In article ,
General Schvantzkoph wrote:

I had a complete failure also. . . . Only a
few tomatoes sprouted and none of them have made it past the spindly
little shoot phase. I have two types of grow lights, 50W incandescents
which are 30" inches from the plants, and a florescent that is mounted in
a desk lamp that is about 10" from the plants.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to square this up but in the mean
time, everything I've read about grow lights says to get them down as
close as possible to the germination trays, without actually touching
the plants. For safeties' sake, don't get closer than an inch or two to
the plant or, you may fry it (a real disappointing part of the learning
curve:(.

Once the plants are germinated and leafed-out, you can pull the plug on
the hot pad (Low).

- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)