Re: seedling question
Thanks to all for the great responses. I have now put my plants under the
flourescent lights in my basement and they are already showing signs of
improvement. I'm giving them about 18 hours a day and hope to move them
outside at the end of May. Thanks again.
Pat Russell
Zone 5 , Akron OH
> At 07:51 PM 5/11/02 -0400, Pat (writing from zone 5 in north-central Ohio,
> said,
>
> >I started some seedlings about three weeks ago and am concerned with
their
> >progress. The cucumbers appear to be doing well (have started growing
real
> >leaves) but the others, tomatoes and bell peppers, do not seem to be
> >progressing (no real leaves yet, tall but thin). Should I expect them to
> >still do well when transplanted to the garden next weekend? Thanks for
> >helping a new and nervous gardener.
>
> April 1 is probably a better time than mid-April for starting tomato
> seedlings in order to have stocky transplants perhaps 6 inches tall to put
> into the garden in mid-May in your zone, Pat. A simple setup for indoor
> lighting using shop-lights (ordinary fluorescents from the hardware store)
> will do fine. It's not too late to jack the light level up on your babies
> by having those fluorescents perched an inch or two above their tops and
> the lights turned on 18 hours a day. Lack of light is indeed the most
> likely cause for the spindliness you reported above.
>
> Cukes transplant fine, but they do like hot weather. Mid-Ohio still has
> cold nights this time of year (I'm from zone 5 originally), so you'll
> probably do better by putting the baby cukes under the lights, too, for at
> least another week.
>
> Peppers are much slower to germinate than tomatoes in my experience. So
> they're prolly well behind your baby toms in development. And they'll
love
> the enhanced light conditions between now and outplanting time, too. Next
> year, try starting your pepper seeds around March 15 and your toms April
1.
>
> I would be leery of planting toms or peppers before Memorial Day in your
> area. Even here in zone 7 land (I'm just outside Washington, DC), we had
a
> late frost one year recently where everybody's outplanted toms and peps
> were killed around June 4! Luckily that phenomenon coincided with a huge
> bout of procrastination on my part. My babies were hardening off on the
> outside front porch when the frost forecast was released by the weather
> people, and I whisked them indoors for the night.
>
> --Janet
>
>
>
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