Good afternoon, dear readers!

It's finally spring! Gardeners are already itching with all their might - the seeds have been purchased, the soil for seedlings has been prepared, fertilizers have been stored. We sowed seeds to grow seedlings and lo and behold, the sprouted seedlings stretched out and lay down.

Eternal questions

Causes

There are many reasons why seedlings stretch. Seedlings are stretched due to the fact that the proportion between lighting, heating, watering regime, frequency of sowing seeds and fertilizing is disturbed.

1. Insufficient lighting at elevated temperatures and dry air cause the plant stem to elongate, become thin and weak.
2. Sowing seeds too thickly causes seedlings to reach for the light, competing with each other.
3. Excessively applied fertilizers speed up this process.

What conditions need to be created for seedlings so that they do not stretch?

For sowing, prepare the soil, seasoned with complex fertilizers.

• Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and development.
• Phosphorus fertilizers will allow the root system to strengthen and develop.
• Potassium will strengthen the plant's immunity.

Temperature

The seeds are disinfected, germinated and hardened. The sowing containers are kept warm until germination. Most crops germinate at a temperature of +20-25°C; lighting is not required.

But with the appearance, not even of shoots, but only of the first loops, the seedling container is transferred to a place with good lighting and a lower temperature. With the appearance of 2-3 true leaves, the temperature around the seedlings is reduced to +12-15°C. It will delay the growth of seedlings.

Athlete

With the appearance of 2-3 true leaves, you can spray the young plants with preparations such as Athlete. But this drug does not just slow down the growth of the plant, it affects the cells - stopping their division. It is unknown how this will affect the harvest in the future. Therefore, use such drugs with caution.

Watering

Another factor affecting the quality of the resulting seedlings is soil moisture. Even the presence of drainage holes in containers where seedlings are grown does not protect against excess soil moisture. It is impossible to definitely recommend. But we can say that the seedlings need watering if the leaves begin to droop slightly.

Densely growing seedlings compete with each other for food, water, light, they grow long, pale and frail. Transplanted into a garden bed, such seedlings get sick for a long time and are not able to bear a full harvest.

In dense plantings, the likelihood of fungal diseases is high, and the close proximity of seedlings allows the infection to quickly spread among all plants.

"Ambulance" for seedlings

No matter what the reasons, the seedlings stretched out. What to do with it? The answer to this question depends on the type of plant that has outgrown. What is suitable for tomato seedlings should not be used for peppers or eggplants; the method of planting overgrown pumpkin seedlings is not applicable for cabbage. Let's start with tomatoes.

Tomato seedlings stretch out greatly and fall - what to do?

There are two reasons why tomato seedlings may fall: the seedlings are overgrown or the seedlings are sick. Remedial methods depend on the cause.

If tomato seedlings have become very elongated, there are several options for correcting overgrown tomato plants. A very elongated tomato bush can be cut into several parts and each piece can be rooted separately. Or just cut off the top and put it in water until the roots appear.

If the tomato stem is not very elongated, it can be planted at an angle. It is not worth digging a hole too deep to plant an elongated bush. When planting, it is enough to dig a trench, shallow but long. Place the tomato stem horizontally into it until it reaches a well-developed leaf and cover it with soil. With such planting, the roots will be at the required depth, and the stem buried in the ground will give rise to the growth of additional roots, which will bring additional yield.

Fall tomato plants may also be due to damage by “black leg” - an infectious disease that affects seedlings of densely sown seeds. In this case, the diseased seedlings are removed, the soil is shed with Fitosporin, a pink solution of potassium permanganate or any fungicide.

It is useless to cut and root the top or plant with the elongated stem horizontally positioned. You won't get any additional roots - this method is only suitable for tomatoes.

With a lack of light and heat, peppers stop their growth, and at the same time, root growth stops. At the same time, peppers are less likely to stretch out and are more patient with growing conditions. A flower growing in a fork can retard the growth of a pepper seedling.

