How are you guys Harding plants off? When I take my seedlings from a small light to a large one they get so stressed every time

In my experence, they need nearly full light within 24 hours or they stretch. The only reason i use a smaller light early is to save electricity while covering a much smaller 10"x20" area with light. Within 24-48 hours they are receiveing the same DLI they'll get when i swap in the bigger light after potting up. soil temp/air temp can impact amount of stretching you see, too. Keep vpd near 1 and it'll grow fast assuming all other things are at least competently done, too. there's recommendations and then there is real life. The plant's behaviour in front of you is the most important thing. Observe and react to the reality playing out. Yes, reviewing environmental variables and improving them as best you can will help too and may even change your expectations of early behaviour.. may find it becomes more related to the generalized recommendations you hear most. Anecdote and more so research based recommendations are merely a good starting point. Observe and adjust... try not to change too many things at once to recognize what the effect is.

I blast them with the big light at max power straight from day one and have never had a problem. Small lights are for clones.

genetics play a big role some babies just handle the light better. I usually start under softer light (around 200–250 µmol) for the first few days, then ramp up slowly to 400+. The key is not shocking them keep temps steady, good airflow, and raise PPFD little by little each day

The plant is gonna like what the plant likes. So many folks want to paint with broad brushes when the biggest wildcard in their grow rooms is the fact that they don't seriously attempt to be consistent. The simplest way to look at this is what NOT to do. Stress a seedling? Throw it in the trash. Don't stress a seedling? Get giga-fire exotic vigorous explosion of veg growth, that we all love. Are you settled with every piece of equipment you have? Have you broken them all down to nuts and bolts and cleaned them 10 dozen times by now? If you are able to walk into your rooms, lights off, and break down everything in utter darkness and rebuild it....then have tried making the plant portion specific? Folks popping beans and talking about consistency is like me talking about my sobriety while cooking crack while smoking crack. It is utter nonsense. When you are ready for consistency on the plant side, you attack everything from only ever cloning (nothing else for serious growing) to you cut angles to cytokin deficits you create with solution to growing that same girl out a dozen ways all the way to even manually validating that your microbiome is consistent across runs. Consistency is perfection in this case....it is an ideal, that even the most advanced rooms with the most demonstrable experts toy with their shortcomings in... Until you're at that point, you simply aren't at that point.

Are all 8 metrics of growth optimal? Does seedling have early access to P? Are you providing antoxidants to assist in the photoprotection of the photosynthetic apparatus under high light intensities ? Is your soil composition/compaction optimal for growth and root penetration? You can just pop her in and hope for the best or you can apply the knowledge you have to better facilitate each process optimizing 1 by 1, slowly but surely. "OH who cares, hardly going to make a difference" One peek at my latest diary should give you enough of an idea how much difference all those tiny .05% differences make when you add them and alot of others up. Results speak for themselves. I'll keep my 4 views a week. Have a lovely day.

Never had this problem, you want to have the light high then bring it lower or do the se with the settings,, obviously giving the same amount of light then increase with increments in till the plants can handle max power lol..

Historically I always like everyone else placed 99% of my focus on daytime photosynthesis. Once I started to optimize the nights I noticed a marked difference in how much carbon the plant was converting. Keeping temps a toasty 80f will optimize the enzymes that are responsible for final stage of atp production called oxidative phosphorylation. Plants enjoy oxygen at night, the amount of oxygen in the air effects the cellular respiration of roots. Hih moisture levels (high relative humidity) mean less oxygen in the same space. Vpd is almost useless at night. Plant needs to get rid of water at night. The higher moisture level of the air the greater the resistance there is to add more moisture to the air. 80F 45-55rh at nights and hold. Link rh to exhaust for a solid negative pressure. Daytime 86-88f with 70rh%. Keeping rh high indoors will lower cellular respiration . Photosynthesis is responsible for capturing all the carbon but only processes 10% of it into functional chemical energy in form of atp. Cellular respiration converts the other 90%. If you are not giving the plant the conditions and time it needs to get done what it needs done then you are severely limiting the energy conversion potential. She is a plant, a energy processing plant, treat her accordingly. A plant left to grow at its own leasuire at its own pace will develop beautifully woth not a blemish. A world champion will be grown with discipline and stress, pushed to the limits. People seem to think it'd all genetics but it's far more complex than I've seen anyone give it credit for. This is just a olace for hobby growers after all so, just add calmag hope for best.