Seedlings stretching towards light?

[stevejobs]

So I've been reading these forums on and off for a few months and decided to try growing out for myself. So for my first time grow i germinated a bunch of mids and ended up germinating 6 of them (I figure 3 will be female so I will just abort the males). On 9/25 (This past Thursday) I planted 6 germinated seeds in Miracle Gro Seed Starter (I know everyone here hates on Mircale Gro but it was all they had at my local Sears Hardware and I didn't have the time to go shopping arond at multiple stores). But anyway, I had to go home this past weekend, so I left my 6 germinated seeds under the care of one of my close friends and gave him a nice little light set up complete with 6 26-watt CFLs (daylight). I got back to school at around 3AM late Sunday/ early Monday morning and he told me the good news about me being a proud father. However, when he showed me the plants he had only used one of the 6 bulbs (in a flood light attachment) and had placed it around 1-1.5 ft away from the plants. The cotyledons had formed around 1 inch (at the lowest-- and mostly with the plants that were closest to light) to around 2 1/2 (for those placed farthest away from the light) up the main stem and the stems from the plants that were placed furthest away from the were severely bent itowards the light (some as much as ~45 degrees).

I took my plants home and rebuilt my own temporary light fixture that involves 3 suspended bulbs hanging over the plants and 3 bulbs that encircle the plants (All bulbs are around 3-4 inches from the plant). I arranged the plants so that they would grow towards the light and as of 9/30 they are starting to straighten out and growth has slowed significantly from what happened during the first 2 days of its seedling days but the stem is still curved.

So my main two questions are:
(1) Although the cotyledons eventually fall off, is this a bad sign if they form up so high on the plan so soon?

(2) Could the curved (and out stretched) lead to a weak main stem and weak plants? If so can this be corrected with propper lighting over time or would I be best off aborting the plants with a curved main stem and getting some more seeds and starting over since it is so early in the growing process.

I took some pictures on my camera but my computer is acting all screwy and won't let me transfer anything from my camera so I will get those up when I can...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rabiez]

Originally Posted by stevejobs

(1) Although the cotyledons eventually fall off, is this a bad sign if they form up so high on the plant so soon?

The cotyledons always form at the top of the seedling. It's what they do. What you're seeing is the plant trying to push them up into useable light, and in doing so wasting resources that should be being used to put roots down and true leaves up.

It's only a sign of a lack of light, and as long as you rectify that, future growth will not be effected

(2) Could the curved (and out stretched) lead to a weak main stem and weak plants?

Yes.

If so can this be corrected with proper lighting over time

Proper lighting will stop any more stretch, but not strengthen the stem.

Get a gentle fan to provide some air movement (just enough that you can see your seedlings moving slightly in the breeze), which will strengthen the stems.

You could also bury the seedlings deeper, so that less stem protrudes from the soil, but you'd still want that fan in there too.

or would I be best off aborting the plants with a curved main stem and getting some more seeds and starting over since it is so early in the growing process.

Behave!