If this happens in a permanent place of growth, the flower is urgently removed, and at the seedling stage it will stop the bush from stretching. Before disembarking at open ground the flower or ovary is removed from the fork, and seedlings without a fork are pinched over 5-6 leaves.

The main crop is formed on the growing side branches. In addition, in a pinched plant, the stem does not grow in height for 2-3 weeks, but thickens and branches intensively.

If eggplant seedlings have stretched out, how to help?

Everything is very simple with them too. If, with the emergence of seedlings, the temperature is lowered environment, then the seedlings will not stretch. When picking seedlings into separate cups, it is very convenient to pour a layer of soil not to the top edge, but a little lower.

If the plant stretches out, there will be a place where you can add soil. If there is no such space left in the glass, a separate glass can be expanded a little. To do this, wrap the top of the cup with a tape made of dense polyethylene or a substrate for parquet board. It is cut out 5-7 cm wide and wrapped around the top edge of the cup so that free space is created above the cup. It is convenient to secure the edges with a stapler or tape.

The soil is poured into this volume. Additional roots may not form, but the plant will stand straight and strong.

Cucumbers, zucchini, watermelons

All of these plants, as well as pumpkin, melon and zucchini, belong to the Cucurbitaceae family. By their nature they are vines. They have a very flexible stem. Their overgrown seedlings are dealt with in this way: the elongated stem is carefully rolled into a ring, pressed to the ground and sprinkled with soil.

Cabbage

Cabbage is most often grown through seedlings. It’s not difficult to grow it, it’s important to create it the necessary conditions. The most important of them are temperature, lighting and watering.

Germination of any cabbage seeds occurs at +20 degrees. With the emergence of seedlings, the seedling boxes need to be moved to a colder room, where it is maintained at +10-12 degrees.

Keeping seedlings in such conditions with simultaneous sufficient lighting allows you to slow down their growth. The seedlings become rich green, stunted with a powerful root system.

If for any reason the seedlings of any cabbage stretch out, correct the mistakes made in the same way.

1. They start with a pick. Each plant is planted in a separate cup.
2. When transplanting, be sure to pinch the root tip of the seedling - this will slow down the growth of the seedlings.
3. When planting, the cabbage plant is buried down to the cotyledon leaves.
4. Stretching plants are created good lighting, if necessary, add additional lighting fluorescent lamps, lower the air temperature to +10-12C, add nutritious soil to the stems of elongated plants.
5. After a week to ten days, the transplanted seedlings are fed with potassium fertilizers or ash infusion.

Flowers

Planted with seedlings ornamental plants They can also stretch out. The reasons for this phenomenon are the same as when growing vegetables: increased temperature with insufficient lighting, too dense sowing, high humidity and too abundant feeding.

. At this time the day is short and there is not enough light. Seeds are sown in a hot, dry atmosphere in an apartment. The seedlings are hot, dark, and stretch out. It is possible to bring such seedlings to flowering.

To do this, when picking, it is necessary to plant young plants a little deeper, up to the cotyledon leaves, pinch the tops, improve the lighting of the plantings and lower the ambient temperature. Severely overgrown plants can be pruned, and the resulting cuttings take root easily.

And they sow seedlings very early. They have very small seeds and take a long time to germinate. The emerging seedlings suffer from excess heat and lack of sunlight; trying to compensate for the dry air, flower growers flood the seedlings with water.

When sowing, it is difficult to scatter small seeds evenly over the surface of the sowing container - the seedlings appear thickened.

You can combat this problem by pinching the tops of the plants, shortening the roots, planting them at a sufficient distance into the seedling box, illuminating the seedlings with fluorescent lamps until 14-16 hours of daylight, and lowering the temperature of the plants.

Preferably. so that the seedlings look like this!

It is possible to obtain viable schisanthus seedlings only by providing it with fertile soil, sufficient lighting, and moderate watering. If there is a lack of lighting and nutrition, the plant stem will stretch and there will be few flowers. For abundant flowering In spring, it is better to plant seeds in autumn and cover the crops before frost.

