"Dr. Rev. Chuck, M.D. P.A." wrote:

DigitalVinyl wrote:

Is there some ratio or something to decide how leggy is leggy? I
think i haven't given my seedlings enough light and i know leggy
transplants do't do well, but for a beginner looking at a shelf full
of plants, I don't know if this is leggy or not. Specifically i'm most
concerned about peppers(bell, jalapeno, & cayenne). For instance, my
best looking one is close to 5 inches high.

1.25" up a set of two "non-true" simple leaves
--forgot the technical terms for them.
2.75" up is the first true leaf
3.50" up is the second true leaf
4.00" up is the third true leaf
4.25" up is the fourth
and fifth and two small ones that ar just beginning.

Is that leggy? They are about 8 weeks old in a 5" pot.

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

What type light source? How close?
I have a nice sunny window (SSE) where six pots sit completely in the
window frame-several hours of sun a day. but two pots hang back
further with a window box which I'm getting ready to move outside. I
added plain flourescents for the back plants, but they are 2 small 18"
ones. I'm guessing 15 Watt each. They are only about two inches from
the tops of the tallest.

Since this is a first go-around for me, I'm not even sure if the
plants are the size they should be after 8 weeks (from seed, about 5-7
from germination). The tallest are around 4.5" some only 3"

Shoot I was just in a nursery this morning I should have paid more
attention to their pepper plants. I remember their tomato plants were
much bigger(7-9" tall)

FWIW, peppers are good for your first attempts at starting indoors because
they rarely become leggy.
I also started italian parsley, thyme, chives and oregano. I
transplanted some of each (i had to thin a lot of seedlings) about 3-4
weeks ago into a large window box. Mostly to practice transplanting
without killing them. The parsley seemed to take the longest to
recover, about 3 weeks before it really looked like they resumed top
growth--don't know what the root system is like on any. Only one of
the three chive bunches i tranplanted really looks like they are
growing at all.


DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)