stretchy seedlings

hello there, i have 20 little babies (10 sensei star fems and 10 nebula fems)from paradise seeds under 2 t-5s and skylights (no more than a week and a half old) , the last of them just broke out of their shells the other day, but they are all about 4 inches tall and top heavy. 4 or 5 of them bent right over, didn't kink the stems or anything but im trying to decide what my next move should be. Im either going to let them stand back up on their own (might make them more resiliant to future stresses they may encounter?) i might stake them upright (to help the babies along) or i might transplant them into other pots and set them just an inch or 2 above the soil.

really ill probably try all of the above, but i am curious as to what a more experienced hand would do in such a situation.

Thanks

I am less experienced then you; however I think reading over many threads a common cause can be lighting not being intense enough? I'm sure someone with more experience n grows can give you proper information, sit tight for few its lil slow atm.

In my personal in-experienced opinion from reading for few months I would say this came to my attention a few times with seedlings growing too fast to support themselves, as I said I'm not experienced so I'm not going to give you improper steps to take after this has occurred, but I believe part of the cause is due to the seedlings reaching for the light as its not strong enough, but I could be wrong as I don't have a complete grow myself yet.

You probably have the T5s too high, too much distance to the plants so they stretch towards the light. While an advantage of using T5 is that you can keep your plants low by keeping the light as close as possible. I use 0.1 to 2 inch max.

But transplanting and putting them deeper is indeed the way to handle those bend over seedlings. Do lower the light though else you'll have the same problem sooner than later. Edit: like in this one: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/644284-plants-leaning-over.html

they are gona climb when first up is why i plant mine in 1/2 cup of soil add other 1/2 after stretch

after they get leafes on them cotyledons then you can controll that by bringing lights closer
untill then nutin you can do it will also give you closer internode space

glucktoya

What i typically do when i screw up and dont put the lights close enough, and they stretch, is pack some soil around the stem to give em a little backup until they thicken up on their own

acording to my light meter my T5HO 49W tubes only provide really good strong light at 1-4 inch`s after 12" I don't even get a reading, so I try to keep em at 4" to allow em some space to grow at 4-10" they still provide ok light for the lower plant in Veg. but some kind of training is required if you want to grow big plants under fluorescent light

good stuff, all other seasons I always just parked the youngins under my skylights and everything went according to plan. first time using any kind of synthetic light... thanks for the insight.

it looks as if they are starting to pick themselves back up, you think they will have nice strong stalks if i just let them right themselves? or would I just be asking for sparse and spindally plants?

the lights are just for some extra photons for the little ladies to enjoy before they head outside for the rest of the season. (they are still getting a good 4 or 5 hours of direct sunlight and the rest of the day they get diffused light. always was enough in the past)

Repot them and bury the stems deeper in the soil. Give them more light. They will be fine after they grow some provided they have enough the right environment.

Put them right under the t5's or close to a source of natural light.