Blame it on the ratio of gray to sunny days this early in the season. Blame it on my failure to put something reflective behind the seed trays to augment the light from the southern window. Blame it on Heather’s house, which sits far too close to my house and eats up precious southerly light. (On second thought, let’s not blame it on Heather’s house. It is a lovely house with lovely people in it.)
Dear readers, my Brussels sprouts and broccoli raab seedlings have gone leggy on me:
I don’t have the budget or the desire to invest in lights for starting seeds, so what light we get from the southern window in the upstairs sunporch has to do. Are these seedlings useless? Should I just start over, with some aluminum-foil-wrapped cardboard behind them this time?
The good news is that the artichoke seedlings (two precious chunky bundles) look good. Though I guess I should get that aluminum foil up before they shoot up all spindly too. How cute are these?
I love these little artichokes. I coo to them. I hope they remember the love when it comes time to give up those tasty buds. I also hope I have the will power to let one or two of those buds flower instead of eating them. Artichoke flowers are gorgeous. (But the buds taste so good! But the flowers are so pretty! Tasty! Pretty! Oh, the torture. Yeah…not a chance any of those artichokes will be left to flower while I’m on watch.)
And the asparagus are coming up! Very exciting. I’ll take some outside garden photos this weekend.
If David didn’t water the plants and the cat they would all be dried up. I’m hopeless and have no advice. Artichoke flowers are startling, but yes the buds are delicious. I’m going to live vicariously through your garden photos and hopefully we’ll sign up with a CSA this year.
our sprouts were getting all leggy too. we get such crappy light at our house. we caved and bought some grow lamps. hehheh. it makes me feel kind of naughty to have grow lamps in my basement even though they’re only for my tomatoes and broccoli.
The good news is you won’t have to eat any brussels sprouts!
I think the seedlings are ok, I would try to give them more light, they obviously are searching for more. I wouldn’t throw them out.
a) Love the headline.
b) I think my heart turned over at the thought of homegrown asparagus.
Keep them! Is there space on a porch where they could get a bit of light during the day? We turn on a fan (at a distance) for our seedlings sometimes. The breeze makes them thicken up a bit.
Yeah. I have gro-lights for those years when I DO do seedlings. I’m thinking I’m not going to this year, though. So I really don’t have an answer for you. The thing about leggy seedlings is they could turn out OK, or they could fall over and rot at the bases. There’s no real telling until/unless it happens.
I need to get my seedlings started! I have grand plans for actually planting a real raised bed this year, but I need to get going.
One thought on the grow light that’s worked for me in the past. If you can find a cheap desk lamp that points down and takes compact fluorescent bulbs, that can work. I grow herbs from seeds in my interior office at work. Office Depot, etc., sometimes have reasonable lamps on sale for as little as $25. That, plus a CF bulb and a light timer can do the trick for around $40. Cheaper than fancy grow lights?
Everything I’ve read, says that you don’t have to buy fancy grow-lights. 40 watt fluorescents are all you need. you just need them set up very low and close to the plants.
We picked up some long fluorescents used, at a salvage yard. We hung them from the ceiling on a chain so that they’re inches from the seeds. The light will get raised as the seedlings grow. Granted this is the 1st year we’re doing this, but I am very optimistic.
I haven’t blogged in forever, but am hoping to post photos this week of my setup.
You can also try blowing a fan lightly on them to toughen them up a bit. Don’t give up.
don’t bother blaming our house — we got spindly seedlings too. i think we’re going to nudge them to toughen up with a bit of the fan, and otherwise remember that i planted everything from seed in mid-may last year and it all worked out ok. but, still … grrrrrr…
My tomato seedlings were long and leggy. Reading about such things lead my husband to believe they were gone for sure. We replanted into larger /deeper containers and are hoping for the best. Some have since improved and others have passed.
My kale and broccoli are leggy, too. My tomatoes are ok. My artichokes look like yours, BUT – I have an ALBINO artichoke coming up. ????