Seedlings not growing

[crmauch]

I should say I do fertilize almost every watering, but w/ extremely weak solution (1/16th?)

Also when they first come up, I suspend aluminum foil from the edges of my lights. This (I believe) has two affects. Increases the light on the seedlings (reflection), and warms the trays up some.

Originally Posted by crmauch

I think lower temps might have impacted my germination (I keep the house around 66 and since the forced air vents run through the basement, it runs about the same temp). However I haven't had the inhibited growth (and now the house is much warmer here). As to stand for my plants I have good sized metal shelving unit, Each shelf (in theory(except the middle shelf)) could hold 2 standard plantrays (they do hang slight off at the ends, My lights (shop light) are suspended from the shelves above (I drilled holes to support s-hooks, in which to have the shop light change suspend from.

[cjp1953]

Originally Posted by lexusnexus

Concur with the others that 60-65 is too cold. The shop lights I've owned have been relatively cool when lit. I ended up buying grow lights (T5), and they do emit enough heat so that I didn't need to have any additional heat in our basement. Is there a way for you move a shop light(s) up to that window area where the temperature is warmer? Also, don't make the mistake of assuming the light coming through the window is sufficient to grow your seedlings (I did that one year much to my chagrin). For fertilization I'd use 1/4 - 1/6 normal strength for the first few weeks. And only once per week, not every watering. Are the cups drinking cups, or pots? If drinking cups are they like the solo cups you can buy at the store? When you said 4 inch I didn't know if you meant 4 inch tall cups.

Dan

Sorry I missed your post.The cups are solo 16oz. cups that are the same size as some peat pots that are 4 inches across but are deeper than the peat pots.They are in a warmer room that is around 80 degrees.But they are not doing very well.I now think that the bulbs I'm using are to old.They were used back when I had planted fish tanks.I save the bulbs that I changed ever 3 months.They must have lost their color spectrum.I going to buy new ones tomorrow and see if I can save some plants.I not planting until the end of the month.

[cjp1953]

I bought some daylight bulbs with a 6500K and put them on.I hope things improve as they look off their color.Almost a purple color.I might put some foil over the lights to improve the brightness.