I stretched the stems of some of my seedlings by having the lightsource too far away. Are these plants doomed?
absolutley not. ive had some horribly long stems on a couple of my plants. granted i had to assist some of them in standing but they will still grow. some of the stems that needed to be assisted ended up growing strong and being able to hold themselves up. now when it comes to budding there might be an issue, but again i see nothing wrong in helping them stand tall.
To be honest they are destined to be outdoor plants. They are about 2 to 2.5 weeks old and I am just sprouting them using natural light, that is why many of them are so long. Are there any favorite methods for lending some assistance staying upright, or can I just use the ol' pencil-and-paperclip method?
If they're destined for the outdoors then they should be able to hold themselves up nicely...if not you could bury them up to the first leaf set or you could hold it up with a stick or pole or something...
Ya know I just recently saw my buddies plants he was growing. They were about 3 feet tall, lanky and stalky as hell, under one light (250w I think) held a couple feet away. Those were destined for outside too. Maybe there is something to long, lanky plants working well outside. Just make sure you have some kind of support. If there is something above them that is sturdy, tie a line from the ground to whatever you can higher up. The plant will grow along with the line and you can tie it to the line as it grows
Whats "natural light",like just room light? They need more and a fan moving air to slightly ruffle the main stem to strengthen it and replace the co2 which the plant will use up around the leaves(only needed during light period).