Plants sown in January can become very long. Friendly shoots sometimes become very elongated even with additional lighting. After the seedlings are planted in separate cups, the elongated seedlings are cut off. The remaining plants stretch less. The cut parts can be rooted.

They sprout easily and are undemanding to growing conditions. Seeds sown for seedlings sprout vigorously and are easily tolerated unfavourable conditions growing – elevated temperature, lack of lighting, uneven watering.

Even if the seedlings stretch out on the window, then after transplanting to permanent place The seedlings take on a normal shape and bloom well.

Weak, elongated, pale seedling- this is bad. It is impossible to get a full harvest from such plants. Even ornamental plants from overgrown seedlings bloom weaker.

Simple rules for growing strong, healthy seedlings:

1. For sowing, use full-bodied, disinfected and germinated seeds.
2. Fill the planting containers with disinfected, fertile, loose soil.
3. Sow the seeds at a sufficient distance from each other.
4. Place the seedling boxes in a well-lit area with moderate temperature.
5. Water warm water in moderation.
6. Fertilize the seedlings in a timely manner.
7. Monitor daily and, if necessary, prevent viral and fungal diseases.
8. Gradually accustom the seedlings to the open air.

Try to protect the seedlings from being pulled out to get a rich harvest and beautiful flowers!

Best regards, Sofya Guseva!

Lack of lighting, incorrect temperature conditions, excess moisture and density of crops are the main reasons why seedlings stretch out. Thin seedlings are not a disaster, unlike blackleg, but such a plant will not be able to fully realize its potential and reward you with a harvest.

Therefore, we propose to talk in more detail about why do seedlings stretch, what to do to prevent seedlings from stretching, but she grew up strong and moderately well-fed.

Pulling seedlings: how to avoid it?

• Don't sow your seedlings too early unless you can provide additional light. It is the lack of light that is the main reason why seedlings stretch out. The problem is especially pressing for those who grow seedlings in an apartment and have, at best, 1-2 “southern” windowsills. But even on a southern windowsill in February-March there is still too little light. And at some point you notice that the seedlings stretched out- this is still a normal reaction healthy plant which strives for light. In this case, additional lighting of plants in gloomy weather, as well as in the evening and morning, will help. For these purposes, they do not use ordinary incandescent lamps, otherwise the seedlings will get burned, but special phytolamps or housekeeper lamps, fluorescent lamps. If you don’t want to burden yourself with additional illumination of the seedlings, plant them later, otherwise you are guaranteed thin seedlings.
• Too much heat encourages plants to grow, and the seedlings are stretched to the detriment of the development of the root system. You know that before the seeds hatch, the air temperature should be approximately 25 degrees, after the first shoots emerge, it is lowered to 15 degrees, and after a week it is raised again to 20 degrees (on average, for different cultures the temperature may be higher or lower, but in an apartment it is difficult to maintain such subtleties of the microclimate). The night temperature should lag behind the day temperature by 3-5 degrees. For an apartment, 15 degrees is, of course, cool, but you have to make sacrifices and leave the window open at night. Otherwise, don't be surprised
• why are the seedlings thin and long? Seedlings also become very stretched due to excessive watering. If at the same time the temperature in the room is high, you will create tropical conditions
• and you will get vines, not strong ones. For about a week after germination, the seedlings are not watered unless absolutely necessary, and then watered about once a week. Thickened plantings are another sign that the seedlings have stretched out.

• In the struggle for valuable light, without which photosynthesis does not occur in plants, the seedlings stretch out. If we are talking about tiny plants, pick them up. If the seedlings are closely grown, you can use the famous Jacob Mittlider's method and remove one or two lower leaves as soon as the seedlings begin to touch. When placed in a stressful state, seedlings stop growing and the stem “gets fat.” After about a week, the plants begin to grow again; if necessary, the operation can be repeated. Improper feeding of seedlings indirectly affects the elongation of seedlings . On initial stages

For development to form a good root system, the plant needs, for the most part, phosphorus and potassium. Seedlings do not need shock doses of nitrogen at first. If you use soil for planting with fertilizers, and also soak the seeds in growth stimulants, the seedlings are not fertilized for the first two weeks.

