Leggy seedlings

[Joplin47]

Help! My seedlings are leggy! I have them 13.5 inches away from the light. Should I repot them? Leave them alone? I already tried building the coir up around them, but they just keep going up!
Thanks for any advice- Happy Thanksgiving!

[oldjarhead100]

try moving the light a little closer , like a inch at a time ,if you cant because its a led then look into a 2 foot 4 light fixture T5 bulbs ,hortilux has some incredible lights for veg good luck

[Rwise]

In addition I would re-pot them and cover them to the baby leaves.

[Farmbuck]

I agreed he need to re-pot to a bigger pot.

[oldjarhead100]

wouldn't that cause them to dampen off or rot where they come out of the soil

[Joplin47]

Thank you!

[MeEasy]

I bought a couple of boards like that and literally had to keep em 3 or 4 inches above my seedlings to keep em from stretching. I wouldn't start that close because yours might be stronger than the ones I had but you might end up there. Good advice already given about replanting so nothing to add to that. Happy Thanksgiving

[Eliot Pryor]

I quite often put a stake beside them and tie them up until they can hold themselves up. I use t5's and keep them very close but the seedlings sometimes just spring right up and get spindly.

[Rwise]

My girls were 25" from a Mars Hydro TSW 2000 full on when they sprouted, just a tad of stretch as they reached for the light.

[quirk]

The seedling requires adequate light to survive. It will produce a hormone causing the cells in the stem to rapidly elongate, stretching to get closer to the light source.
When the light is adequate, hormone production is decreased, no more stretch, just growth. How come the doubles?

[MeEasy]

I use solo cups just because of the stretch or I would just put my sprouts directly into their forever home. It almost never fails that 1 or 2 out of the bunch will stretch under the exact light sitting next to others you can't see light under the 1st leaves

[lalaland]

One or 2 of mine always do this too! I fill the solos to 3/4 when planting, so I can fill them further to bury the stem if they stretch and it’s needed.