Seedlings too heavy!

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
I think I may have a problem with my new seedlings, please help.

Recently I have sprouted some seeds I've had stored away for some time (over 3 years) of the most bomb dank I've ever smoked--it was amazing to me that it had seeds at the time, and I was pissed at first, but then after thinking about it I realized it may have been a lucky fluke, so I've had them stored away for a rainy day.

Anyway, I sprouted them in damp paper towels. 11/13 seeds sprouted to my amazement (I didn't think any would since they were so old.)

Since then I have planted each of them in their own small shot glass sized plastic cups with sterilized nursery soil and cleared out a room for them. While I'm trying to acquire an appropriate growing light they have been under a desk lamp with a cool white bulb (I know, this is terrible, but I have no other light source at the moment.) I've been watering them every other day with aged water, basically only when the soil is dry.

My problem is that my seedlings are growing too strong I think. They are growing very tall, they're all around 4-5 inches tall right now, but with very little leafing. They're pretty much just a thin little stem shooting up out of their cups with two little leaves on the top. Today I went in my makeshift room and many of them had toppled over from the weight of their little leaves on their tall skinny stems. The stems seem freakishly long to me, and I think perhaps I gave them too much water or was giving them too much light. I'm going to go put a straw in each cup and use a twist tie to stand them up as soon as I post this, but are there any suggestions?

I've read that the plants can get too heavy with buds late in their flowering so they need to be tied up, but this is ridiculously early! They've only been out of the soil for less than a week.

As far as lighting goes, for the first few days they had an arbitrary light cycle. I was turning the lights on when I got home and off when I went to bed, and wasn't keeping them on long because the desk lamp gets really hot. I have since acquired a timed power strip and they're on 16 hours now (I've read this will produce more females.)

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text.

In short, my babies are toppling over, is this ok? What should I do?
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
Update: I've just finished adding support straws to my fallen seedlings. I observed that the fallen plants were all on the same side of the cups, so possibly the plants were growing towards the light then toppled over when not upright enough. My largest plants in the center of my cups have not toppled over. So it seems as though my light coverage area could just not be wide enough?
 

bmn420

Well-Known Member
If you don't have a proper light fixture, I would recommend sticking them outside in the sun. They will get all the light they need if the weather is sunny and none of them will stretch.
 

txhomegrown

Well-Known Member
Too far??? Hell, it woldn't matter how close he put that desk lamp it simply is not enough light. Plus it is not even the right type of light.
Just go to Walmart, or your local equivalent and buy a clip-on shop light with the round reflector. They cost about six or seven bucks. THEN, buy at least a 26 watt CFL(compact flouresant light) about another fou bucks. Put the light about four inches from the top of the plant. Do it soon or dont bother to do it at all. Your plants will be dead in a few days without more light.
 

dilbo99

Active Member
Get yourself some better lighting - a mh or at least 200w worth of cfl's, personally for vegging i use a 200w envirolite which works a treat, the benifit of using one of these is you can have the light about 3 inch from the top of the plant which produces tight nodes.

also try and get a fan on them, will really strengthen the stems up!
 

smartbadguy

Well-Known Member
yah put it by the sun with little shade if u can or give it more light add some 24w clf lights and always get a runnin fan blowing on them, it will make the stem. try addin more dirt too or hold it up with somthing
 

NoDrama

Well-Known Member
a cool white incandescent bulb? thats not going to do any good, coulda just left them in the dark. you really shouldn't start growing before you have the right equipment to do so. go get a bunch of CFL's and start vegging them the right way. Transplant into larger soil container asap and bury the stem up to the first leaf.
 

misshestermoffitt

New Member
Make sure your CFL's are the 6500K daylight bulbs for the veg state. You need way more lighting. I personally am not a fan of staking seedlings either. I think it does more harm than good. If your seedlings are leggy and falling over there is a reason and no amount of staking is going to make it better.

Some seeds can stay good for 20+ years. That's why when you mess around and turn soil in the yard you get the instant weeds springing up, their seeds had been lurking around just waiting to be brought closer to the surface.
 
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