This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Help -- what to do about my sprouts?? (long reply)

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Ron,  thank you for that long reply..I printed that one and put it in my
binder of garden wisdom!  I know that when you plant trees you need to let
the sapling have room to move, even though you stake it...for the same
reason, to make the trunk of the tree stronger and to establish a stronger
root system.  It stand to reason it should work with young plants as well.

Thanks,
Peg
-----Original Message-----
From: Souliere <souliere@iname.com>
To: Square Foot Gardening List <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Thursday, September 02, 1999 6:16 AM
Subject: Re: Help -- what to do about my sprouts?? (long reply)


>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>
>From: Patricia J. Santhuff <psanthuff@mindspring.com>
>
>> Thanks, Peg -- That's pretty much what I've done so far, except that I
>> planted the seeds in what I intended to trrasplant them to the garden
from
>> (if that makes sense), and haven't gotten to the 2nd set of leaves stage
>> yet. I'm pretty sure they've gotten at least 14 hours of light, and even
>> closer than the 6 - 9 inches.
>>
>> Anyone have any other ideas for my spindly-legged sprouts?
>
>I may not get many starts any one year, but I do get good ones.
>My lights are controlled by a timer (actually my computer) for the light.
>When I tried just one bank of lights parked 2-3 inches over the plants I
>got good results.  When I put aluminum foil on cardboard as a "mirror"
>on all unused adjacent walls (From a TV show on cops catching people
>growing illegal stuff inside, see TV can be educational) I got even
>better results.  Finally I went for two light units side by side.  I rotate
>the starts around every few days so at least for a few days they seem
>to get light from all sides.  Even better lush vegetation, not leggy,
>but still spindly.  Some people mention using chains to raise and
>lower their lights to adapts to transplants.  I never have enough
>transplats of the same size to do this.  My lights tend to stay 18 inches
>high over the table and I use boxes (over turned plastic transplant
>trays recycled (read scrounged) from the hardware store) to raise
>and lower the transplants.  Some people use expensive Gro lights
>or mix hot and cool tubes.  I just put in new tubes occasionaly and
>rotate the old ones out to places that only need to illuminate humans.
>
>Finally I added a fan.  Again on a timer (still the computer).  Cheap
>$10 fan with the oscillating thing turned on.  I have the fan turned on
>for 1 hour 3 times a day blowing back and forth across the plants,
>the stalks thicken or toughen up this abuse that they would get natrually
>outside.  It is important to move the fan (or what I prefer) rotate the
>starts a few times a week.  This does not work for starts still under
>plastic
>(go figure...)  And when I first tried it and just left the fan on
>constantly
>there was no way to keep up with the watering and some starts
>containers dried and the starts while seemingly okay when watered
>never produced as well as starts that did not dry.  I have read in numerous
>older books about growing transplants that the garderner should touch
>the plants by running his hands over them.  Some books said this was c
>cause human touch was good for plants (or just plain fun) others
>actually said this help encourage thicker stalks.  The fan just does
>this automatically.
>
>Here during summer (end of in the north) I "waste" 1-2 square feet in the
>bed as my nursery.  (I lay the transplant trays right on the bare soil)
>I can have few dozen plants getting full sun and
>everything else and they will be healthier then anything I normally
>develop inside.  (Have not figured out how to do this in january though)
>So my fall broccoli (first time) and other fall crops I am getting ready
>to put in the ground.  (lettuce and beans and peas I direct sowed...)
>
>Best of luck.  YMMV.  Sorry for the long reply.  - Ron
>
>
>______________________________________________________________________
>To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
>MSN Messenger Service lets you stay in touch instantly with
>your family & friends - Visit http://messenger.msn.com


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
MSN Messenger Service lets you stay in touch instantly with
your family & friends - Visit http://messenger.msn.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index