The seedlings have stretched out: what to do?

If additional lighting is not available and the seedlings are stretched out, you can correct the situation using the following methods:

For small seedlings that will have to languish in the apartment for a long time, we urgently stop watering them and be sure to lower the temperature. This “shock therapy” will cause the seedlings to stop growing for a while, and when they wilt slightly, carefully bend the stem into a ring and sprinkle it with soil right up to the leaves. If there is enough space in the container with seedlings, you can not bend the stem, but simply add soil to the leaves. Additional roots will appear on the stem, and the seedlings will grow strong.

To keep the seedlings strong, growth regulators (for example, “Athlet”) are also used, which promote the development of the root system and do not allow the above-ground parts to outgrow. These preparations are used both for spraying and watering at the root, but not before two or three true leaves appear. Although not all gardeners welcome such artificial intervention in the growth process of vegetable crops.

So, to prevent seedlings from stretching, it is enough to provide them with normal lighting and temperature, and not do a disservice with watering and fertilizing. But if the seedlings have a thin stem, this is also not a death sentence: watering is stopped, the temperature is lowered, and the plant itself is deepened into the ground down to the leaves. The use of growth regulators is up to you.

Growing seedlings is one of the most important “rituals” for our gardeners. IN Middle lane, and especially in the North-West, otherwise there is no way to get a harvest. Only seedlings can speed up the ripening of fruits.

And what often happens with seedlings is that they stretch out, become thin, frail, and frighteningly transparent. What to do if the seedlings are stretched and how to avoid them stretching? We'll talk about this today.

Why do seedlings stretch?

Lack of light and disturbance temperature regime- these are the main reasons for pulling seedlings. Moreover, there may be a lot of light, but the planting density is such that the plants literally have to make their way to the sun’s rays through the dense formation of their fellow plants. What kind of bushiness are we talking about here?

To prevent seedlings from stretching out, grow them correctly

There are 3 simple rules, which allow you to get excellent seedlings and they won’t drag you down.

1 - Ambient temperature

This is probably the most important rule. All plants different requirements to the temperature regime during cultivation, but they can be generalized. That's what we'll do.

For germination: about 25 degrees. After sprouts appear: 20 degrees (day), 15 degrees (night).

2 — Planting density

Under no circumstances should you plant seeds frequently. This is often the reason why seedlings stretch during germination. In dense plantings, like in a young birch forest, whoever stretched out the fastest received a portion of light. The stems of the seedlings are thin, long, sway in the wind, and bend down to the ground under the weight of winter snow.

It is best to immediately plant each seed separately, in its own glass. This, by the way, will allow you to arrange the seedlings as optimally as possible. This is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. But you won’t have to seat them later.

3 - Rare watering

Under no circumstances should seedlings be watered; each subsequent watering should be carried out only when the leaves begin to droop from lack of moisture. It stimulates vitality young plant. And in combination with lower night temperatures, it further hardens the future harvest champion.

Therefore, we remember: you cannot water the seedlings enough. We water only when the leaves of a young plant begin to wilt a little.

Do not allow the foliage of plants to touch each other - this is also a signal for the seedlings to stretch. The plant senses that a competitor is nearby and rushes to growth. Arrange the cups with seedlings so that the leaves of one plant do not touch others.

To prevent cabbage seedlings from stretching

Before germination: keep the temperature at 20 degrees.

First sprouts: lower the temperature to 10 degrees for a week.

A week later: keep it at 15 degrees, plus additional lighting, until three leaves form.

To prevent cucumber seedlings from stretching

But low temperatures are harmful for cucumbers, so they always need about 20 degrees, without any hardening. They love a lot of light, so give them plenty of it. Maintain the distance between seedlings so that the leaves of neighboring plants do not touch. Then they won't drag on.

