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Sweden

The plant peekd up through the soil yesterday, and now it kind of grows straight up with the two leaves folded up like hands in an applause. That means my growing light is too dim, right?
(40 w - use it for heat mainly)

7/26/2006 4:25:03 AM

San Jose garysand@pacbell.net

you want to use fluorescent light if possible, keep it close to the leaves as possible, if the plant gets leggy, that is ok, you can bury it up to the cots when you transplant it in the ground

7/26/2006 6:47:55 PM

close to the leaves meaning like 2",,keep an eye on them they grow FAST,,,also use the lights for 12-16 hours max, this was a much talked about subject back in March and April

7/26/2006 7:35:52 PM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

See one of the early entries to my diary. Dr. Bob Liggett came up with a sure-fire germination technique. I've used it with countless seeds with 100% success. I started out with fluorescent lamps, but had hit-and-miss success.

8/12/2006 2:02:15 PM

ExtremeVegetables.com

Just a note.
Incandescent lighting "common household bulb" is great for germination, heating the soil but does not have the proper light spectrum which plants use for photsynthesis.

Once the seeds have germinated, for optimal growth, they need to be placed under flourescent or HID "Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium" and as close as possible without burning new growth.
This will reduce stretch and result in a more compact plant.

12/22/2006 7:57:44 AM

President - GPC

I would think one would want to get into some natural sunlight as soon as possible. I use 1000 watt metal halide and mother nature still provides more lumens and a natural spectrum. However, I have read that folks like the leggyness to increase roots along the stem, how much of this is true and desirable?

12/22/2006 10:59:16 AM