Leggy seedlings4/6/2023 ![]() There are a bunch of other factors (as you mention) that play smaller roles, but most people starting seedlings can safely concentrate on making the light brighter. The stretching that home gardeners experience is almost entirely from insufficient light. ![]() For a home seed-starter like myself, wanting to grow sturdy tomato seedlings like the ones above or other stout, strong transplants, what’s the likely cause of seedlings that seem to reach for the light, and stretch?Ī. Preventing spindly seedlings: q&a with thomas bjorkman So what are the answers for home-garden types, I kept wanting to know? ![]() Turns out even the spacing between seedlings can affect the way they grow.īut all the cited research had been done in the light- and climate-controlled conditions of a lab, or commercial greenhouse-not the less-formal home seed-starting environment.leaving seedlings in “germination chamber” conditions (extra-warm and extra-humid) too long, under that plastic dome or on that heat mat or both.temperature, and even the temperature difference between day and night.too little light (maybe also too much).So I asked him what’s going on-are the leggy seedlings reaching for light, or is something else at work? (I couldn’t resist sharing the mung-bean time-lapse video, above…though probably not what you’re sowing at the moment.)Įverything I’d read over the years listed a range of possible causes for leggy seedlings: He’s a botanist whose research focuses on the effects of environmental stimuli on plant growth and development, particularly in vegetables. Thomas Bjorkman, Professor of Crop Physiology at Cornell, seeking an answer to a question I’m asked a lot. MAYBE YOU’RE WONDERING this about now: Why do vegetable seedlings stretch and grow spindly sometimes, and how can you prevent such leggy seedlings? That was how I began a note to Dr.
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