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Post your seedlings

8K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  Hambone 
#1 ·
We started a thread last spring about gardens. Too early to garden outside here, but not too early to start some seeds.


 
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#11 ·
Specialty "grow bulbs" are overrated. They are excellent, don't get me wrong, but expensive. You can get very close to the same result by placing one "warm white" fluorescent bulb in one half of a two bulb fixture, and a "cool white" in the other side. Warm white will provide plenty of orange and red of the spectrum, and the cool white will provide the blue and yellow-green light. It is all based on the phosphor coating on the inside of the glass tubes. Save money, go with this combination. I've raised tons of stuff under lights (NFT lettuce, tissue culture, orchids, etc.), so I try to save money where I can. If you want to get some nice fixtures and go with the full-spectrum bulbs, gardeners.com has a good selection, for specialty bulbs, bulbman.com has some you never knew existed.


MM
 
#5 ·
Mine looked exactly like that somewhere back in January.:D neener neener neener.
That was before they all damped off and died:doh:
But the store bought plants that I replaced them with are in the ground, look great, and are starting to bloom.:thumbsup: I should have homegrown tomatoes for only three times what it would cost to buy them at the store. Thank God I shut my wifes farmstand down. I'd lose the farm the way I'm gardening this year.
 
#6 ·
I started mine in feb. Don't know if I should post the photo. I don't want to make Barry's look small.
Their 16" tall & have buds now. After starting them in the kitchen for a few weeks I put them in the greenhouse. There was a light bulb on a thermostat to keep it above freezing.

We are still having a little frost. My patty pan squash seedlings actually have a small squash now. 1 gal. pots
 
#7 ·
Barry - your plants are getting spindly. The fluorescent bulbs should be 2-4 inches from the tops of the plants to get stocky growth.

I put a fan (small computer-type) blowing lightly across the tops of the plants (even when the lights are off). It does several things - it reduces the heat bearing down on the plants, reduces damping-off, and stimulates wind, causing the plants to produce stockier plants (thigmomorphogenesis). You will have to keep an eye on the soil moisture, but I'd rather have a drier situation then a waterlogged plant base. Plant lights should be on 14-16 hours.

MM
 
#8 ·
Thanks! I've got them about 4" from the light. The lights are grow lights instead of regular flourescents, and they're sitting on a hardwood floor which I think probably slowed the germination and the initial growth because it was too cool. I do turn the lights on around 6:30am and off at 11:00.
 
#14 ·
Here's my Sweet 100 tomatoes that I started from seed six weeks ago. They need to go outside! We're running out of space in the seed starting area.
That's a pair of cheap shop shop lights running standard lighting bulbs. Cost me about 35 bucks to setup.


Those are looking good. Did you start them in 4" pots?
 
#23 ·
Well this is all I have. I got plant happy and planted my seedlings a week early. We had a hard freeze here in North Texas last week. Who would have thought a freeze in TEXAS in April! :( I am replanting tomorrow with all bought plants. :eek:

 
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