Have I started to early...

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Dale_3rd Cambridge, MD(Zone 7a) Mar 17, 2006

Here is what my seedlings look like. I started them Presidents Day (20-Feb) and have had them under the shop lights for 16.5 hours a day with a small fan blowing on them for air circulation. This is my first attempt at seed starting like this; I used Jiffy Mix in mostly 60 and 72 cell trays. Most of what you see are tomatoes, the smaller stuff on the lower right are eggplant and peppers.

I'm wondering if I've started to early and if I'll have too tall and lanky plants when I go to plant them around 20-April.

Thumbnail by Dale_3rd
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tombaak High Desert, NV(Zone 5a) Mar 17, 2006

Nice set up there. If they were mine, i would pot some of the bigger stuff up to 4" pots if they started to get too big for the cells. Keep raising those lights as the plants grow, hopefully you won't run out of room before April 20! And don't forget to harden them off.

It looks like you are well on your way to a great garden!

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PeggieK Claremore, OK(Zone 6a) Mar 22, 2006

Wow, they look great. If tomatoes get too tall, you can pot up to larger pots and bury the stem up to the bottom leaf. They look so nice and healthy.

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Dale_3rd Cambridge, MD(Zone 7a) Mar 22, 2006

I've got 3 flats with over 160 tomato plants that range from 6" to 8" tall. :( Thats a LOT of repotting to 4" pots. I made a larger light dome for some seed starting with 2 80W twin fluoroescents (10,800 lumens ~1,800lumens/ft²) so I've traded places with the flats I had under that. I read somewhere that tomatoes for transplanting should be 8-10" tall so I think I might be on the mark in another month. We'll see how it goes; next year I do believe I'll push my start date 2 weeks ahead so they are not so big tho. Peppers, eggplant, and Okra seem like they are great.

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Indy Alexandria, IN(Zone 6a) Mar 22, 2006

I started my tomatoes today for May 10 planting. Your plants will need to be further apart from now on to keep them healthy. Perhaps you could thin at least your favorites and put them in larger pots. Those small containers are fine for slow growing flowers, but .....

I take mine outdoors on decent days. Not everyone can manage that.

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billyporter Nichols, IA(Zone 5a) Mar 23, 2006

Good job Dale! Prettier than store bought.You have a nice light set - up. I have a 4' shoplight with grow lights. Not a big operation as I have no basement or extra room to start my stuff. I now have cats, so my husband needs to build something to slip over it to keep the cats out. I've also buried pepper plants like PeggyK. I'm not sure if you could do it to eggplant, been a couple years since I grew it.

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