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Moving seedlings from cell to 3' pot, do I need light.

Jerry71
13 years ago

Most of my flower seedling are in their own 3 inch pot and are sturdy and healthy. Do they still need supplementary light? They do get close to 12 hours of strong light from east, south and west windows in my sunroom. You can see some on my blog, just scroll down to update post.

When you transplant so many plants from small cells to 3" pots you need 4 times more room. There is very limited area under the lights. Any suggestions?

Comments (7)

  • mandolls
    13 years ago

    If you really have strong sunlight for 12 hours a day then I bet they would be fine without additional light. All you can do is try it. If you are in zone 6 then you are probably planting out soon anyway. When I have purchased small plants from nurseries there have been occasions that they sat indoors or in the deep shade for a week or two before I got around to getting them in the ground and they were fine. It is going to depend on the size of the plants more than the size of the pots.

    I wish I had a sunroom with 12 hours a day of sun!

  • Started_with_bean
    13 years ago

    I would continue to provide supplemental lights for the flowers that usually need full sun during the summer, ie, cosmos, zinnias, tomatoes. The lobelias will be very happy in your sunroom, but the others may start to get leggy. It's not just the length of daylight they need, but the strength. It's hard to provide the intensity of the sun artificially.

    But I agree; I wish I had a sunroom with 12 hours of light too!

  • Jerry71
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you mandolls and started_with_bean. I have a feeling that I have seeded myself into a corner, so to speak. Way too ambitious for my first year of serious flowers from seed growing project. I started with a tray that holds 72 inch and half cells plus about dozen 3" pots. Well, all those 72 cells had to be transplanted to larger pots plus some, like lobelia, were split. In short, I started with 10" X 46" area of seedlings and now I am at about 10" X 120" and growing. And now I have to transplant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. No light for all of them, for sure. Vegetables will have the priority, no question about that. Hmm, I guess that I am over my head this year. Check the pictures on my blog and it will give you an idea about my dilemma. In a way I am lucky that we have so much sun in that sunroom.

    http://jerry-our-garden.blogspot.com/

    Here is a link that might be useful: The sunroom.

  • mandolls
    13 years ago

    I took a look at your blog. The plants look great right now. When did you sow them? I have tarragon that is just starting to poke through the soil. Tomatoes, Broccoli and Cauliflower are already in bigger pots, many more flowers and veg in small cells & peat pots. I have started more than ever before this year and I am afraid that I will be in your shoes shortly. I just hung another shelf of fluorescents this morning, so I have 4 now, room for 16 trays, but it will fill up as soon as more transplanting gets underway. I am waiting for it to warm up here a little before I move my cold weather veg out to cold frames. That will free up some room on the shelves. Then I can start more!

  • Jerry71
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    When did I sow them? Well, mandolls, I did start January 18! It is embarrassing somehow, but I did. Just too eager beginner, I guess. But I do not regret it. The bigger plants will go to their final container in 2 weeks or so and I do have a room for them. One of my snapdragons has a flower buds! Now I have to decide which plants will benefit from shipping tops/tips to generate a bushier growth. If you can see any that will benefit, please let me know.
    BTW, if you want to see the progress of my seedlings from very beginning, go back to my blog and go all the way down to oldest posts in January. It is on right side of page. It was and still is quite a journey for a newbie. But, I am a fast learner.

    Here is a link that might be useful: The seedlings

  • mandolls
    13 years ago

    Middle of January is really early! You have been taking good care of them. I am in zone 4 so maybe my sowing in mid March is almost as early. Last year I started in February but that was definitely to early with the light set up I had at the time. Everything survived, but some plants were getting kind of straggly.

    Reading your blog was fun. I have been keeping a gardening diary but its just for me, and I haven't been taking pictures which maybe I should do.

    Nice Orchid pots ! I make pots too. Have some in a show in Chicago right now. Check the link if you are interested in seeing them.

    Here is a link that might be useful: my pots

  • Jerry71
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Nice pots mandolls! So, you like to play with mud? I just started to take pictures and upload them to my blog. To view them, go to blog and click on "The Clay Work" button and then "Stoneware Pottery". For now that�s the only page with some pieces. Check the pottery page from time to time as I add more every day. However, once the outdoor gardening and golf season starts, my computer time will be limited.
    I like your bowls with spoons, very whimsical.
    You can write mi directly to "jkubera-at-rogers-dot-com". Of course you will have to replace that at and dot with proper character.
    As a side note, my snapdragon Rocket is in bloom! Yup, I started a bit too early this year. Lesson learned. Good thing that everything I have done is posted on my blog so next year I can go back and see the time line.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Main blog