Leggy Seedlings Greenhouse Experiment...
Experiment with Leggy Seedlings
Is it still too cold to plant outside but you have some cooler hardy starts growing and sun shining??
We are going to start having some great weather days with lots of sun and I wanted my seedlings to get some natural light as some were getting leggy and it is too cold to plant directly outside but going to be nice and sunny! I also wanted to make more room indoors to start more seeds so thought of this idea! Read further to see what I decided to try out with my little seedlings!
I know that alot of you that read my blog do not have a greenhouse like I have on your homestead and that is ok! You can still learn as I do but adjust to what you have available and make it your own. You can still do this route with or without a greenhouse!
I noticed my kale, lettuce and my mexican sunflower seeds were a little leggy (stretching long to reach light). As they grow you need to start planting them in bigger containers and either keep them growing under the lights indoors as close as possible to the light without it touching the seedlings... or... I am going to do something different with these leggy plants, maybe try with me?!
Since I have extra seeds I wanted to try an experiment. We have great weather coming, close to 60 degrees and sun so thought I would take advantage of the natural light. I took the sunflower seedlings and the kale seedlings so far (lettuce will be this week as I ran out of time) and removed the ones that were more leggy than the others. I left two plants per pod for now and what I did was gather up soil from the garden area I am working on and mixed in some organic seedling soil into one of my milk jugs. I then planted two "pods" per jug to not shock the seeds so much cause of the added extra space.
So as you can see they are tucked into the jugs, all nice and cozy.
I then took the bottom part of the jugs that I had cut off a few weeks ago and put them right back on like a lid. I am hoping with the extra greenhouse like affect that the seedlings will grow up towards the lid of the jug due to the natural light reflecting off of it. I dont know of the sunflowers will but with the kale being a cold hardy plant I am hoping it works. If it does this would then help free up some seed starting space indoors as I will start to transplant the herbs and other leafy greens that have sprouted inside.
Are you wanting to know how we created this "contraption" in the greenhouse with more picture of it? Check out that post here!
I will update this post in about a week or so and let you know if it was an epic failure or a radical success! Stay tuned!
Happy Farming!
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Update: The sunflowers just didn't make it cause of it being too cold for them to grow, however our kale is doing amazing in the milk jugs along with chard and herbs! I can't wait to use this during the colder months and grow year round!
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