Help Please!! Stretching plants in aerogarden.

I have an aerogarden 7 and so far it is working great. The only problem I can see so far is that the lowest height level of the lights the Aerogarden allows causes the fresh started plants to stretch from the start as it is about 7 inches from the plants (can NOT adjust it any lower to the plants). I have 2 6500k CFL's in ballasts and tried to clip one on each side of the Aerogarden, but then the plants just bent to one side or the other (Big time), and not straight up. You can not hang the lights above the Aerogarden (where they should be) because of Aeogardens Ballast is in the way. Does anyone have any ideas?...My plants are only 5 days old, but doing very well (besides the stretching). Wouldnt a light on each side even out amount the plants get and cause them to stand straight up?...or is this even a big deal (Noob here). Thanks for any help/suggestions. Below is a pic at 4 days old.

merry christmas

I think if it was me, I'd get a couple of those adjustable desk lamps and put cfls in there and get the light right down as close as you can. Sure it would have to be from the side but you need light and closer to the plants. Probably about half what you have. AND hope for the best for a week or two.

There are some pretty talented people on here and I'm sure you'll get a more satisfactory answer. Good luck.

Get cfls as close as possible and the lamps work well for side lighting...and it really doesnt matterif the plant is leaning just train your plant

Those plants are not stretching, simply leaning towards your light source.

As previously mentioned, a couple CFL's at this stage will straighten them out.

But I wouldn't worry.

Yeah, my best answer would be just to bodge some extra domestic CFL's in there (anything from 12W to 30W) - i would do it like Dobby says by just bending down 1 or 2 flexi-desk lamps so they right over top of seedlings.

Or if there's not the space for that, try finding something to use as a thin vertical pole that can sit next to side of garden & is secured maybe by having its base wedged under bottom of aerogarden box. One pole solution is wire coathangers; straighten about 4 or 5 of them out & then braid/twist all the lengths around each other so they make a slightly thicker version of 1 straight wire. Then bend this bulk straight wire into a rough L shape & wedge one end under the aerogarden. The other sticking up end should be a vertical pole at the side that u can now clip the clip-on socket holder onto, with that bonus that the braided wires should be flexible enough to bend inwards so light can get abit closer to plants.

Otherwise, the only other thing is the get a T5 strip light & just mount it up on support blocks whilst laid horizontal over the plants. (i.e. rest the horizontal T5 unit onto 2 blocks sitting on aerogarden surface) Just make sure u use something heat proof as the blocks (like ceramic coffee mugs, hardened glass ashtrays, small oven dishes, etc) Thoo if u did T5 option, is probably best to turn off main aerogarden light for the moment & just use T5 until seedlings reach high enough to turn off T5 & turn main light on again.

Hope thats sparks a few ideas anyway!

http://www.aerogarden.com/aerogardens/aerogarden-extra-1/aerogarden-extra-1.html

Well that would have helped answer the question, please discount my previous posting.

There's also a great sticky in this Newbie forum called Replant Those Long Stretchy Stems ( Its Easy ) by Goten. If they are, indeed, "stretchy," check out his post. Good luck with your new set up.