Why do my seedlings stretch?

[68camaro]

id use some daylight 4' florescent tubes. in ordinary shop housings.
40watt daylight bulbs and you can grow a bush with the proper care and neuts. then introduce to your 400 watt bulb and stand back, especially if your bending. most lower branches should be all but gone by the time you put the 400 watt bulb into operation. when the seedling is growing you need to train it for its life ahead, slow grooming and pruning as it grows is key to some big buds with 400 watt bulbs.
i dont tie up branched, they r strong. ive bent grinders with the compact buds that r grown. bending and neuts with light grow great meds!
ive a migrain now, ill be back in a few. ive some lemon smelling erkle i would like to try!
these suggestions r not expensive as most other. incorperate some pure molasas twards the last 1/2 of its bloom cycle. with a refressing flush at the end. cut and cure if possible! you wont believe what happens!
happy growing
68

 

[68camaro]

ive tried all flo bulbs
these work the best for the first month!!
hands down!
this time is important to the plants life, transplanting and white roots r a must!
the first time tried i couldnt believe what happened. not only did i get the roots i wanted! the above ground level the plant exploded! in my humble opinion it was the time given to the plant to do its thing, without being blasted with all the light! much healthier roots, bitc---g plants. awsome meds!
all from some 4' shop florescent bulbs, a total of 6 bulbs used in 3 recepticals. for the first mo. or more. i believe the roots have much more time to establish themselves. be ready! they grow fast once put under the 400 watt bulb. no less than 3 gal. bag o soil. light lifted everyday and watering every 22 hrs till transplanted to a 5 gal bag if needed. these r things i deal with till flowering. last of the lower branches removed and totally recover from everything before putting into flwr.
no stress!! now till harvest! tender love and care!
peace

 

[Dober]

move your plant closer to your light source. I had the same problem. Started my seedlings with lights 5 feet above and within 4 days the plants were about 4" tall and toppling over. I moved the light down to within 2" and day 30 now everything looks normal.

 

[logcabinbud]

I'm going legal next week up here in maine and started some seeds from some pretty good commercial for the heck of it. eventually i'll be doing hydro but for now i'd thought and see what i can learn from growing in buckets outside till i get my indoor set up going. anyways, the two that are the furthest along are about three inches high and pretty thin. i put some soil around the base for support. I just started putting them outside during day light and bring them in at night. any ideas as to when i shoul top it if at all. sorry for the ramble. just indulged

 

[PeeJay]

For folks growing in limited space keeping seedlings short out of the gate is very desirable. No matter what kind of light you'll be using down the road, CFL's that lean towards the blue spectrum - labeled soft white or bright white are the ticket. Tubes work well, too. It's easy to think that "daylight" bulbs would be the best choice, but they are not. Too much red spectrum. I like to use two 23w bright white bulbs on a Y splitter. You can get parts to rig something up for cheap at a home improvements store. If you are concerned about minimizing initial stretch it is well worth it. I keep them 2"-3" above the plant. You have to check them frequently to make sure the plant doesn't grow too close to the lights.

Aside from the light distance and spectrum the amount of stretch is influenced by how quickly the seedling sheds it's seed jacket. When the plant sprouts with the seed jacket in place it will keep growing upwards at a rapid rate until the first set of round leaves (cotyledons) open. Ideally you want the plant to leave the seed jacket behind in the soil. A good way to help that happen is by planting the seeds about 3/4" deep. When the seed is planted too shallow the soil does not pull the seed jacket off. The friction of the soil commonly pulls off the seed jacket if we plant a little deeper.

Several of us ran experiments looking at seedling stretch a while back. I'll post a few pictures to illustrate.

Here's a picture that shows how close to the light I start out. The angle makes it look less than it is. The light is about 2" above the pot.

Here is a picture of a seedling under the lights.

This is a picture of another grower's seedling set up.

Next, here are some pictures of seedlings coming up with the seed jacket already shed and the cotyledons opening up right out of the gate, followed by a picture of a seedling that has not yet shed the seed jacket. Planting a little deeper - 3/4" - helps prevent this.

Keeping the light 2"-3" from the 23w CFLs keeps things short. The first picture is of a Sage n' Sour at 4 days. Sativas are expected to stretch more. The second picture is of a 50/50 hybrid at four days.

Here is a picture of another grower at 10 days with the same CFLs ~ 20 inches above the plant. Note the much greater stretch - growing stem not foliage.

This other grower's seedling continued to stretch like crazy. He then made a common mistake to try and fix the problem. He repotted at 18 days and buried a bunch of the stem to make the plant stable. This is a bad idea. Folks like to say new roots will grow out of the buried stem. It's true, they will, but it will stress the crap out of the plant. You are much better off using some sort of support to keep the seedling upright than burying the stem! Please don't bury the stem. Here are pictures of his transplant at 18 days and a picture of the plant at 31 days...

By contrast here are some pictures of what you can accomplish by keeping the 23w cfls 2"-3" from the top of the plants. Many of these pictures were taken in the greenhouse; just because it's is hard to take pictures of the plants under the lights. They lived in the veg box, not in the greenhouse.

Here is an OG Kush at 10 days.

The Sage n' Sour we looked at earlier at 8 days and then 15 days.

A couple of Darkstars at 21 days.

A couple of White Panther at 15 days. One was a little wonky and was later killed off.

Here's the OG at 25 days.

And just for fun a picture of an almost ready to chop Darkstar and a nugget of the OG.

Hope this was helpful.

