You’ve spent much time caring for your cosmos seedlings, but they appear weak, lean, skinny, and leggy. In this case, what do you do?
This situation can be frustrating, especially when you’re unsure of the right action to take to revive the seedlings. If you’re in this shoe, never worry; you’re in the right place. We’ll explain why your cosmos seedlings appear leggy and what you must do to revive these seedlings.
Factors like insufficient light and fertilizer overuse are mostly responsible for your cosmos seedlings appearing leggy.
To revive these young plants, you should introduce good lighting to these seedlings. Also, strengthening the cosmos seedlings is a great way to revive these plants.
Without wasting more time, let’s delve into the details.
Why do Cosmos Seedlings Appear Leggy?
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As said earlier, the major cause of leggy and skinny cosmos seedlings is insufficient exposure to sunlight and fertilizer overuse. Although these may be the most cause, other factors may also affect your cosmos seedling growth.
If you’re unsure why your cosmos seedlings aren’t growing according to expectations but instead looking leggy, the following reasons may be responsible.
- Inadequate Light
This is usually one of the major reasons why cosmos seedlings appear leggy. Young plants tend to move toward the direction of light. Since the light isn’t enough, the cosmos seedlings enhance their height to get as close as possible to the light source. When there’s insufficient light, these seedlings switch to survival mode, forcing them to sacrifice other areas of their growth towards their height. As a result, the seedlings only appear tall but weak and skinny with low quality to transplant.
- Excessive Fertilizer
Adding fertilizer to young plants is only normal as they quicken and enhance the growth of the seedlings. However, applying excess fertilizer can result in leggy cosmos plants. Ideally, you should allow your cosmos seedlings to grow in rich composted soil and avoid fertilizer at this growth stage. Once it’s nearly blooming, you can apply a small quantity of balanced fertilizer to strengthen the roots.
- Heat
Heat can also cause leggy cosmos seedlings. In overly hot temperatures, the stems of your cosmos seedlings can grow faster than the leaves. This makes the seedlings experience unstable growth. Excess heat usually occurs in hot weather or if the indoor temperature is too high.
- Insufficient Soil Moisture
Young cosmos seedlings can become weak when you don’t water them sufficiently or there is no enough moisture in the soil for optimum growth. When your cosmos seedlings look leggy, check well, it may be due to the soil not getting sufficient water. Dry soil makes the nutrients available in the soil inaccessible for young seedlings. As a result, they starve and grow poorly developed leaves, and stems, thus giving them a leggy look.
- Tightly-Spaced Seedlings
While planting the cosmos plant seeds, you may decide to plant them all in one pot and thin them later as they germinate. However, this isn’t the best, as it can make your cosmos seedlings appear leggy as they begin to compete for space and all nutrients and factors needed for growth. When the competition starts as they grow, some of the seedlings will lack and grow leggy to survive the competition.
If not properly managed, these choked seedlings will compete for nutrients and grow taller as they reach for the light. Therefore, ensure sufficient space between the young plants during planting to prevent leggy cosmos seedlings.
How to Revive Leggy Cosmos Seedlings
Reviving leggy cosmos seedlings requires some simple and effective techniques. Follow the below steps correctly to revive those fragile-looking leggy cosmos seedlings.
- Ensure the Seedlings get enough Light
Since the seedlings struggle to grow towards the light source, you should ensure enough light for the plants. If you’re growing them near a window, adjust the plants’ position to properly face the sunlight. This way, they receive a good amount of light without stressing.
Also, you can utilize a fluorescent bulb if you’re growing the cosmos seedlings indoors. Ensure the bulb is placed a few centimeters above the seedlings. In addition, if you’re moving the seedlings outdoors, you might want to shade them a bit for some days to accustom them to the outdoors.
- Imitate the Natural Weather
Leggy cosmos seedlings are not strong enough to withstand natural environmental weather like winds. Therefore, one way to revive the young seedlings is to mimic the natural weather. You can brush your palms against the seedlings a few times a day. Doing this will familiarize the young plants with the natural weather and build resistance.
Alternatively, you can place a fan close to the seedlings or blow gentle air on them daily. This imitates the weather and tricks the plants into thinking they need to grow thicker to withstand the wind effects.
- Keep the Soil Moist
You should try watering the dry soil more regularly. Watering from underneath effectively waters the plants and allows the roots to grow downwards. Another effective way to do this is by placing water in a shallow tray and setting the seedlings pot in it. This allows the soil to take up as much moisture as needed.
- Regulate the Temperature
Warmth helps to quicken seed germination, but too much warmth can cause your seedlings to look leggy. Many young plants grow well in temperatures of 18°C – 21°C during the day and 13°C – 16°C at night. If you’re using a heat map for your seedlings, you should remove or turn it off.
- Allow Good Spacing between the Seedlings
Overcrowded cosmos seedlings will fight for the available nutrients around them. This is not a healthy way to breed young cosmos plants, as it can make them appear leggy. In case of overcrowding, thin them out of the pot into separate containers to allow for sufficient space.
- Transplanting
This process involves moving the young seedlings to another location to ensure healthy growth. However, before transplanting, ensure you harden off the leggy seedlings. When hardening off, you slowly introduce indoor seedlings outdoors. This means you take the cosmos seedlings outside daily every week and gradually increase the sunlight the young plants receive.
This method is similar to the mimicking technique, as it allows the seedlings to build resistance against external environmental factors. In addition, when transplanting, bury much of the stem of the leggy cosmos seedlings. This procedure allows the seedlings to be sturdy as it grows new roots from the buried part of the stem.
- Restart the seedling-growing process
This may look extreme, but in some cases, starting afresh with a new set of seeds can be an option. Although you shouldn’t start over when you’re weeks and months into the season. However, if you have extra seeds and your cosmos seedlings appear leggy some days after germinating, starting over isn’t bad. This is better than managing the leggy seedlings for the remainder of the season.
Conclusion
Growing the cosmos plant from seeds is an exciting task. However, challenges like leggy seedlings could make it feel less exciting. Do not feel bad if your cosmos seedlings appear leggy. Instead, gear up and take action using the tips provided in this article.
Always ensure there’s enough light for your cosmos seedlings. In the case of closely spaced seedlings, you should transplant when it’s ideal. Remember to gradually introduce the young leggy seedlings to the outdoor world, so they can gradually build strength and resistance.
Also, avoid using excess fertilizer on the young cosmos seedlings. Fine compost soil is ideal in most cases. Finally, in situations where you have to plant afresh, don’t be afraid, as it’s better than worrying all season over leggy seedlings.
