Yellow Geranium Seedling Leaves

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GreenGuvnor Somerset, NJ(Zone 6b) Mar 22, 2009

Hi,

This year has been my first for growing flowers & veggies from seed. I usually pick up transplants from my local nursery, but I've decided to give it a go and pick what I want to grow, not what the nursery wants me to buy. I bought myself a 125W Hydrofarm Compact Fluorescent light fixture that I keep approx 7 inches away from my seedlings. I don't want to move it any closer to the plants as I am illuminating 3 flats at once and the outer seedlings will get less light. I'm using the Miracle Gro Seed Starting potting mix and the seeds generally seem to be OK with that. I'm giving the seedlings 14-16 hours of CFL light and they have been kept moist.

I have planted geranium seedlings and I've noticed that some of leaves (not the first set of seedling leaves) are coming in a pale yellow color and have been for a while now (although some are slowly changing green). Does anyone have any idea why this may be?

Thanks!!

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Mar 22, 2009

I'm not sure if this is the only reason why your leaves are pale yellow, but you really need to have the lights no more than a couple inches above the tops of your seedlings or else they will get leggy. The best thing to do would be invest in another light so that you can have something close to all your seedlings--I don't know how much you paid for yours but you don't need fancy expensive ones, a plain old fluorescent shop light works fine so you don't need to spend a lot. Or you can rotate the flats so that they take turns being directly under the lights or farther out--that won't be as ideal but it'll be better than having the lights too far away from all of them all of the time.

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GreenGuvnor Somerset, NJ(Zone 6b) Mar 22, 2009

Thanks!

I think its time for a trip to Lowes for some T8 fixtures (I hear the T12s are being phased out)...

I am growing veggies and some of them seem leggy also (see the pic) so this would probably account for it..

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trioadastra Woodbury, MN(Zone 4a) Mar 22, 2009

I think the color change you are seeing is completely normal. I've never grown geraniums from seed, but the large one I have does the same thing. New growth is light and darkens with age.

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dipsydoodle Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom Mar 30, 2009

I have small geraniums too, the leaves just seemed to get darker.

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