end of the lights on cycle.

Before the hate, recovering seedlings is an actual good use for a blurple and may do a better job than white phosphors. The extra heat may help increase plant metabolism. That is my theory anyhow.