 

[logcabinbud]

Thanks PeeJay. My seedlings look pretty good. I won't put any soil around the base again. Luckily I didn't use more than a literal pinch of soil. I have five going now and one looks like the kush and the others look like your sativas above. I'm only watering when the soil is dry and in the morning. Also when I put the seeds in the soil I drenched the soil and let the excess water drain through the planters. Then after I planted the seeds I put a freezer bag over the pot. sort of like a mini greenhouse. Since they sprouted I've been putting them outside in direct sunlight and wind. Just having fun experimenting. peace. bigdog

 

[MiMi93]

Pee Jay can you please please read this what I have wrote here on this tread and write there what you think about it ... please

Amateur Indoor/Outdoor grow - need support & advice

 

[Rosco917]

My seedlings are in rock wool, with the plastic cover, and a T5 light on 24/7, and still the girls are stretching, it's day five, and their 3.5" tall. There covered over with a towel at all times, as per suggestions.
They receive, pHed 6.0 water, with a light dose (20% of suggested) of General Organics suggested for 1st week of plant growth.

Am I doing something wrong? Why are they stretching?

 

[Highdroponic]

Sounds like what others are saying that your lights are too high, but also check the intensity of your balasts. I've been recommended to keep mine at 750, and when they were turned up to 1000 there was too much stretch and the growth was too quick.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't anyone mention fimming or topping the plants. I'm more a fan of filming as it seems less harsh on the plant than out-right topping, but you're basically curtailing the upward growth to get a more bushy plant. However, I like it for giving some of the shorter plants a chance to catch up so I can load my bloom room with as many even-sized plants as possible.

Thoughts?

 

[Sativarius]

Seedlings require almost sunlight level light for about 1 week after sprouting to prevent stretching. This is very hard to produce using Fluorescents or HPS /MH because you need to put the light too close and risk burning them. I have gotten excellent results using LED growlights at about 16". See attached photos..

 

[baron1]

had a problem with stretching. lowered the light and added a fan. problem solved

 

[kckike]

Nice post, I have a lot to learn...so thanks! Really appreciated

 

[BlazewithJay]

I want to start my own hydroponics.. I dont have the money for all the high end shit... I just want to try to rig up my own ish... Any ideas or experienced riggers?

 

[kckike]

Hey man, there is many hydroponic systems you can try, i once rigged an NFT with pvc tubes and a receboir... But if you want something simpler and cheaper, i would recommend a drip irrigarion system (not sure if that is the correct name in english) just run a mediem size pipeline along your plants and make it return to the reaevoir, then make small holes in your main pipe to run smaller pipes to each plant and add a "dropper" at the end.. Feed your plants regulary and have them in coco coir or clay pebbles. (i recommend a mix of both)

Hope you understood me, english is not my first lenguage m8... If you have a question, dont hesitate to ask!

 

[stilyovitch]

About 2 weeks ago my seedling (already about 4 inches high) bent over and the stem creased. I HAD a weatherproof paper that I folded into a cylinder shape (taped up) with the seedling in between for support. Now the seedling seems to have started to die from the crease up, embryonic leaves and the two that came after. Now I have a stick dug into the soil and used fish line to tie the seedling up at 3 points. I'm using Miracle - Gro Nature's Care Potting Mix. (Miracle - Gro 8 Quart Natures Care Potting Mix at Blain's Farm & Fleet) I'm not sure if there is hope, but any input/advice will be MUCH appreciated. I have another Seedling with the seed still attached. I want to try and do a better job with this one.

- yours truly

 

[cannilingus]

same here. they stretch, because they are light hungry. i finally put my seedlings, directly under a cfl, or, florescent, withing two inches of the light. they dont stretch. grow, yes. and, i just keep them 2-3 inches below the light, as they grow, slowly rotating a bit, every time i visit. currently, i have three feminized seedlings of "orange hill special", under t-8 lights. and, they are about two weeks old, and seem happy. it took me longer than you might think, to learn the stretch problem. duh. lol.

 

[Sherrids]

Hi everyone,
I have my plants on a heated matt in a huge window that receives daylight all day. My plants have stretched but now that they're 8 weeks old and have been steadily growing and setting new leaves they seem okay. They are rotated daily and we have been starting to set them outside in the evening to harden them off. We have never used any type of grow lights and the natural light seems to work just fine. We have one plant that is sickly but it's been isolated and is rallying...it probably won't produce much but that's how we've learned.

 

[Kevinhayes]

I've read alot about the "stretch". What I would like to know is since the sun is very high above us won't my plants want to keep stretching. I'm growing in a green house with a transparent cover. This may be a stupid question but I haven't read anything about that for outdoors / greenhouses

 

[Hdinkleman]

I've read alot about the "stretch". What I would like to know is since the sun is very high above us won't my plants want to keep stretching. I'm growing in a green house with a transparent cover. This may be a stupid question but I haven't read anything about that for outdoors / greenhouses

i believe DLI and nighttime cycle have something to do with it.
i have noticed personally ( maybe different for you) that overnight is when plants stretch.
i think if they dont get the light they need during the day, they stretch out during the night and reach for wherever the light was coming from during their last day cycle.
so maybe as a test i wonder if people who start seedlings at 24/0 light cycle ever have stretch issues, my hypothesis would be no)

 

[Kevinhayes]

i believe DLI and nighttime cycle have something to do with it.
i have noticed personally ( maybe different for you) that overnight is when plants stretch.
i think if they dont get the light they need during the day, they stretch out during the night and reach for wherever the light was coming from during their last day cycle.
so maybe as a test i wonder if people who start seedlings at 24/0 light cycle ever have stretch issues, my hypothesis would be no)

Still will be my first serious grow so I'll find out.