new to gardening. now needing to fix mistakes

[Arielle35]

ok so i have never really gardened before other than a little here and there growing up. so for my birthday I bought a 4 tier green house, jiffy peat pott containers and seeds and indoor potting soil for later.. and 2 grow lamps. 1 for the top shelf and 1 for the middle shelf.
ok so everything went great...almost every single seed sprouted..some in a matter of 3 days!!! others took like 14 and i wasnt sure if they were duds, but they sprouted. I didnt do what it said on one package, cuz im kinda lazy... it said to put in the fridge for 7 days
then to plant... maybe lazy isnt the word...more impatient? lol
ok so now i have these little sprouts and they are cute. I leave the front flap of the green house open now to give them the air in the house and i keep my apt very warm ( about 76-78 degrees) i am planning on buying an oscilating fan and set on low to give them a breeze
cuz i read that makes them stronger.
But here is my problem. and after alot of searching i think i found out what its from... they are growing sooooo tall!!! i dont know if they are suppose to grow that tall..but 1 type of flower (double inpatiens) are about 6 inches tall with thier baby leaves and 1 set of true leaves and tiny little second true leaves... and alot of my other smaller seedlings are tall and skinny...idk if they are suppose to look like that cuz i cant find pics of brand new seedlings (painted daisys, coleus, columbine, sweet william, blue flax) well after reading alot i think my light was too far away from them and they were growing taller to get closer to the light.. (the light was about 8-9 inches away) so i just moved them about 4 inches away now (i stuck things underneath to lift them up)..but is there any way to fix them being all tall and skinny and falling over? yes i stuck little tooth picks in next to them and used dental floss to wrap around them..haha it works..but how do i make them stronger?

also when i first planted SOME of them i put 2 seeds in just in case one didnt make it, well 2 days ago i took the smaller seedling out and put them in their own container..so now there is just 1 per pot... my mom said when thinning to just pluck the small one, but
i let her have it! I told her i wasnt going to kill a perfectly good seedling just cuz its smaller! sheesh! (ok so this whole growing thing is fun for me)

ok so anyway... problems... how do i make them fuller and not so skinny? i planted all seeds 4 weeks ago today.. some are only 1/2 inch tall and some are 2-3 inches, and my double inpatiens are about 6-7 inches. also...because again i was inpaitent I think i planted them way to early.. now im wondering if they are going to outgrow there little baby pots before i can plant outside?? ya they prob will... I live in idaho. I cant plant outside till may 31st at soonest!!! some plants i plan on keeping in big pots (coleus) but the others I am planting at my boyfriends house (since me and my kids are just in an apt) ok anyway.. im rambling...any and all advice will be great!... also my birthday money is gone, so i cant buy anything more unless its just a few bucks or so...

thanks for listening

 

[897tgigvib]

Yuppers, your seedlings got to being what they like to call LEGGY.

That's caused by not enough light. It's not the end of the world since it looks like you fixed the situation in time and got the lights closer to them. Leggy seedlings are more tender and sometimes weaker and more susceptible to things like falling over.

One thing you can do is called PINCHING. That's where you carefully reach in to the very growing tip and pinch the growing tip out. That really helps the side buds to grow. (There are Botany class reasons that the plant's side buds grow when the top upward growing bud is removed, complicated things like natural growth hormones being displaced and stuff. Short and easy version is, pinch off the tip and the sides will grow).

With cute little tender things like Impatiens, girl fingers with sharp pointy claws will definitely do the pinching of the tip much better than big ole man hands. Lol!

Careful that the suddenly closer light does not give the tender leggy plants a sudden case of sunburn, for real. Just like people, if you have not been in the sun all winter, then suddenly Memorial day you go canoeing in an aluminum canoe wearing skimpy swimwear all day in the bright sun... here comes the sunburn...with plants that got leggy and tender suddenly under bright lights, the leaves may show dead patchy areas.

Don't want to add one problem being solved to another problem from the cure, so just keep an eye on them for that.

I believe you're going to have a lot of enjoyment!

Oh, and JackB is the indoor growing expert around here. He gets the most awesome setups!

 

[Lothiriel]

Duplicate topic. See here: http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=332359#p332359