First timer here...my seedlings are about a week old, and they have not begun to grow lateral branches yet. Just fragile little stems about 4 inches tall, and the original four leaves from the sprout. Right now, I'm running a fan on them for a gentle breeze, for 18 hours per day (during the light cycle) and it's off during the dark cycle. Should I be running a fan on them this early? I'm concerned that the plants are spending a lot of energy on staying upright under the breeze, instead of using all available energy for growth. Photo attached.
A fan is just fine right now, just make sure they aren't being blown real hard and damaged. Your light is too far away though, that's why they're stretching.
yea, they are stretching for light!!! at this point if the fan isnt literally blowing them over, its fine.... but if you dont solve that stretching problem their height is going to be way too much for the stem to handle and they will fall over and have to spend a grip of energy righting themselves up again, over and over lol but i have a 2.5 week old plant only slightly taller than those seedlings, that is fully filled with leaves... (4th set is developed) just to give a perspective on the height of your seedlings haha, not a problem, but lower those lights!!!!!
Thanks for the fast reply!! I read that when you're encouraging height growth, you're supposed to have it far away, and move it closer when you're no longer wanting them to get much taller. No?
this is true but your seedlings dont have enough leaf to absorb the light they need at their age.... pop the light above them, let some leaves come in (they will still grow vertically, just no where near as fast which is more of what you want right now since they got kinda tall) then once they fill out you can move the lights to encourage faster upwards growth... you have a lot of time for growth still, and at its age it actually grows slowly compared to what will happen in a week or 2 here, then it just EXPLODES mainly right now the issue you are facing is, you DO want upward growth, but your plants stems cant handle much more. Unfortunately we have to work with what the plant wants when you get into this situation
Many thanks. I just lowered my CFL to about 3 inches above the center plant. The ones out to the side will be stretching inward a bit to reach for the bulb, but I guess I can always right them with a small stake a bit later on.
It's a 600watt CFL....and while I'm lucky enough to have your attention, I'm also concerned about whether those tiny little starter cells in my seedling tray are large enough to support them when they get much bigger. They're filled with Miracle Grow Potting MIX, which is very light and fluffy, and I worry that it won't support much growth. I'm hesitant, however, to put them in my 3-gallon pots too early. What do you think?
well, i can tell you from experience those things wont support the roots for long.... the current plant i have going exceeding its seedling pot as soon as it actually sprouted... i had to emergency transplant are roots coming out of the bottom?
Just checked...no roots protruding from bottom yet...and according to the journal I'm keeping (I know...I'm a dork) they're exactly 8 days old, counting from the day they first sprouted.
damn! Yea you really gotta get that light down.... i saw you in my thread, but this is what mine looked like at day 10 (i dont have one from day 8 unfortunately) and im running way less light than you, i just kept my bulbs no more than an inch away (since mine are only 23 watt bulbs, i couldnt get away with 3 inches)