How leggy is too leggy?

Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:22 pm

I'd suggest if you cannot afford crop failure, keep the leggy ones, study how they do and start another planting...What do you have to lose? throwing 'em doesn't do much good.

Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:29 pm

treehopper wrote:I'd suggest if you cannot afford crop failure, keep the leggy ones, study how they do and start another planting...What do you have to lose? throwing 'em doesn't do much good.

Not sure about GardenGnome, but this is actually what I'm going to be doing; i bought a lot of extra pots today to move the non-leggy seedlings over this weekend, and am going to see how they manage/if i can get some food, or flowers, from them

Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:11 am

This is for fun not for the market. I think ill pick threw the really bad ones and pull them for room.

Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:52 am

Top soil alone will be too heavy for container growing. It should be mixed with something like 2 part top soil to 1 part shredded coir (I usually mix some compost... Maybe 1/2 part~1 part) and 1 part sharp sand or maybe perlite.

Some people mix 1/2 soil with 1/2 perlite. Some people go completely soilless and mix 1/2 coir to 1/2 perlite for starting seeds. I prefer sand.

Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:59 am

applestar wrote:Top soil alone will be too heavy for container growing. It should be mixed with something like 2 part top soil to 1 part shredded coir (I usually mix some compost... Maybe 1/2 part~1 part) and 1 part sharp sand or maybe perlite.

Some people mix 1/2 soil with 1/2 perlite. Some people go completely soilless and mix 1/2 coir to 1/2 perlite for starting seeds. I prefer sand.

Ah! I didn't realize this. Should I just spread it out across my garden, then? I have some of the original Osmocote potting soil I bought, so I suppose I should use that instead.

Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:54 pm

After the links I found here I think my basil and last dry at lettuce all died from damping off. Is there a way to fix nice it's started?

Sat Feb 25, 2012 5:07 pm

As far as I know, damping off can only be prevented not cured.

Sat Feb 25, 2012 5:31 pm

I went back and looked at RG pic of his set up. I redid my lights and filled in some soil.
Pull any plants that look bad. And I'm going to go buy one more light today. To cover my last row of plants. The room that the lights are in is warmer then my house. I'm hoping it will make the plants grow better. I got my stuff under control and and learned most of the stuff I needed for now.

Once you harden your plants if you had a bad storm for a week or so and had to keep your plants inside would you have to harden them again. Or is once all you need?

Sat Feb 25, 2012 6:18 pm

If RG is me, rainbowgardener, I'm not a him

If you harden your plants and then bring them back in for significant amounts of time (a week would count), then you need to do at least a bit of hardening to put them back out.

Depending on how much time they had been out vs back in, how well the weather cooperates, etc, the second time hardening might not have to be quite as gentle, but don't just plop them back out in to full sun.

Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:33 pm

Well, i just moved a few of my shorter plants over from the bigger pots, to the littlier ones (might be a bad idea!) that are fuller. I guess i'll find out whether or not they manage to survive the repotting or not- but at least I'm less worried about them ;D

Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:13 pm

and, for all those that probably knew the answer already, I need the pots for other starts, so all the leggy plants just went and was (gently) tossed into my in-ground garden; hopefully when the snow melts and it rains or something, everything will just go right back into the ground so I don't feel guilty for throwing them out!

On the other hand, i've saved as many as I can- and i finally have some sweet banana pepper plants that are starting to come through the soil! woo hoo! So I can only look forward to the future, not back to my mistakes I suppose ;D

Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:54 pm

That's how we all started out. :wink:

Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:29 pm

applestar wrote:That's how we all started out.

I know, but i still feel guilty for tossing them! Alas, though, lesson learned. I don't know how I didn't make that mistake last year!

As for comparisions.. the shorter plants are, by far, doing better than the leggy ones in terms of true leaf development, so it was time to let them go. I also hate, with a passion, the type of soil i choose this year to start my plants in. I'll be switching back to my Farfard potting soil as soon as it comes in to the stores! Bleh- this new stuff dries out so quickly and gets really crumbly. Do. Not. Like!

on that note, though, the seedlings I have going right now (lettuce, my squashes yes i started too early, peppers, brussels sprouts, and peppers) are doing really well so far, so I have a feeling it's going to be a good year!

Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:17 pm

These are Parsley. Too leggy?

Also, the windowsill the seedlings are in only gets indirect light. Should I get a grow light to prevent leggy-ness for other seedlings?

Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:35 pm

can you just put them outside, it looks sunny out that window.\

bring them in at night of course.

Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:46 pm

they do look a bit leggy, i would also try to get them them in a sunnier spot if you can, it'd definitely help i think