To prevent tomato seedlings from stretching

Tomatoes love light and warmth, but at the same time they can easily tolerate long-term temperature dips. You can prevent tomatoes from stretching by trimming the leaves.

When tomato seedlings have five leaves, then one or even two bottom sheets should be trimmed. This will stop the growth of the plant for 5 days. But at the same time, the thickness of the stem will increase, which in itself is very important for the future harvest.

I was surprised myself when I bought such chunky tomato seedlings last year. By the way, you can cut the leaves again when there are five leaves on the trunk of the seedling again. This will further strengthen the plant.

Video - if cucumber seedlings have stretched out, it’s easy to fix!

Growing tomatoes at home is easy. It is important to carry out preventive work to prevent infection by bacteria and fungi. Yields decrease when tomato seedlings become elongated. To prevent seedlings from being pulled out, a number of measures should be taken at home.

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Why do seedlings stretch?

Large distances between nodes indicate that the tomatoes have become overly elongated. There are several reasons:

1. 1. Failure to comply with temperature conditions. This is typical for vegetable growers who grow seedlings in room conditions or on the balcony. The optimal temperature for seed germination is +24...+25°C. But after the first stems appear, and they will appear in about three weeks, the air temperature should be reduced to +17°C. Early decline room temperature will lead to the development of gray rot.
2. 2. Low illumination of plants. Lack of sun has a detrimental effect on seedlings. Photosynthesis is necessary for normal growth and development. And since tomatoes are sown for seedlings already in February-March, the lack of sunlight is common occurrence. The sun is passive at this time of year. Spring is dragging on and there is no way to plant seedlings in a greenhouse or greenhouse.
3. 3. Densely sown seeds. Even if the temperature regime and normal lighting are observed, dense shoots obscure each other and do not receive enough of the necessary vital important elements. Such plants are sluggish and light green. After transplanting to a permanent place, they cannot take root for a long time, develop, get sick and produce little yield.
4. 4. Soil quality. The ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium should be normal. An overdose of nitrogen and a lack of phosphorus and potassium cause plants to stretch out. But their presence in the soil is necessary, since nitrogen is responsible for the development and active growth seedlings, and phosphorus strengthens the roots of tomatoes, potassium increases the ability to resist diseases.
5. 5. Frequent watering. Even drainage in pots will not help if you overdo it with watering. You should monitor the condition of the soil in the pot and the leaves of the tomatoes. If the lower leaves turn yellow, it means the crops do not have enough moisture.



How to prevent tomatoes from stretching?

It is possible to prevent seedlings from being pulled out if the above reasons are eliminated. It is necessary to perform a number of activities at each stage of growing a plant:

1. 1. If there is not enough sunlight in the house, you should place pots with seedlings on the windowsills, closer to daylight. Plants kept in the dark quickly elongate, and such crops lose high yield. If there is insufficient daylight, it is recommended to install lamps with additional lighting, equipped with twine, with which it is possible to adjust the height, and thereby bring the lighting closer to the plants. Four 15 kilowatt fluorescent lamps are capable of illuminating approximately 0.36 m² of room. Beneficial for plants Blue colour, That's why Colorful temperature should be 2600-6500 K.
2. 2. You should not save on growing tomatoes. Planting too many seedlings in one box will negatively affect nightshades. The normal distance between seedlings is five to seven centimeters. Rarely sown will give more harvest than densely planted ones.
3. 3. Soil preparation. Prepare soil rich in phosphorus and potassium. Dolomite flour, sand for loosening, lowland and high peat are added to the soil for seedlings. Use vermicompost up to 50%. Mix dry chicken droppings, wood ash about 3% of the total weight of all components. You can offer a simple recipe for preparing soil at home: mix sand, compost or humus, garden soil and peat, 40 g dolomite flour or wood ash for one bucket of mixture. 10 g each of urea, superphosphate and potash fertilizer necessary for normal growing of tomatoes. If you cannot prepare soil for growing nightshades yourself, you should buy a ready-made mixture.
4. 4. Watering. Plants love moisture very much. But in the first days after sowing the seeds, watering is not carried out. Humidity level for successful cultivation tomatoes should remain at 80-90%. Too much watering is also detrimental, since maximum moisture blocks the access of oxygen to the soil, which causes root system rots. It's easy to check if there is enough water. To do this, you need to take a handful of earth from the box and squeeze it tightly in your hand. The resulting lump will disintegrate only with pressure.





