starting my northern lights and easy sativa

im about to start my northern lights and easy sativa grow. i plan on growing outdoors but starting them inside first so they dont die when theyre babies. i have a bunch of cfls, 4 soft white 26watters and 4 daylight 26 watters.


so i was wondering, right after i germinate them and drop them in the soil, do the lights have to go on? cause i heard they dont like light when they are babies (it will burn them or something, cant remember what i read) until they poke out of the soil .i also heard that you can do maybe 1 or 2 lights for a few days until they poke out of the ground. should i keep them off until they are above ground, only have a couple lights on, or should i just turn them all on right when i put them in the soil?

thanks

just turn them on?

wait sorry... are you confused or telling me thats what you think i should do?
sorry, im a little slow

herbtoker said:

sorry, im a little slow

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funny man i just bout pissed myself!!

yip turn them on, it wll help with thee start,also gives u a few day's to make shor things are running right!!!!

haha its true! im kind of a nerd, but not very street smart!

alright sounds good. ill post my journal in my signature, im sure it wont go very well considering its my first grow, but ive been using my nerdy skills to read everything i can find on how to grow and not kill everything.

if i start about 9 plants and want to have at least 1 or 2 good mother plants to clone from but really want to cut down on my electricity costs (yes, im a poor college kid) how long should i let them grow inside for? id hate to let them die outside but the cheaper there the better.

Hmm, I also wondered about this. I've read that people turn the lights on as soon as they plant them and I've also read that people put them in the dark until they sprout, then put 18/6 or 24/0 light on em.


I think either way you do it, it will work. I've tried it both ways and didn't see any difference in whether it did better in zero light or 100 percent light.

Hope that has helped any.

GrnMan said:

Hmm, I also wondered about this. I've read that people turn the lights on as soon as they plant them and I've also read that people put them in the dark until they sprout, then put 18/6 or 24/0 light on em.


I think either way you do it, it will work. I've tried it both ways and didn't see any difference in whether it did better in zero light or 100 percent light.

Hope that has helped any.

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great, thanks! ill let them get out of the ground and then give 'em light!
about how long after you germinate them is average for them to pop out?

Think all that depends on the strain. I've watched that green man video or whatever it's called they got all over youtube, his took like one day to sprout. That was with a good strain. Everything I've done so far has taken at least 3 days. Thats with bagseed.

GrnMan said:

Think all that depends on the strain. I've watched that green man video or whatever it's called they got all over youtube, his took like one day to sprout. That was with a good strain. Everything I've done so far has taken at least 3 days. Thats with bagseed.

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ok cool, thanks! ill let you know how it goes with a journal soon.

when i do decide to turn the lights on, should i do 24/0 or 18/6 or what do you think?
i was thinking kinda match it with sunrise/sunset, good idea or no?

Yea, again, I was in the same boat you were in. I got mixed answers on this as well. I've seen some go 24/0 for a week or so then switch to 18/6 and I've seen people go 18/6 all through veg.

I went 24/0 for about two days. Then went 18/6 to see if there was any difference. I don't think I held off long enough to see any results, but 18/6 has been working well for me so far. Seen lots of results within the last 4 days, major results, but a lot of other factors could play into this.

Just try what works best for you, but if you don't want to go 24/0 cuz of electricity ( we wanna be green right?) 18/6 should be ok.

yeah ill be green and save electricity while growing a plant that absorbs CO2!

ok, sounds good. ill go with 18/6 probably and see what happens. thanks!

cfls are not gonna conciderably raise your electric bill unless your using massive amounts of them. They're pretty cost effective. So its like Grnman said, you're gonna get mixed opinions whether it be 18/6 or 24/0 or whatever. I left my cfls on 24/0 until it was time to flower so im pretty sure either way will be fine... but anyway if the only thing keeping you from going 24/0 is the bill, i wouldn't worry about it. The more light the better...

Snowman said:

cfls are not gonna conciderably raise your electric bill unless your using massive amounts of them. They're pretty cost effective. So its like Grnman said, you're gonna get mixed opinions whether it be 18/6 or 24/0 or whatever. I left my cfls on 24/0 until it was time to flower so im pretty sure either way will be fine... but anyway if the only thing keeping you from going 24/0 is the bill, i wouldn't worry about it. The more light the better...

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ok cool. thanks snowman. do you turn them on when you put them in the soil or wait till they pop up?

From the day i put those little suckers under the soil I had the lights running... It may differ between strains, but im like 95% sure you can turn them on right away or wait till they sprout and it won't matter... I'm not all knowing by any means though, someone else might tell you different. I'm just telling you what worked for me. glad to help bra

Snowman said:

From the day i put those little suckers under the soil I had the lights running... It may differ between strains, but im like 95% sure you can turn them on right away or wait till they sprout and it won't matter... I'm not all knowing by any means though, someone else might tell you different. I'm just telling you what worked for me. glad to help bra

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thanks homie, ill let you know how it all goes.

Awesome, post up some pics if you can. Do you have a journal or are you gonna start one?

Snowman said:

Awesome, post up some pics if you can. Do you have a journal or are you gonna start one?

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i dont have one yet, but im gonna start one. ill try to get as many pics up as i can. i should be starting in about a month cause its still a little cold here where i live.

oh gotcha...