Lovely, long legs…

[Johnny PhantomMember]

Hello Charles,

In your ‘February 2011, sowing and preparing’ item, I noticed that you wrote ‘…and seedlings became leggy in the relative lack of light, so I pricked them out as deep as possible to make plants sturdy again…’.
I was wondering what you meant by ‘pricked them out as deep as possible’? It looks like, from the photo, you thinned them out in number – is that correct? Or, is it that you’re pulling out the ‘leggiest’ ones, and leaving the deepest ones?
I was wondering if it was possible to ‘rescue’ leggy seedlings by adding some additional compost to cover the stems a little? Or, even to transfer the seedling to a deeper hole? Have you got any tips on this?
It’s been cloudy up our way, so, although they’re sitting on a fantastic new propagating bench in the conservatory, there’s been very little sun! We’ve tried compensating by making some lights using LED strips, but I’m beginning to think that the output wattage is not high enough…
Thanks in advance…

JP

[charlesModerator]

 Hi Johnny

Actually I pricked out all that were looking strong, however long, and buried most of their stem. Yes it is possible to make leggy seedlings sturdy by ‘earthing them up’, but I wonder if your conservatory is a little short of light? from one side only? afraid I cannot advise on artificial light.

[Johnny PhantomMember]

Hello Charles,

Thanks very much… We’ve moved the strongest looking ones, and added some more compost, so, we’ll see… your ‘diary’ entries are always useful, and we found another with some comments on ‘legginess’ from February, 2010.
I think you’re right about the amount of light. Unfortunately, our situation seems to require that we use artificial lights, at the moment. It’s not something I’m that keen on, due to it being just that – artificial.
Thanks again… back soon!

JP

[Author]

Posts