My cherry tomatoes got leggy and I figured out why

I planted three cherry tomato seedlings on my 5th floor balcony in late April and they shot up like crazy. Problem was they got super tall and spindly with hardly any fruit. After 6 weeks of frustration I realized my balcony only gets about 4 hours of direct sun, not the 6-8 they need. Has anyone else dealt with leggy plants from low light situations?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph44828d ago

My buddy Mike had the same issue with his basil on a north-facing windowsill. Got all stretched out and wimpy looking until he moved them to a grow light setup.

juliaa2528d ago

Yeah "stretched out and wimpy looking" is exactly what happened to my basil last summer. I had it on a windowsill that got good morning light but by noon it was basically in shadow. The stems got so long and thin they couldn't even hold themselves up, they just flopped over the edge of the pot. It's funny cause I actually started using those cheap clamp lights from the hardware store (you know, the ones with the silver reflectors) with some daylight bulbs and within a couple weeks the new growth was way more compact and bushy. Not as pretty as a real grow light setup but it worked well enough for my little balcony herbs.