Herbs grow fine up to 2 inches then fall over

[judokavlad]

Hello All,
I started a home herb garden. Because this is in an apartment and I don't have enough sunlight. I have added plant lights to supplement the lack of sunlight. Everything seems to be working properly. All the herbs grow and grow surprisingly fast.
The problem is when they get to be around 2 inches high. They just fall over. It almost seems like the stem isn't strong enough to hold the weight. They don't die or turn brown. Just fall over and stay that way. The only herb that hasn't done this is Basil. Every single herb I've planted has done exactly the same thing.
Anyone know why this is happening?
Thank you for any advice.
The falling herbs.

The Basil under the same conditions.

[rainbowgardener]

First your little seedlings are WAY too crowded. You have hundreds of plants there and clearly don't have room to grow that many out. So you have to be hard hearted about thinning them -- just take a little nail scissors and snip a bunch of them off at soil level and remove them. Each little seedling should have an inch or so of room all around it. Later as they get bigger, they will need to be given their own little pots. Even though the basil is doing better, it also needs a lot of thinning if it is going to be able to keep growing.

Second they are very spindly and stretched, with lots of stem with no leaves. That is a sign of not enough light. Even though the basil is handling it better, you can see it leaning toward the light too. I know you said you added supplemental lighting, but I don't see it. How far away from your plants is the light? Lighting for plants needs to be fluorescents or LED's (old style incandescent lights give off way too much heat, if they are close enough to do any good they will cook your plants) and just a couple inches above the plants. Light intensity varies with the square of the distance. So if you have a light 2" away from your plants and you move it to 4" away, the plants are now getting one-quarter the light. If you move it to 8" away, the plants are getting one-sixteenth as much light. So your lights need to be right down over your plants and on for 16 hrs a day.

Finally, your mention of how fast they are growing makes me wonder if you are over-fertilizing them, especially with high nitrogen ferts. Little seedlings like this don't need fertilization at all until they get more leaves. You don't want them growing fast and tall and spindly. You want them growing slow and short and stocky and leafy.

Here's what good lighting looks like:

[judokavlad]

Thank you for all that information. I will try all and hopefully will salvage what I have. Otherwise I'll know how to approach this a better way next time. This is my first attempt at this.
I'll definitely get a fan and try that. I have the garden in from of my window, I do open it occasionally when it's not too cold. I guess that's not enough wind.

I agree that the herbs are very crowded. That's simply an amateur mistake. I will trim them all and hopefully that'll help them grow properly. Worst case scenario I will start from scratch if I don't see any improvements in a few weeks or so.

Before starting this project I knew that the light would be the most important aspect and the most difficult. I placed this garden directly in front of my window. This window gets a good 2-3 hours of direct sunlight now and will be a bit more in the summertime. I put 2 lights on each side of the window to supplement when the sunlight dissipates. I'll add a picture to show the placement. I already know that they are too far away. Again an amateur mistake. I was concerned not to place them too close because of the heat from the lights. Didn't want to burn them.
As far as the actual bulbs, they should be right because I bought specific bulbs for plants.
I do see they are leaning which obviously says they need more light. I do rotate the garden as much as possible to try and even out the light. I do the same with the 2 lights.

There is no fertilizer, it's just miracle grow soil. The speed of which all grew made me think that the conditions were good. The falling over made me think the opposite. Thus the questions.

Thanks again for the help. I will try it all.

[imafan26]

A flourescent fixture would directly overhead would probably work better. Turning the trays may help with the leaning.
Also how are you watering. Bottom watering seedlings are better than overhead, Unless you have a very fine spray it is easy to knock young spindly seedlings down. The do need to be thinned. It looks like you planted the seeds in bunches. It is better to make a row and try to space the seeds better. The package will tell you the seed spacing. Unless you have a lot more window space, where would you put all the plants once they get bigger?

[rainbowgardener]

Miracle Gro soil is full of fertilizer, hence the name. Just don't add any more. The Miracle Gro will last them until they are repotted in individual pots, at which point they will be in fresh potting mix.

[judokavlad]

3rd time:

The garden looks much better. The fanning and thinning out helped a lot. So thanks a lot for that info.
I'm looking into getting the fluorescent fixture. Only issue is I'll need to build something to attach it to. And ideally something that is adjustable. Since the light should be directly over the herbs and when they grow the distance should stay more or less the same. This will take some time.

I do have a fertilizer question. A whiles back I bought fish fertilizer from Alaska for my house plants. I read that this stuff was the best because it's all organic and for the results.
I've used it on my house plants and the results were horrible. The leaves almost instantly drooped. Not to mention the nasty smell of rotten fish. I had to change the soil on the plants that were the most affected. Once changed, plant look much better.
Does anyone have experience with this product? And if the herb garden should need fertilizer in the future, is this stuff any good for herbs?
Thanks again all.

[Susan W]

Sorry things went south using the fish -Alaska. I use lots of it, albeit mostly outside, and mix in 5 gal buckets. Perhaps you didn't shake well? wrong ratio? I am thinking about 1 teaspoon to a 2 qt juice bottle. I also use Johns Recipe from Lady Bug, found at some garden centers. Again 1 tsp for 2 qts. For the seedlings try to water with it about 1/week. Numbers are low, so it would be hard to burn anything!

[rainbowgardener]

yeah, that would have been my guess too, that you didn't dilute it enough. A little goes a long way. I can't use it though, because it makes the cats indoors and lots of creatures outdoors crazy and they dig everything up trying to find the fish.

[judokavlad]

Thank you, I'll try and dilute the fertilizer more. I thought I did dilute adequately the first time, but obviously not. I guess that's why my place stunk like rotten fish