Help,1st grow

[Lizard13]

Iv germinated my 1st couple of seeds. Im going to put them in root riot cubes . Do i put them under my 600w dimmable digital ballast now or do i wait untill the 1st round leafs appear

[alltatup]

Lizard, I use the root riots turned upside down in a germination tray with a dome on a germination low heat pad. They usually sprout in 48 hours. As soon as I see the seedling emerging, I put them under the light.

[Dr.Moggs]

Root riot cubes are great ! I always use them to germinate.

I dont use any wet paper like many else. I just pop my seed in the cube. I soak the cube and then squeeze it to get the right amount of water.

Its will help your seedlings if you make dont only water the cube from above. Make sure the bottompart is at least as moist as the top.

Good luck !

[Chefbjy]

Welcome to the show. If you can start them under cfls it makes for faster growth. I usually put mine under the big light after 14 days of cfls if they're growing fast.

[Dr.Moggs]

Interesting, why do you wait ?
I put mine under full spectrum 600 W after 5 days from popping them in the cube.
I'm growing autos, maby they can take it better

[Chefbjy]

I use hid lighting 1000 watt and 600 watt which is too much light for seedlings. There's a lot of wasted energy with as high as you have to start these lights. And young plants can only photosythesize so much light. Leds may be fine but hid lighting is different.

The real vegetation begins when they have more the one set of leaves, this is when growth tips begin to form. They grow considerably fast under cfls for the first 2 weeks. Then I put them under the hid raised at 24 inches. You can take a peak at my seedlings after 11 days in the dark harvest grow challenge 😉.

[Dr.Moggs]

Thanks for that explanation.
I put my seedlings under the light early for almoast the same reason, save energy.

I only have 600 W LED lights and if feels unnecessary to start one light only for my seedlings. I also want to keep temperature down so one less heatsource is good

I place my seedlings on the floor of my growroom where I have another grow going. When they get big enough I place them in their own tent with their own light.

I'll think about getting some CFL

[Sheesh]

CFLs and T5s are great for seedling but it's fine to use LED or HID if that is what you have. I germinate with Rapid Rooters in a propagator until they are a couple of inches tall then they go in the tent under LED. I run my LED at around 32" above the seedlings for the first few days. Dimmable digital ballast sounds like MH/HPS. You can run the strength low and the light high but I don't have direct experience with HID lighting so see what the light maker and other growers have to say about the height.