Stems that don’t appear to thicken and color as the plant grows.Very thin stems, not much thicker than a piece of thread thinner than a length of string. Long stems, much longer than they should be for the type of seedling you are growing.Instead of growing stout stems and beginning to form close to the soil line, the little plants shoot up and grow long, lanky, thin, stems that are unable to support leaves, foliage, and mature plant development. Legginess is when seedlings grow far too tall and cannot support proper growth and development. At the very least, it’s usually worth trying, unless that legginess has just gone too far. Catch and Correct Legginess and Have a Great Gardening Yearįortunately, the answer is usually “Yes.” With a little effort, leggy seedlings can be saved in most cases.Correcting Legginess in Older Transplants.Keep Conditions Right to Stop (and Prevent) Leggy Growth.Know when it’s okay to pot up seedlings.Potting Up is the Best Way to Correct Leggy Seedlings.The question, when you do, becomesĬan I save these leggy seedlings? There is a way to save tall and leggy seedlings, even if they are thinner and leggier than the tomatoes pictured here. Whether you are brand new to seed starting or you are an experienced seed starter, at some point, you are likely to run up against this problem. It is one of the most common problems when starting seeds indoors. It will work eventually.Legginess happens to the best of us. Kale of all sorts grow under grow lights for 16 hours per day.ĭon’t give up, gardenerds. Lab soil tests solve the mystery in most cases. We’ve had clients who purchased soil and seedlings mixes that tested excessively high in potassium and other elements that stunted growth. If none of these tips work, check your planting medium. Water again with kelp emulsion two weeks later. This will help carry them along their next stage of growth. Water with kelp emulsion (and fish emulsion if you use it) to keep plants happy until you transplant them up to 4″ pots.įeed them Again – when you transplant seedlings to 4″ pots to continue growing a few more weeks, mix compost and worm castings into the potting soil. Even if you add worm castings or compost to your seedling mix before starting seeds, the plants will use up those nutrients within a couple weeks of sprouting and will need more food before long. So you must feed your babies as they grow. If your seedlings sit in a swamp (especially if you see moss start to grow) they will not perform well.įeed the Babies – seed starting mix is almost always comprised of peat moss or coir and perlite, neither of which have any nutrient content. Allow seed trays to dry down a bit before adding more water. Roots need oxygen in order to process nutrients and to grow. If we become overzealous with watering, plants become unhappy in this condition we call “wet feet”. Over Watering – Seed trays are often designed with a water reservoir that situates roots in direct contact with water as they grow. While it can be a mystery as to why this happens, here are a few things to check: Sometimes seedlings stop growing or hardly grow at all from the get-go. Run it for 10-15 minutes per day to fortify stems against the wind. Blow on your seedlings every day, or install an oscillating fan. Make it Windy – plants also need a little stress to develop strong stems. Anything further away will cause legginess as the plants reach for the light source. Location is Everything – grow lights should sit no more than 3″ above the leaves of seedlings. If you leave the lights on all the time, it messes with plants’ circadian rhythm and can stunt growth as well. Plants need darkness to restore, just like we do. So it doesn’t matter if we’re home or not.ĭarkness is also Important. We use a vacation lamp timer to turn our lights on at 6 a.m. Because grow lights don’t replicate the sun’s rays completely, it’s important to leave grow lights on long enough to do the sun’s job in an artificial environment. Timing–or rather–time, is everything when it comes to grow lights. Photo courtesy of Sarah The Gardener in NZ. Spindly Seedlings Long stems with big spaces between leaf sets is an indicator of legginess. Let’s address the first issue: spindly seedlings. The other gardenerd said her seedlings were just not growing. One gardenerd said her seedlings were still leggy, even though she situated the grow light 2-3″ above the leaves. This week we received two questions about the same problem: spindly or stunted seedlings under grow lights.
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