How can you tell if a seedling sprout is stretching?

[popolino77]

I started a auto berry seed which grows to be very short. it is 3 days old above soil and it is taller then the early miss auto i had when it was 3 days old above soil and early miss auto grows to be tall. Is this normal ? Or is it streaching ? And how can you tell if a seedling sprout is streaching ?

 

[Weaselcracker]

If it's much more than 3 or 4" tall in the first stage when it has only two leaves, or just the cotyledons, then it's probably getting a little spindly. If it's 5" tall and still only has two leaves then definitely. IMO. The main problem with it doing that is that it's very vulnerable at that point with a weak stem. Solution is to lower the light (if it's not going to overheat it obviously) and have a movement fan in there, which will make the plant tremble in the breeze and force it to grow stronger (again- don't overdo it with the wind)

 

[AKgramma]

When you transplant to a larger pot, you can plant it deeper, and it will form roots along the buried stem.