Leggy Tomato Seedlings - Tips For Stronger Plants - Geeky Greenhouse

In this video, I talk about leggy tomato seedlings. Leggy refers to a tall, spindly, thin plant that is weaker than it could be. Let's talk about why it happens and the easy ways to avoid it with your tomato plants in the garden!
Learn about planting tomatoes deep:
tinyurl.com/plantingdeep
More tomato growing videos:
tinyurl.com/growingtomatoplants
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[@2elgnismi]

I heard that if you turn your grow light on at first sign of germination and just leave it on for the first 72 hours before setting your timer will help to avoid leggy seedlings. Never tried it but next year I plan on giving it a shot to see if I can see any difference.

[@susanriggs8896]

I have a greenhouse window attached to my house. Most seedlings do well here even with the double-paned windows, though sometimes it gets too hot if it's sunny and hot outside.

[@mombet9146]

Will see how a few “leggy” tomatoes do. Planted today, although temp is heading towards upper 40s tonight 😮! Next purchase: grow lights!

[@ragheadand420roll]

Ive had good luck planting leggy seedlings very deep the stems will grow great roots all along the stem

[@fishlovme]

Ive had leggy plants even with having grow lights. I think the issue i had this year was i went from seedling soil to 100 percent miracle grow potting soil which made them grow too fast and not bushy enough. The peppers, which i used regular potting soil and some miracle grow, did not shoot up nearly as much. I like the miracle grow for the moisture control it has in it but there's too much fertilizer in it as well.

[@davidniemi6553]

I had two big problems with starting tomato seedlings indoors this year -- 1) tall and spindly stems, though this varied a lot by variety; and 2) dropping lower branches early and being very sensitive to dry soil. I had them mostly under grow lights the whole time. I suspect the second problem was due to inferior potting soil, small pot size, and inconsistent watering schedules. I also used a fan as a fungus gnat control measure (perhaps too much), and the tomatoes tolerated the fan much less well than the peppers. I think I also started the first tomatoes about 2 weeks too early, which prevented them from going outdoors until they were quite tall. The spindly ones got much better once they went outside in April for hardening off. I grow a lot of cold-tolerant tomatoes, which even favored being out in nights near freezing over being indoors (most young pepper varieties are much less tolerant of sub-40F/4C) temperatures). Another mistake I made -- early tomatoes are not the same as cold tolerant, they are independent characteristics. And while no tomato plant can tolerate a hard freeze, there are big variations among varieties listed as "cold-tolerant", ranging from "slightly cold tolerant" to "able to set fruit at 38F / 3C"). A tip for those using a sunny window -- if there is a screen, it helps a lot if you can remove it during the early spring seedling growth. During that phase there are not many insects and you probably won't be opening the window much anyway.

[@davidniemi6553]

Update from 2024 -- i started my tomatoes a bit later (the end of Jan) which is helping; and I am using good potting soil from early on. I am still having trouble with some tomatoes dropping leaves or branches if they get just a bit dry. I am using fans more, which seems to be strengthening the stems but also accelerating dryness. And I'm exclusively using grow lights (with plenty of power) for the tomatoes. Observations: 1) tomatoes can tolerate more intense light early than peppers can, but are more sensitive to drying out. 2) non-dwarf tomatoes hit a growth point when a few weeks old (and perhaps 5" tall) when they just take off, and you'd better be ready when they do. 3) Tomatoes don't do well indoors for long, so starting them later than peppers was a step in the right direction.

[@barrybridgeford530]

For the past few years I've started my Toms under regular low-wattage LED bulbs (5,000K) in circular metal reflectors. While their color temperature is noticeably warmer than the 6400K of 'proper' growlights .. but quite cheaper. My Toms are a bit leggy but not a real problem. Will the 5,000k bulbs cause any problems in the Toms' development? I've been able to transplant them successfully and enjoy good harvests, but I'm wondering if I'm missing anything consequential in using my "cheap" alternative light sources?

[@davidniemi6553]

A very good question. In my experience ordinary indoor LED lighting is usable for plants and very energy-efficient, but it is optimized for human vision rather than plant growth so it's not perfect. This probably matters more if you are trying to grow to ripeness indoors or trying to get maximum growth per watt. True plant lights have separate LEDs to cover extra parts of the light spectrum like in the red or near-infrared region. These parts of the spectrum would be no better in 6400K color temperature than in 5000K (and maybe worse) -- among human-optimized lights, it is possible good color rendering would help more than high color temperature.

[@bonniecarlstrom6014]

👍👍🇺🇸

[@aarontomaselli4910]

Aerogarden. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it does work, man do they grow fast.