They’re very large buildings made entirely from translucent plastic. Most of you have purchased plants from a nursery before and are familiar with the types of buildings they’re grown in.
Fixing leggy seedlings full#
Depending on the plant’s needs, sometimes they will continue to be grown in an area where the temperature is kept on the warmer side, usually around 68 degrees F.īut for the most part, these flats full of fledgling seedlings head on out into the general population of the greenhouse. Once most of the seeds in each flat have germinated, they’re moved out of this warm, moist environment. Then these flats are watered and kept in rooms where the temperature and humidity level are carefully controlled to encourage quick and prolific germination. Most commercial nurseries use machines to plant seeds in large flats full of individual seed cells. Knowing how nurseries get large, robust seedlings will give us the clues we need to do the same in our little card table greenhouse set up in the spare bedroom.
Fixing leggy seedlings how to#
We’ll look at what causes them and how to prevent or fix them.īetter yet, we’ll look at why Bill’s box store seedlings look like they do. So, today we’re going to talk about leggy seedlings. And you can bet Google gets its fair share of “How to Fix Leggy Seedlings” searches each year. Our Nimba seedlings look more like the green wacky inflatable tube man dancing out in front of the car dealership downtown.įixing this problem is one of the most prevalent questions we get asked on our Rural Sprout Facebook page every spring. “Uh, the label just says ‘summer squash – zucchini’.”īut we’re secretly jealous of Bill’s four-pack of ‘summer squash – zucchini’ seedlings with their short, thick stems and lush dark green leaves. “We’re growing Polish Nimba zucchini this summer, Bill. Sure, we may have seedling varieties that our next-door neighbor who buys his garden supplies at Lowes has never even heard of.
Their stems are pale and pearly white, and a sneeze will knock them over. They look like 90s supermodels – gaunt, thin and willowy. Germination gets off to a good start, but before we know it, our beloved babies are stretching as far as they can to reach the light. And then there is the bane of every seed starter’s existence – leggy seedlings. Finally, we give up and start another row of cabbage seeds, only to find the original seeds have finally pushed up through the dirt two days later.
We stare at that row of uninterrupted dirt in our seedling flat for two weeks waiting for those finicky red cabbage seeds to germinate. Then we lose another half dozen because we overcompensate and drown the survivors.
We lose fragile seedlings because we forgot to water them for one day – one stupid day. This labor of love isn’t without its drawbacks, though. The dining room table becomes a potting up station covered with seed packets and sprinkled liberally with potting mix from January to May. “Hi, my name is Tracey, and it’s been four weeks since I started my Green Zebra tomatoes…they’re doing great too! I have them under an LED grow light set up, and I started fertilizing them with my secret recipe for compost tea.” People who start their own seeds are dedicated.īeginning in the middle of winter, we have every windowsill lined up with red solo cups with seedlings sprouting from them. It meets every Tuesday at 7:00 at the local library annex. And if you’re a tomato-growing fanatic who also starts their seeds? Well, I’m pretty sure there’s a support group for us. We’re even crazier than tomato-growing fanatics. People who start their plants from seed are some of the craziest gardeners.
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