new to gardening. now needing to fix mistakes

[Arielle35]

ok so i have never really gardened before other than a little here and there growing up. so for my birthday I bought a 4 tier green house, jiffy peat pott containers and seeds and indoor potting soil for later.. and 2 grow lamps. 1 for the top shelf and 1 for the middle shelf.
ok so everything went great...almost every single seed sprouted..some in a matter of 3 days!!! others took like 14 and i wasnt sure if they were duds, but they sprouted. I didnt do what it said on one package, cuz im kinda lazy... it said to put in the fridge for 7 days
then to plant... maybe lazy isnt the word...more impatient? lol
ok so now i have these little sprouts and they are cute. I leave the front flap of the green house open now to give them the air in the house and i keep my apt very warm ( about 76-78 degrees) i am planning on buying an oscilating fan and set on low to give them a breeze
cuz i read that makes them stronger.
But here is my problem. and after alot of searching i think i found out what its from... they are growing sooooo tall!!! i dont know if they are suppose to grow that tall..but 1 type of flower (double inpatiens) are about 6 inches tall with thier baby leaves and 1 set of true leaves and tiny little second true leaves... and alot of my other smaller seedlings are tall and skinny...idk if they are suppose to look like that cuz i cant find pics of brand new seedlings (painted daisys, coleus, columbine, sweet william, blue flax) well after reading alot i think my light was too far away from them and they were growing taller to get closer to the light.. (the light was about 8-9 inches away) so i just moved them about 4 inches away now (i stuck things underneath to lift them up)..but is there any way to fix them being all tall and skinny and falling over? yes i stuck little tooth picks in next to them and used dental floss to wrap around them..haha it works..but how do i make them stronger?

also when i first planted SOME of them i put 2 seeds in just in case one didnt make it, well 2 days ago i took the smaller seedling out and put them in their own container..so now there is just 1 per pot... my mom said when thinning to just pluck the small one, but
i let her have it! I told her i wasnt going to kill a perfectly good seedling just cuz its smaller! sheesh! (ok so this whole growing thing is fun for me)

ok so anyway... problems... how do i make them fuller and not so skinny? i planted all seeds 4 weeks ago today.. some are only 1/2 inch tall and some are 2-3 inches, and my double inpatiens are about 6-7 inches. also...because again i was inpaitent I think i planted them way to early.. now im wondering if they are going to outgrow there little baby pots before i can plant outside?? ya they prob will... I live in idaho. I cant plant outside till may 31st at soonest!!! some plants i plan on keeping in big pots (coleus) but the others I am planting at my boyfriends house (since me and my kids are just in an apt) ok anyway.. im rambling...any and all advice will be great!... also my birthday money is gone, so i cant buy anything more unless its just a few bucks or so...

thanks for listening

 

[Arielle35]

also is there a way we can put a pic on here to show others?

 

[dickiebird]

I don't know about flowers but with tomatos and peppers when they get leggy I repot in a deeper container covering the majority of the stem, leaving just a bit of stem and all the leaves aove ground.
Hopefully a flower person will give some advice.

As far as posting pics go to the dark green header above and click on Uploads. Just follow directions.
You may need 10 or so posts before you can attach photos, I don't remember if thats here or on other forums I post on.

THANX RICH

 

[canesisters]

I'm sorry that I don't have anything to offer to help, but we're glad to have you here.
There's tons of great advise and someone will be along soon who can answer your questions.

 

[catjac1975]

I'm not sure I would repot the impatiens deeper. I think the soil might rot the tender stem. Trimming the impatiens should make them begin to get fuller. Experiment with different heights to see what works best. This is hard to do to your precious seedlings but will make them lush.The trimmings can be rooted easily-just stick them in soil. You will get twice the plants. Have you thinned the seedlings? This is crucial to their development. If you are afraid to pull and kill some of the plants you can begin to repot them. They also may be too warm for continued good growth. As you have discovered different seeds take different times to germinate. There are some that take months to germinate. You did start a bit early but if you keep them well tended you may have great plants. You will need to repot. As they get large beware of them getting root bound in their containers. Their water requirements will go way up as they get larger.