Drugs that stimulate growth and development

"Athlete" stops the growth of the above-ground parts of plants, thickening and shortening the trunks. When using the drug, the root system is strengthened. "Athlete" is fed weekly, since the period of exposure lasts exactly 5-7 days. Otherwise, the tomatoes will continue to grow upward.

The drug is available in ampoules, it is diluted with water. Take one ampoule for 1.5 liters of water. But small seedlings cannot be sprayed. You should wait until three leaves appear.

In case of an overdose of the drug, white spots appear on the leaves. When you stop spraying, the problem goes away in two to three days.





Folk remedies for feeding seedlings

It is possible to fertilize seedlings using folk remedies:

1. 1. Banana peel. Leave several skins in liters of water for a week and water once a week.
2. 2. Eggshells. The shell contains phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium. After drying the shells of two eggs, crush them and put them in a three-liter jar filled with water and leave for about 70 hours, stirring the product occasionally. Water, diluting with clean water.
3. 3. Bird droppings. About 2 kg of droppings are taken per 5 liters of water and left to infuse for two days. For watering use 1 part of the product and three parts of clean water.
4. 4. Milk and iodine. The solution is prepared from 10 liters of water, one liter of milk (fresh and low-fat) and 15 drops of iodine. The solution is ready for use.
5. 5. Coffee grounds. Serves to loosen the soil and nourish the roots of plants. Introduce some coffee grounds into the soil along with the seedlings.
6. 6. Onion peel. Onion peels are poured with 4 liters of water, left for three to four days, and the resulting mixture is watered over the seedlings.

To obtain strong seedlings vegetable crops By summer, it is very important that the seedlings do not stretch during the process of growing them. Neglect of basic rules leads to the fact that plant seedlings become thin and weak. In this case, all forces are spent on lengthening the stem, stretching towards the light. In the future, long stems of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and other crops will bear fruit poorly: to get the same yield, you can take 20 stocky or 50 elongated bushes. And this is extra labor and irrational use of land.

Common reasons for pulling seedlings

All reasons for elongated seedlings come down to three groups:

1. Lack of light;
2. Low temperature;
3. Excessive care.

Seedlings cannot help but stretch in insufficient light. In order for the seedlings to feed, you need to synthesize nutrients. This occurs in the light through photosynthesis. If there is little light, then the bushes are drawn to its source. The same goes for dense plantings. Even if the daylight hours are long and bright, the neighboring leaves do not allow the rays to be absorbed.

Another reason why seedlings stretch is low temperature. In nature, heat and light are always interconnected. If it's sunny, the temperature is high, if it's cloudy, it's low. At low temperatures, the plant deceives. Metabolism slows down in the cold, and it “thinks” that there is not enough light: it involuntarily reaches out to it.

The last reason for seedlings to stretch is associated with excess fertilizing and constantly wet soil. If you are fed and watered just like that, then why work? And with excess nutrition, a person becomes obese and sick. It’s the same with seedlings: nothing stops them from growing and stretching endlessly. Roots don’t grow: why, if they cope with their functions? But in nature the plant will die.

Optimal mode for growing strong seedlings

If you want your plants to be strong and not stretched out, care for them properly, imitating natural conditions as much as possible. Just don’t go to extremes: sometimes it can be as hot as +40 or as cold as -5 degrees, but this will not benefit the seedlings. But they benefit from a regime that corresponds to the climate of the plants’ homeland.

