From seedling to young plant

Introduction

After I had planted the seedlings and they had reached out of the ground, it was time for them to get enough light and water to form leaves and develop into a young plant.

In this article I describe how I set up the growing bowls, what means I used for lighting and how I watered the plants. Finally, I look at the results and deduce improvements for the next season.

Methods and procedures

Setup

The trays were placed side by side on a table next to a large window. A soft box, as used in photo studios, was also installed for additional lighting. The soft box contained four light bulbs. Two of them emitted light with a color temperature of 7000 Kelvin, the other two with a color temperature of 5900 Kelvin. The soft box was connected to a timer. The timer was set so that the lamp was switched on from 5:30 to 9:30 and from 19:30 to 21:30. This gave the plants a total of 16 hours of light. The room temperature was constant at about 21 degrees Celsius.

Procedure

The plants were regularly watered every two days with about 0.5 dl water per plant. When the soil was still moist, less water was used. On the other side, where the soil was comparably dry, additional water was given. Over the entire period of 42 days, the irrigation practice was not changed. Due to an increasing fruit fly population, sticky traps were installed. At intervals of about five days, the cultivation trays were turned 180 degrees to ensure that the lighting was as evenly distibuted as possible.

Results

The plants that were more exposed to the light sources developed faster than those that were directed inwards. After the young plants had received their first real leaves, they began to lean towards the window and the additional light source.

Although there were irregularities in plant development among the individual plants, no differences between the plant types could be detected at this stage.

After 42 days, the young plants produced between eight and ten leaves and were ready to be transplanted into a larger pot.

Conclusion and implications

All in all, the plants grew quite well. Some plants developed a little bit faster than others, which may be due to the quality of the seeds. All young plants formed their first real leaves and settled in well in their new environment. The dependence of the plants on light was impressively noticeable. If the bowls were in the same position for two to three days, one could clearly see how the plants turned towards the light source. It was also observed that plants further away from the light source bent more than those that were closer. Perhaps one could prevent this by placing the artificial light source opposite the natural light source or directly above the plants. This was not possible in my case due to lack of space. For the next season I will look for another method to grow the young plants. A grow tent seems to offer many advantages and is therefore a solution that I will analyze more closely.

Outlook

Only a few days after I had planted the seedlings, the first fruit flies were there. Because it was too cold outside for the young chili plants, I had to place the growing trays in the living area. Therefore, the fruit flies were disturbing, and I set up sticky traps to combat the problem. But as it turned out, this action was not effective. But more about this in the next article.

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