Stretching

[Greatgardens]

One issue I've never been able to overcome is stretching, especially of cherry/grape tomatoes, and to a lesser degree, pretty much all IND varieties. I have to start my plants indoors under lights, and I've never found a combination of bulbs that could prevent the plants seriously elongating. Dwarfs and micros don't stretch to any noticeable degree, so that's a great advantage.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

[biscuitridge]

If you keep the room temperature in the low to mid 60s and use good quality lights you should never have a stretching problem.

[GoDawgs]

I use plain old florescent shop lights and used to use regular tubes in them but have since switched to using one warm light (3000K) and one daylight (6500K) in the same fixture. Regardless of which tubes I've used, I've never had the stretching problem. The lights are on chains with S hooks so I can always keep the lights 2" above the plants, raising the lights as needed. I think that's been the key to no stretching.

[D.J. Wolf]

See, I'm learning! LOL.

My tomatoes when started under lights have always "stretched" really bad. But my light has been significantly higher than 2" above the plants. Makes sense to me that they are going to reach towards a light source, I was just afraid of having the lights too close and/or too bright for them. I just got a LED plant light that is dimmable, and am still figuring out how to set it correctly.

[slugworth]

Has to be the K rating of the lights.
I never have my lights closer than 18 inches
6500k and 5000k
They make led bulbs for old fixtures,walmart used to have then cheap before covid.

[Gardeneer]

I think two factors make lanky seedlings;
First low light, second high temperatures.



I also use some combination of fluorescent tubes, on adjustable chain.
I keep the lights about half inch up, above the seedlings . It is ok as long as they do not touch the seedlings.

[Greatgardens]

It must be temperature in my situation. Our garage might be more suitable after germination.

[slugworth]

I start seeds when it is cold out.
I never move my lights up and down.

[eyolf]

I occasionally experience some stretching, but several years ago a friend "traded" a few plants from their windowsill-starting set up.

It was a teaching moment; I don't remember what we traded but my transplants looked pretty average, while what I recieved was about as tall with very little pale green foliage. I was a little embarassed for them.

I planted them anyway, after hardening a bit longer than normal (some years my own get an accelerated schedule) and within a couple of weeks they were fine.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

[slugworth]

Part of the problem could be poor potting soil.
I had some seedlings that were the same size for a month,until I hilled them up with another brand soil.
Then they grew normally.

[tryno12]

I would say close light and plenty of it just after germination. I use a combination of plain old A19 LED's, an under cabinet fixture, and a Ferry Morse Grow Light keeping them very close to seedlings swapping and constantly changing positions at like an average temp of 65 or so.
Pete