what to do about tall seedlings?

Anyways I have some 8 day old seedlings. They still only have 2 real leaves as of now. I made a mistake in the beginning by letting them strecth too much under a cfl. So now they are tall and lanky sorta. Anyways I dunno exactly what I should do if I should support the stems with a stick or to just let them grow on their own. None of them have fell over yet. I feal as if they are growing slowly due to being so tall. They are on 24 hour light schedule in a soilless mix called ProMix "BX" and are 8 days old and also there is a fan blowing on them but not sure if the fan is too strong of wind or not and also they have been under a 400w mh for a couple days now also. Also my main question is to support their stems or not to support them? But other than that I am really confused about the soil. I heard soiless mixes like the one I have can cause ph problems later on. How do I raise/lower ph of soil? Or is this soil the best for me to use? Or when I transplant them into bigger pots should I use a different type of soil? What kinda soil or is a soiless mix good the whole way through?

If I didnt grow hydro I'd only ever even consider Coco. The stuff is amazing. 10 bucks buys you enough to fill a trash can, you cannot overwater it, roots get plenty of air, etc etc etc. Can easily hand water it, or toss together a simple drip system for it. Either way works just fine, and you get excellent results if you have the rest of your grow conditions dialed in, of course.

Just be sure to soak it good after you hydrate it. You want to be sure there are no salts left in it. Other than that, you are ready to grow in it. Do a search for BlueBear, he has an excellent post here on growing in Coco. It has all the information you could possibly need, and then some. He covers how often to water, pH, nutes, yada yada yada.

I use 2 gallon buckets to keep the 3 mothers I have in it and hydroton in the bottom. I LOVE the stuff. Oh, and if you buy some, get GH's brand(they call it Cocotek). You can get in cubes, matts, bricks, slabs, etc.

I've never grown a weed plant in soil, so maybe I am not the best person to be answering this question if you are set on using soil. Always seemed to me that getting rid of used soil would be a pain in the ass. You can just let Coco set for a day or two and its DRY. Toss in a trash bag and haul to the mulch pile and you are done with it. Cant get much simpler than that. Plus, I'm a lazy grower:D

As far as your plants stretching, move light closer. If its not too hot on the back of your hand, you should be ok. I think using MH to start seedlings with is a waste of electricity, but thats just me. You can get flouro's right on top of em, and use about 1/4th the power. Plus you do not need to worry about frying them to a crisp. After 5-7 sets of leaves then toss em under the MH for your veg. And yes you can support your plants. Just tie them loosely to whatever you use for a support with twine or yard. And KEEP that fan blowin on em, makes your stalks nice and thick.

Whatever you decide, best of luck.


b0nger

^^^^Good advice all. ^^^^
To deal with already-stretched seedlings, at the first re-pot, bury the stem up to the node at which the cotyledons appeared, no deeper. The part of the stem below the first node CAN easily grow roots.

they are pretty tall. Looks as if they are having trouble supporting the 2 leaves on the top. I gonna help out some of the plants that i see that are leaning too much with a stick to support them or sumtin and keep the fan on em. Thanks for your help.

hmmm... i have several different unknown kinds growing right now, all at once, and one of them is just a stretcher... i am going to grow it out to see if it needs something extra.

I am growing under ideal conditions and with hydro, so it is a strain thing... this MAY be your problem. But yes, bury like they said, to the first node, give them proper nutes, wind, light, and of course climate.

StinkyAttic, knows her stuff...Take her advice and repot them right as she advised...they will reroot like tomatoes....and be a much stronger sturdier plant for you...:thumbsup:

Peace,
Treetops

you mean repot them right now? or wait until they are bigger to repot? they are only 8 days old....

Yes, right now...You may need a bigger pot, one that will let you sink the plant down farther in the soil....just be gentle with it...

Peace,
Treetops

You going to wait til they fall over? Do it now and plant them deep, right up to the cotyledons! - Granny:hippy:

agreed.^ they will recover usually.

I also agree. I did that exact same thing on my first grow. I actually didn't repot it. I had enough room just to add more soil in the pot it was already in as it was sitting a bit deeper into the pot. If you have room, you could just add more soil on top of what you have up to the cotyledons. That is as I said if you have room for it in the pot it is in. If not, definitely re-pot now. Also you could always add a 1/4 tsp of "superthrive"(or a little less since it is so young) to the water you give it after re potting it will help the plant recover if there is shock or stress. Hope this helps.
Good luck,
Elway

thanks for ur help guys. I am still scared to repot them. So instead I just supported the tall stems and put a lil soil around the base but did not get to add much. They are standing up strait now. Although I still may repot them. BUt i dont want to until i get some dolamite lime to mix in my soilless mix... or is it really necassary? How do i raise ph .lower it of the soil if the plant is already in it
?

lime could be usefull but i have never used it. just repot them, dont be scared just be carefull. burry them just like they said. i dont use ferts for seedlings but mix in some wormcastings.

so it is ok to use a small little bit of ferts at 9 days old? I have some nutrients for seedlings and cuttings. its like 2-0-2 in part A and 0-1-3 in part B

also whats wrong with using miracle grow potting soil? Is it possible to grow in this soil? I am personally gonna keep usuing the soiless mix but my friend reccomended miracle grow potting soil but I heard bad things about that soil. So... yea why is it bad?

well just repotted them into bigger pots. I am pretty sure I hurt one of them as I made a mistake and I think I bent one of their poor little stems. Anyways there in bigger pots nows. Just wondering if this could have put the plants into shock. I hope they all make it. So super thrive is ok to use also for 9 day old seedlings?

i dont use miracle grow i did for a few of my plants but the soil wasnt even really soil at all, it dried out way quick. Right now im using fox farm soil and its working good. Its all organic so i recommmend it. I also heard they use sewer sludge in miracle grow soil so that is a bad thing about it.

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Originally Posted by romdog11

i dont use miracle grow i did for a few of my plants but the soil wasnt even really soil at all, it dried out way quick. Right now im using fox farm soil and its working good. Its all organic so i recommmend it. I also heard they use sewer sludge in miracle grow soil so that is a bad thing about it.

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'sewer-sludge' is an outstanding soil additive ... 'Kellogg's Amend' is primarily 'sewer sludge' and rice hulls, grew the best tomato crop I ever had, in a 100% mixture of it ... I don't use it with my pot plants, using something else, but oh well ... the only thing 'wrong' with Miracle-Gro Soil is people's inability to READ the label ... having nitrogen already added in a time-release form, newbies add even more fertilizer, then can't understand why their plants are sick ... read the labels on your 'organic' products, and you will usually see natural minerals for their nutrient sources ... nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, etc., are IN-organic minerals, remember ... does it really matter if the potassium comes from birdshit, or potash mined from the ground ??? ... just another way of looking at things ... :jointsmile:

Also MG has weed killer in it:(

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Originally Posted by Sleepyhead1

Also MG has weed killer in it:(

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WTF. No, it does not. It sucks, but it contains no herbicide. Take your foolishness elsewhere, we're all stocked up here.

You can cut straws to length, then slit the side and wrap it around the stem. That'll prop them up!