To grow good and strong vegetable seedlings in winter, you need to have certain knowledge and skills.
Sometimes unexpected problems may arise.
One of these may be too rapid growth of seedlings upward and insufficient strengthening of stems.
Any plant is programmed by nature to search for the best conditions for itself. Light is especially important for it.
Since the plant cannot move to a more illuminated place on its own, it will always reach towards the Sun.
Nowadays, you can grow not only vegetable seedlings on your windowsill, but also get a whole harvest of vegetables.
To do this, you only need to have special lamps with a special lighting spectrum.
Vegetable seeds sown too early can turn into thin threads that risk dying in advance. Even if the soil is nutritious, with a full set of fertilizers, the main thing for the plant to grow is still sunlight.
Of course, in winter the daylight hours are very short, and even when the plants are on the southern window, they will still suffer, because the glass does not let in ultraviolet rays.
What to do to prevent stretching
You need to provide the seedlings with additional lighting. You shouldn't take regular or LED lamps.
For this purpose, lamps with red and blue lighting ranges are sold in specialized stores.
It is this spectrum that is the stimulator of chlorophyll formation.
Under such lamps, seedlings will develop ideally, will become strong, large, and will have short internodes, because the process of photosynthesis will occur very quickly.
Selecting lamps
To illuminate the seedlings, fluorescent lamps are used and installed around the perimeter of the improvised garden.
Make sure that the seedlings are illuminated equally from all sides.
To ensure the seedling becomes strong, keep it illuminated for up to sixteen hours a day and keep the lights on for some time after sunset.
Also no less important is a certain distance from the lamp to the seedlings.
This distance should be no more than 20 cm from the tops of the plants.
In winter there are sometimes sunny days, so only provide additional light to the seedlings early in the morning and late in the evening.
Install a timer on the lamp, which will automate this process and minimize the owner’s intervention in this process.
