I planted some beets, turnips, carrots, chard, spinach, etc. and they all seem to look like this. There's about a 1/2 to 3/4 inch 'stem' coming out of the soil before the leaves branch off. It usually result in this stem lying down before the upward growth of the leaves.
The plants seem healthy enough, but is this normal? Did I plant the seeds to shallow? Should I transplant them deeper so i can cover this part with dirt?
Thanks in advance for any advice...
It sounds like too little light, although the lying down part is a little odd, unless they're at least around 4 weeks old and starting to fill out and get top-heavy.
Are these guys planted in pots indoors, or in the ground in the garden? If it's outdoors, that's quite weird, unless there's little light where they are.
Just about everything started indoors under fluorescent or window light develops quite a bit of stem, even when the same veggies seem to be more or less stemless when started in the field.
You can try more light, plus motion treatment, blowing 'em with a fan, or brushing them with the edge of a piece of paper or even your hand to encourage stockier growth. But once they've stretched and flopped, it's too late for that.
Too shallow I'm not sure of. Most of the time, most veggie seeds seem to burrow down fine, although once in a while, I'll have a just emerged seedling that germinated right on the surface and is growing kinda on the surface then turning up, with a bit of the root exposed. I'll either pull them, or bury them deeper.
From annoying experience, I've transplanted my share of stretched seedlings: if they're healthy, most veggies will grow OK, the stems will just fill out and bend up to support the rest. You can also bury some of the stem, that generally doesn't hurt 'em, although it's only tomatoes (of the usual garden veggies) that you can really bury and the stems will develop roots.
That's what I've got... Hope it helps!!
Too little light could be the ticket. They are/were all growing in my basement under fluorescents, but I transplanted a bunch of kohl rabi, swiss chard, beets, turnips and carrots to the garden a few days ago. They seem to be surviving the move fairly well.
I've got all sorts of weird stuff going on under my lights in the basement. If you recall, i started most everything way too early. So now I've got a half dozen wax beans in full bloom, spinach bolting and squash with 6-8" leaves and starting to flower.
Guess I'll be practicing my manual polination sooner than I thought!! I did notice a fly buzzing around down there, wonder if he'll be any help...
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