Seedlings Growing Very Slowly

I germinated my seeds on March 28th and have been keeping them under a Led light for 14-16 hours per day (no way to hook up a timer). I will move them outdoors asap but not until they have 3 sets of true leaves. The original 5 did not get enough light so I moved them 8 inches closer. Now, their stems have strengthened and they are doing better but they have not made much progress in leaf development. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

BTW the last pic is the 6th plant planted which had no issues with not getting enough light.

I just switched my LED from 2700k to 4000k. I'm thinking this should help.

If that's a month old I'd throw my light out and or find better genetics.

I agree with bam, at a month old, they should have grown a lot more! I attached mine at day 31 and see the difference. Get a new light or find better genetics

also get a fan to blow across them ,this will help to keep them shorter and stockier.

as above for anything else,

what light do you have?

Need better light there leggy cause of lack of light so improve light when you pot up bury have the stems good luck

JordanZz said:

I agree with bam, at a month old, they should have grown a lot more! I attached mine at day 31 and see the difference. Get a new light or find better genetics

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i just love seeing happy plants

In the pic it looks like a fluorescent light but either way t5's or even CFL's would do better than whatever it is your using

You dont need a timer for seedlings or veg. You can keep them on 24hrs, but if you can plug in the light then you can set up a timer

If thats all the light ya got, I'd get them closer to the light. Can you go outside yet where you're at?

dirtjumper75 said:

I just switched my LED from 2700k to 4000k. I'm thinking this should help.

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Plants take to whatever type of light there is available. I used to grow from A to Z under 2700K lamps without a hitch. Vigorous growth and rock hard nugs. Problems like this are your either your growing conditions/environment (temp, humidity, nutes, soil,...) or crap genetics. Looking at those pics it's likely the first option.

Update for ya'll and thanks for all of your opinions and suggestions. I repotted the plants in 1 gallon pots (all rooting systems were at bottom of solo cup which could have been limiting growth) and put them all in direct sunlight. My goal was to do some hardening but they never started to wilt or burn in the sun so I have kept them there permanently. I'm still taking them in at night but I'm already seeing progress in leaf development and overall perkiness. It's counterintuitive that double stressing the plants should have been effective but they seem to be loving it. Thanks again and cheers my friends.

it's all about VPD. the plants can't transpire if they have too low of temps or RH and will sit there stunted.

temps should be in low 80s. RH should be at least mid 70s. I'm guessing if this in in your living space your temps are probably ok, but your RH is low.

they are still small enough you could fit a 7" humidity dome over most of them. or use an empty 2 liter or gallon water jug. or loosely fitting quart ziplock. try that and see if they don't respond within a day or two.

ilovereggae said:

it's all about VPD. the plants can't transpire if they have too low of temps or RH and will sit there stunted.

temps should be in low 80s. RH should be at least mid 70s. I'm guessing if this in in your living space your temps are probably ok, but your RH is low.

they are still small enough you could fit a 7" humidity dome over most of them. or use an empty 2 liter or gallon water jug. or loosely fitting quart ziplock. try that and see if they don't respond within a day or two.

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Humidity is certainly a likely issue where I live. I will definitely give this a try.


BTW since I have 5 different strains going (
Chocolate Mint OG
Wonder Pie
Y-Griega
Super Lemon Haze
Zkittlez Glue) I think I can safely say that genetics were never the issue.

dirtjumper75 said:

Humidity is certainly a likely issue where I live. I will definitely give this a try.


BTW since I have 5 different strains going (
Chocolate Mint OG
Wonder Pie
Y-Griega
Super Lemon Haze
Zkittlez Glue) I think I can safely say that genetics were never the issue.

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during winter especially it's a battle for me as well. I have forced air heating and it gets nose bleed dry in here. have to sit a cup or two of water and foliar mist my plants a few times a day to keep RH high enough in the veg tent.