Lighting

To form strong seedlings, follow the lighting rules:

• With the appearance of the first shoots, provide adequate lighting;
• When growing seedlings from January to March, provide artificial lighting. For shade-tolerant plants - at least 8 hours, for light-loving plants - 12;
• Artificial light will be needed if the seedlings are located on a north or west window.

To prevent seedlings of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and cucumbers from stretching out due to a lack of light from dense planting, choose correctly the minimum allowable area for one plant: less space is possible, more density is not allowed. Lettuce and cabbage can be planted 1 bush per square with a side of 6 cm. The side of the square for eggplant with pepper is 7 cm, melon, watermelon and cucumber is 8 cm, tomato, squash and zucchini is 10 cm.

Temperature

If you are still thinking about what to do to prevent the seedlings from stretching, then pay attention to the temperature. It depends on the growth phase, plant type and lighting:

• For cruciferous vegetables (cabbage and others), when seedlings appear, the temperature should be in the range of 6-10 degrees. After germination - from 14 to 18 during the day, to 8-10 at night. Seedlings do not grow if the temperature is below 7, and stretch if it is above 20. The soil temperature should be kept at 14-15 degrees, but not less than 10;
• For celery, lettuce and different varieties Onion, when seedlings form, the temperature should be kept at 8-10 degrees, then increased to 15-18. At night - up to 12-13, and in cloudy weather - no higher than 16;
• For nightshades when seedlings form - 13-15, a week later on a bright day up to 21-24, on a cloudy day - no higher than 17-18, at night - 12;
• For pumpkin crops at germination - 16-17, a week later - up to 24 on a sunny day, 18 on a cloudy day and 15 on a night.

Melon and watermelon are the most heat-loving plants. Therefore, to prevent them from stretching out, an exception must be introduced for them. All indicated temperatures for this family need to be increased by 2-3 degrees. Then melon and watermelon seedlings will grow stocky and capable of producing tasty and aromatic fruits.

Prevention of pulling seedlings of certain crops

It’s not always possible to organize perfect care for seedlings. Then the question arises: is it possible, and if so, how to make the seedlings not stretch? Can. There are a number of measures for this: these are folk and chemical methods. If you use them, the seedlings will inevitably become stocky, and it will be easier for them to adapt to natural conditions.

How to regulate the growth of cucumber seedlings

Since cucumbers are heat-loving crops, it is impossible to stop stretching seedlings by ensuring critical temperatures. Then all that remains is to maintain bright and continuous lighting. Do not forget about watering: they should be done only when the earthen ball is dry. Otherwise, instead of a coma densely woven by roots, you will get 1-2 liquid shoots.

Of all the pumpkins, melons, pumpkins and zucchini are more resistant to cold. Therefore, in order for the seedlings to be strong and not stretched out, you can not only provide them with maximum lighting, but also make the temperature 4-5 degrees lower than for cucumbers. Just don’t overdo it, otherwise the plants will get sick.

How to make cabbage seedlings not stretch

Since cabbage loves the cold, it is easy to force it not to stretch by applying low temperatures. For a sown crop – 20, for the first shoots – 8, a week later – up to 17 on a bright day, 15 – on a sunny day. At night the temperature should not be higher than 10 degrees. Here are the highest limits. To determine the lower (minimum acceptable), subtract 2 degrees.

To prevent pulling cabbage seedlings, play with light. From the moment sprouts appear until the formation of three true leaves, plants need intense light. Lamps must have high efficiency, otherwise most of the electricity will be converted into heat. Then it will be difficult to regulate the temperature. With the appearance of the fourth leaf, the light can be reduced.

What to do to prevent onion seedlings from dragging

The only one available method combating the stretching of onion seedlings - pruning. As soon as it has grown to 15 cm, cut it to 8. And so on as many times as you like. The effect is good, and the greens will immediately fall on dinner table– will he refuse a portion of fresh greens? There is only one minus - the method is suitable for onions, and not for other crops that will immediately die from such a procedure.