seed starts are leggy

Hello all, I started seeds under a grow light and heating pad and they grew immediately and leggy. Any suggestions? Why are they leggy and what can I do about it now?

What seeds? Need to know that to answer properly, but:

Cool things down: take them off the mat. Too-warm conditions can make for legginess. Once the seed germinates, I take the heat away and let them grow at moderate to cooler temps, though under strong light.

Not sure what you can do now. Transplanting at greater depth doesn't always work. Good luck!

Thanks, Zeppy. I did remove them from the heating pad when this started happening. They are seeds for cool weather plants. I'll just wait and see what happens. This is all a grand experiment. Learning by experience.

What about your lights? Can you move them closer to the plants? If the light is not intense enough, the seedlings will certainly be leggy.

Usually leggy plants are just too far from the lights (your using florescent shop lights, right?). I keep my lights about 7-8 inches from the top leaves (closer if possible).

So what do you do with seedlings that are already leggy? You can try transplanting them and bury the leggy stems farther into the mix. But if they are weak, they might have trouble recovering from the transplant. Make sure you keep a fan on them too, it will help the stems thicken up a bit, I use just a regular box fan on medium speed. I have heard many growers just start over if their seedlings are leggy.