Hello All:

This website has been an invaluable source of information and support for me (a beginner), so thanks. I have vegetables going in a raised bed outside, and I decided to start some fall vegetable seedlings indoors under lights. I've been using some plant/aquarium lights I found at Walmart for $10 each, and I have been keeping the lights as close as possible to the seedlings. I'm growing them indoors because it's going to stay in the mid 90s and even low 100s for the next month where I live, and I don't think my seedlings could survive that. I took them away from their light table so I could get a picture of all of them at once.

Anyway, the last time I tried to start plants from seeds, they looked so incredibly pathetic (flopped over and shriveled) that these actually look pretty healthy by comparison. I have several questions, but if you just feel like answering one or two of the questions, that would still help me out a lot. I know this is long.

1. But do they look healthy to you guys, or are they leggy? (I have no idea about the bent over one on the left. It just came up over night like that.) If they are leggy, is there something I can do about it? I am already keeping the light very close.

2. Also, I plan to thin them by just cutting off the weakest ones at the bottom of the stem. Should I do that now, or later?

3. They live in my kitchen, which can get up to 85 degrees during the day, and then about 70 degrees at night. Is that too hot? Should I put them somewhere else during the day, and then under the lights at night?

4. I have 3 plug in plant/aquarium plug-in fluorescent lights in my set up, but when the seedlings get taller, I'd like to get a 4 foot shop light with a warm tube and cool tube (most people seem to recommend that). The thing is, I'm a renter and can't wire the shop light to anything. I need a shop light that plugs in, but I haven't seen any 4 ft. two tube lights like that. Plug in lights are so much more expensive too. Any ideas about how to accomplish this economically?

Thanks Again!

This post was edited by MarilynShipley on Mon, Jul 22, 13 at 15:43