Click Here For My Original Blog “Indoor Lighting System”
Click Here For My 2nd Update
Here are several pictures 3 weeks into my seed starting journey for 2010 in comparison to last years lame lighting system. Remember, last year I purchased several lights from a popular chain store, that were labeled “Indoor Plant Grow Lights”. I learned the hard way how important your light source really is and what a difference it can make when it comes to starting your seedlings indoors.
Spindly, leggy plants - can not hold themselves up!
This is what your broccoli will look like after 3 weeks under a POOR LIGHTING SYSTEM! Spindly and leggy with extremely small leaves that can not hold themselves up!
These would be flopped over the cup if not for tying them to the stick!
This is a common problem alot of people have when starting their seedlings indoors and can be completely avoided with the proper lighting system.
Here is what my broccoli looks like this year 3 weeks after I sowed the seeds under my NEW indoor lighting system.
WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE RIGHT? - There is no comparison. Compact, lush, vegetative growth…exactly what my lights claimed would happen!
3 weeks after sowing seeds
Look at the size of these leaves!
These plants are strong and healthy, and have concentrated all their growth into the leaves, and root system instead of creating week, leggy stems reaching for what little light they could find. I could actually acclimate these seedlings right now and plant them in my garden, if I was not so worried that winter might return!
I placed my seedling trays 1 inch below my lights and made sure the soil stayed moist. I used Burpee’s “Ultimate Growing System” seed starting trays, which basically takes the guesswork out of growing seedlings and keeps your soil perfectly moist at all times. You can find these seed starting kits locally and of course also online through Burpee. I LOVE THEM, plus they are not that expensive and they keep for years!
Seed trays 1 inch below lights
Look at the difference in the stem of this broccoli plant compared to the spindly, leggy plant at the top of this page! It is short, sturdy, and stocky – just exactly what you want! As the seedlings grew, I needed to pull the lights further away from the plants so they would not burn the leaves.
Short, strong, stocky stems beginning to form
I used an organic seed starting mixture which contains a good amount of sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite. Its very light and makes it easy for seeds to sprout. I add a small amount of my own fertilizer which consists of mostly fish and fish bone meal, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, soft rock phosphate, potassium, and seaweeds. Then every week or so I water with a very diluted seaweed mixture.
I am extremely happy with my NEW Lighting System that I built this year! Here is the original link on what lights I used and how I put it together:
Click Here For My Original Blog “Indoor Lighting System”
Click Here For My 2nd Update
HAPPY GROWING,
Michele
Michele, it’s looking great! I have a couple questions:
1) With the Burpee starting trays, do you transplant to larger pots at some point?
2) How did your floppy plants do when they were planted out last year?
Hey Troy, I normally do transplant once from the seed starting trays, and from what I have been told alot of nurseries do too. There are 72 individual cells in each tray and they are a decent size. But, it is a small price to pay when you have a great product that does the hard part for you, which in my opinion is germinating the seeds and keeping your soil perfectly moist. As long as the bottom tray is filled with water, you can forget about them, even for a few days!
As for last years floppy plants, I burried them deep, and they did eventually grow into what looked like a normal size plant, but they were really weak, had alot of bugs, did not produce as much, and took MUCH longer than the plants I ended up buying! Put it to you this way – I put them outside late spring, and did not eat from them until fall! I should have been able to have 2 crops in that amount of time!
I planted tomatoes 10 days ago on February 18th, in worm castings placed on heating pads, The seeds sprouted on February 22nd. They are now almost 3 inches tall and very leggy. The weather is warm (in the low 70s) but very cloudy for several days. I re-potted 54 0f the 108 plants to 4 inch pots today. They are in direct sunlight, but there has been no sun. Sun is forecast two days from now. Will these plants prosper or should I start over?
Well this is a big MAYBE I would say…honestly I have seen 12 inch tall LEGGY tomato plants turn themselves around and turn into HUGE, highly productive plants! ONLY if you start getting FULL sun and MUCH warmer days SOON! BUT, for most plants, this beginning growth is very important and you could end up with a bad crop of plants! I would start a few NEW ones and keep a few leggy ones and run yourself an experiment…journal what happens! You might be surprised!