how close do I put lights above the seeds?

I am very new at this....I have all my seeds, soil, grow lights, heat mat, thermostat, etc. Now I am ready. The only question I still have (at least for now :) is When I am germinating the seeds, how close do I put the light over the seeds, if at all. I know once they germinate, I put it about 2" above the seedling, but I do not know about when it is just a seed. Thanks to any help I can get!!

2" is just fine. Keep them that close as they grow.

Thanks so much for your help. I have them up and going....now I just have to say a prayer!!

Do you have covers on your seeds cause if you don't you'll have to keep a close watch over them to make sure they don't dry out, sounds like you are doing a good job!

Thanks LeBug, yes, I have covers on them. I have so much germinating right now it is beautiful. I feel like I am having more babies again....and I have had four of them! My only problem right now is with my peppers. The seeds are still attached to the plant and the roots have a lot of white stuff on them....I might have been keeping them too damp. Now they are under the lights and I have turned on a fan to increase circulation...hope they are not going to die. Several of my plants still have large seeds attached to them adn it is "weighing" them down. I do not know if I should try and take them off or if this will kill them. So much to learn and do I feel like I am very nerve racked right now!, but it is fun! Thanks again.

Your fan sounds good for the white stuff if that is mold, soon as you trans plant I would gently wash the roots with like a tbls. spoon of peroxide in about 16 oz. of water just to make sure they are alright and your seed attached to the leaves you can mist them let the sead soak and sooner or later it will come off, a lot of my plants will keep the seed on until I cut the first set of leaves off when I transplant them, tomatoes and peppers are good for this :) If that is your peppers that are being weighed down with the seed left on it won't hurt them a lot of times I leave mine on until I transplant them then cut them off with the leaves because they should have their true leaves by then :)

Thank you so much. I am trying so hard and I keep thinking I am doing something wrong.I am attaching a pic of seeds that I am talking about to show you what I mean. I will send you another pic in another email. My peppers, black eye susan vines (annual) and onions are all doing this. Thanks again....your info is encouraging!

Here is another pic....so you are sure even though the first pic I sent you, the plant is laying down on the soil that it is alright? I have two others in there too and will thin them down to one anyway. Thanks again.

What does the stem of the plant look like? does it look like it's dying at the soil or a little above it you may have dampning off and that's not a good thing, is your soil real wet still? I can't really tell by the pictures :) That's not good that they are laying down though, just look at the stem and see what it looks like.

Looks like your stems are alright in your other tray at the bottom is alright unless I'm just not seeing anything but pick your seedling up and put some dirt around them be real careful maybe you can lean them up and tuck some dirt around them, from what I can see, I'm zoome in on them so I could see better I keep forgetting I can do that.

I think you just may have not planted them deep enough, though the peppers do get planted on top of the soil, I just planted some but the root usually goes down in the dirt then the top part goes up :) How deep did you plant your black eyed susan vine seeds? About 1/4"?

LeBug....thanks for your feedback...well, I am definitely learning alot along the way. Thankfully all of my plants have survived the germination process! I now know that my problem was not putting the seed in well enough in the dirt so the roots were higher than they should have been. Now, all are in the soil, all the seed caps are gone and they have their first set of true leaves. I feel much better now! thanks again for your help.

Your welcome izzygirl, I want to see some picture when they get a little bigger :) Happy Growing! 8^)

Hi, I am a newbie too and had a question on your heating light. Where did you get yours? Is there one that is better than others?

I planted tomato seeds about 5 weeks ago and they still only have two leaves. I am thinking they are not getting enough light in my kitchen. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi welcome! I just buy the hoods at home depot and I'm just using regular shop lights, do you have a place to set lights up? You can get the regular plant lights too they will say full spectrum on them, I like those but I have too many lights to buy :)

Berrywrap, hi there...I am happy to hear from another newbie!! The lights I bought were just two bulb, four feet shop lights. I have eight of them going right now and I keep them pretty close to the top of the plant. I know alot of people say to use grow lights, but I have just used one cool white and one warm white bulb which are much less than the grow lights. I heard this would work too and so far it is doing great. Everything is comming along so beautiful, it is very exciting! Keep in touch and let me know how it goes!!

So called "grow lights" are not needed, IMHO they're another rip off. Shop lights work just as well. You did fine!