Propagator grown seedlings

I have a heated propagator at home, which I used for the first time last season. I bought it so that I could start plants off earlier, that require a long growing season. Last year I started seedlings around late February, early March and in some cases, even later. And, unfortunately the growing season was still not long enough. This happened for Tomitilos/Physalis', Cucamelons, Aubergines and Peppers. 

These are Aubergine seedlings, which I sowed around 10 days ago. They are a bit leggy because of insufficient lighting. The seedlings are growing towards the natural light coming from the windows.

I  don't like leggy seedlings; they're so much more difficult to handle and tend to grow misshapen and aggressively floppy.

If you don't want leggy plants (and have to grow them in a dark space with limited natural light), then I'd  recommend some form of artificial lighting. Where that light is and how close it is to the plant is important if you want to prevent the plant getting leggy. The closer the light is to the plant the better, but do take into consideration the heat factor as different types of lights emit different levels of heat.

You could buy propagator grow lights, which comes in many different shapes, sizes and types - or - you could even 'hack' your own, (an overly technical term for 'Just re-purpose an old light - in my case)!

But, do be mindful of the type of lighting bulb that you use, as you need ones that emits the right wavelength for the 'type' of plant behaviour you are trying to encourage. Check out this website for a overview, or go here for a little more technical details.


 These are the chilli and sweet pepper plants that I sowed on January the 5th. Yes, they're a mixed bunch, with some doing better than others whilst some didn't even germinate.

Even though there are two big windows in the spare room that I'm growing these, the plants are still leggy, so I used an old reading lamp to provide some extra lighting for these seedlings around the clock; this does seem to have helped.

The seedlings in the green trays and in the tray in between, were taken out of the propagator today and put under the light. I'm hoping that this will stop the seedlings getting any leggier.

These chilli plants on the window sill were sown in early January and were sitting under the light, but today I decided to free up that space for the other seedlings and moved these over to window sill. The space around the window sill is going to get very busy in the next few weeks, as more and more plants join them.

The growing 'routine' that I'm using is:

a) Sow the seeds in the heated propagator;
b) Move the seedlings under the light once they've germinated AND before they start getting leggy;
c) Move them to the window sill;
d) ... and at some point, out in to 'somewhere on the allotment'.

This routine helps free up the propagator to start other seedlings.... and there are a lot of those still to sow.