seeds Growing from seed

[choctlab]

My first try at growing from seed.

After a few days I am seeing life. Hurray, right?

Well, I do not know. Why? My seedlings look like Alfalfa spouts. They are very spindly and leggy.

I started the seeds in egg carton cups in a glass baking dish, covered by plastic wrap.

The room is toasty warm, however, not completely dark -- It is my computer room. Beyond what light may leak though the closed mini-blind, there is overhead illumination perhaps one hour a day from the overhead CFL while I putter at the keyboard.

Am I okay? Do I need to start over in complete darkness? Should I give up and buy starter plants?

Augh!!

Thanks for the help

-= Mark =-

 

[JungleRain]

Hi choctlab, sounds like they need much more light to me, now that they've sprouted time to give them lots of light, post some pics for us to see

 

[talas]

Yep get them in a windowsill,There just reaching for light don't worry if there leggy as long as when you have a few sets of leaves give them a nice deep container to settle and make sure you only have a quarter of the length showing.Should be fine

 

[worlok]

Mine in February:

Now:

 

[Nova]

Your comment about seeing life after a few days seems a bit strange to me, mine have taken far longer than that to sprout. Can you elaborate as to how long "a few days" is? I would love to be able to germinate that fast

 

[peppermanbaha]

it would seem so. if they were habaneros right. But my congo trinidads sprouted on the second day in a peat pellets. and i thought " Are these seeds super chrged." any ways your plants look very healthyand i hope they keep on growing.

 

[Pepperfreak]

Congrats on the sprouts. You don't need darkness to germinate seeds. It's more that you just don't need the light for them to germinate. However, as mentioned before, once they have sprouted, they need a lot of light. For example, I use 4 foot 2 bulb fluorescent shop lights. When my seeds sprout, I place the sprouts about 1/2 inch from the bulbs and keep raising the lights as they grow.

 

[choctlab]

Thanks to all that replied. Your encouragement has calmed my fears.

Worlok: Thank you for the pics. My sprouts look very much like the ones in your first photo. Hopefully they will grow to look like the plants in the third picture.

Novacastrian: I failed to mention that the seeds that have sprouted are veggies. The peppers have yet to do so.

Pepperfreak: Thank you for the tip regarding not needing total darkness for germination.

Once again, a big thank you to all.

-= Mark =-

 

[Pepperfreak]

Here is what I do to germinate seeds, and everyone has a different technique. I use a 72 cell seed tray and fill each with soil. In my case I use Pro-Mix BX. Then I place the seeds in each cell, water with a spray bottle until the soil to all nice and moist. I cover it with the plastic dome and place it on something that generates some heat, I like the soil temp to be around 80-85 degrees. This year, I placed all of my seed trays in my grow room on shelves and just heated the whole room to 85 degrees and thus the soil tempt was with in range. I keep checking on them once or twice a day to make sure that the soil isn't drying out and watering with the spray bottle as needed, I also use distilled water at this point. When they start sprouting, I remove the plastic dome and get them under the lights ASAP with the lights as close to the plants as possible.

 

[TXCG]

Pepperfreak: Thank you for the tip regarding not needing total darkness for germination.

Once again, a big thank you to all.

-= Mark =-

Seeds need 2 things: Warmth and moisture

Seedlings need 3 things: Warmth, moisture, & light.

Since seeds don't actually need darkness, my solution is to simply set my fluorescent lights directly on the top of my little starter greenhouse. This way the lights keep the greenhouse warm which keeps the starter media warm. And once the seeds pop they have light waiting for them so they don't get the chance to stretch.

Only negative to using lights before they are necessary is wasted electricity, but if you're using fluorescents youre only wasting a couple cents.

Good luck!