trouble with seedlings

[jiorji]

I've started sowing my seeds for my annuals so that when they're ready to go outside they're a bigger plant and i haven't had success!! What am i doing wrong?? why do they get so tall and stretched out??
(see attachment)
my sunflower seedlings are about 5 inch tall and only have the first leaves. Windows i have are north facing...maybe that's a problem??

[Newt]

Hi Jiorji,

You've got the answer. Not enough light and they are stretching their little stems to get to it. Any way you can rig up those long fluorescent light bulbs about 4" above the tops of the plants and leave on about 18 hours a day? You could use a double fixture and put a warm white bulb in one and a cool white in the other. Turn the plants once a day. I have two shelves on the wall in my laundry room. The light fixture hangs from hooks on the bottom of the top shelf, with a chain at each end that I can shorten as the plants grow. You can get the light fixtures that plug into the wall as well as the ones that get wired into the ceiling. The plants sit in the shelf just below the lights. Take a look at these sites.
http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/publicat...HGA-00432.html
http://extension.missouri.edu/nwregi.../hHort0304.htm

Newt

[Lily789]

Or simply part the curtains so your seedlings get more direct sunlight. Even sheer curtains like that can block out a lot of the light. Try to move to another window. I put mine on west windows or south windows, those get more light.

Now spring is here in my area, and if the danger of frost has passed in yours, you can plant seedlings outside. I find growing seedlings outside yields a lot better results. The seedlings I have now are very long and lanky...weather has been cloudy a lot. So I'm starting over outside, when the weather gets warmer.