 

[digitS']

...idk if they are suppose to look like that cuz i cant find pics of brand new seedlings (painted daisys, coleus, columbine, sweet william, blue flax) . . .

Identifying seedlings can be important and this website helps more with that than showing what they "should" look like as they are growing. Mostly the photo's look as tho' the seedlings are doing well and have adequate light and all:

Seedling Images (click)

The page shows Tanacetum coccineum which is probably your Painted Daisy. It doesn't look like the healthiest specimen out of the bunch but since the names of some of these things can be variable & a little tricky, I thought I'd link to that one.

You can then go to "coleus" as "Solenostemon" - the index is at the bottom of each page but you may need to click "next" once you get there since plant names that begin with that letter may be on more than one page. Wikipedia will help you with knowing the scientific names.

I hope that helps & Welcome!

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not a flower person either but I'll make a couple of comments.

They really need a lot of light. They will stretch and reach for light. I try to keep my grow light about 2" or maybe less away from the plants. Notice I said try. You can't do that when you have different sized seedlings. Just do the best you can.

Another thing is that you can provide additional light from the side or maybe put something in there to reflect light from the side. One thing I do is have mine in a window and keep the shades open. Mine is a east window and back under a porch overhang so they don't get a lot of light from this, but it helps.

Again, I'm not a flower person. I grow a few but don't start any inside. But with certain plants you can cut them back as Catjac mentioned and they will just sucker out and spread out. Before you do that on any specific flower ask and hopefully someone on here can give you a good answer if that should work for that specific plant. But if you trim them back, you need to trim them above the true leaves, otherwise they will just die.

When a seed sprouts, it generally sends up two leaves. I can't remember without going to look it up what they are called. I'm sure plenty of people here can tell you. Anyway these are not true leaves. The true leaves are the ones that come out above these first ones and have the shape of the leaf the plant is supposed to have. Those first two are generally sort of oval. If it is the type of plant that will sucker out you will soon see buds coming out that will develop into new stems.

Welcome to the adventure. You've made your introduction harder that it could have been by jumping the gun for your climate, but you can still manage. And you've gained experience so it will go better nest year.

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep, your first message double posted. That happens sometimes. I put a message on the other one.



Welcome to our forum here! Most of us are just regular folks here who love gardening.

Make sure you don't lose your login username and password as that seems to happen to a lot of new folks!

What Ridge said about placing the lights on the sides is good, but do watch out for that sunburn thing I mentioned on the other post.

Yes, the forum here protects us from spammers in several ways, and one of them is by limiting the features on your first 10 posts, including photos. Make 9 or so more messages and you'll be able to do photos. One of us can help you do that if you have problems figuring out how...like I did for sure! Also, it'll give you a chance to explore the other messages and how to find good old messages.

 

[so lucky]

Welcome to TEG. Lots of good info on here. If you have time, go back and read the threads in the various areas that talk about propagation, seed starting, greenhouse gardening, etc. You will find the answers to a lot of your questions, even before you know how to voice the issue as a question.
Two things from me: If the instructions say to refrigerate or freeze the seeds for a week, it is because they need that to germinate. Different seeds need different things. Some seeds need to pass through the digestive system of a particular animal before they germinate. Some need to freeze. You probably won't save any time by trying to omit that important step.
Also, Once the seed germinates, it will reach for the light and get very leggy if that light isn't right there. You also will need to have air circulating around your plants, to encourage them to grow sturdy and strong, and lessen the possibility of a fungus on the plants or soil. Many of us keep a fan on low, blowing right on the plants. I have my plants about an inch, two at most, from the flourescent bulbs, with a fan blowing on them, 14 hours per day. I turn the trays around every couple of days to keep the plants from growing sideways.

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

Just a quickie drop in here to say that you did not make mistakes. You created learning experiences. Trust me, we have ALL had lots of learning experiences when it comes to gardening. It's part of the process, and that's why places like this are so valuable to me. I have avoided lots of "learning experiences" by reading what worked and what didn't for other gardeners on this forum.

Have fun!