Ola, :]
had someone telling me yesterday, that he had grown from seed under a HPS.
Always used a CFL for the first 2 1/2 weeks of my grow, maybe a bit more if needed.
Never know why, what do others do? and why use a CFL over a HPS?
cheers
rSc

Tighter nodal distances when grown under CFL

It's much easier to use a CFL for seedlings - even a 250 watt HPS is a challenge - though I've done it a couple of times.

Click to view attachment

Pretty well impossible to singe yer seedlings with CFLs

Saves a few watts too - another good reason to start off in small pots and so fit under a smaller lamp.

I have to say I've been tempted once or twice to buy a small HPS - a 70 watt might well be almost as effective as the 145 watts of CFLs I currently use ... but in practice I use the lamp as a source of heat in the winter - so if I used a 70 watt HPS, my tube heater would need to be on more to compensate.

Having the light coming from one point definitely seems to have the edge after a couple of weeks ...

Yeah i used a 250 cfl for awhile and the node distance is lovely and tight.

A mate of mine grew from seed just using a 400mh, course he kept it far off, so they stretched quite abit.

Don't be fooled- i seem to have managed it 4-5cm - dont believe the hype about 'almost touching'

low heat may be but 4 x 20watt cfls still give enough heat off to hurt little seedlings!!

I'm guessing you didn't have a fan blowing on 'em ?

A thumb's width does it for me.

Or maybe you fed 'em ?

the fan i had pointing straight at them blew them over so i removed it and used a desk fan mounted on the wall...that is to say nailed. no food.

Your right though, it is likely down to lack of fannage.

In previous grows I used two fans to cover myself and create extra turbulence, but one of mine finally gave up the ghost this time.

I have to say, i've found this on my first grow, i use 4 x 20 watt cfls for seedlings and 1 plant has grown in all wierd directions trying to reach the nearest bulb. I'd say cfls or a week or two at most then put 'em under a metal halide or hps just for the reason that they seem to find it easier to grow in the unified direction of a single bulb.

me too - just fried my latest batch of seedlings - no fans in the mini box so they got cooked, may pull through now I've potted em on though