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The Best Ways to Fix Leggy Seedlings - How to Prevent Leggy Seedlings

Updated: Mar 30, 2022

You have carefully planted your seeds, watched them germinate and grow and now you have realized that they are not looking so healthy. Your seedlings may have become leggy and weak and look like they are about to fall over! Leggy seedlings are a common problem among the best of gardeners when growing seedlings indoors early in the spring. Lets look at how to fix leggy seedlings and ideas for preventing them in the first place.


Leggy tomato seedlings growing in a plug tray indoors with potting soil.
Leggy Tomato Seedlings

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How to Fix Leggy Seedlings


1. Pinch Back Your Spindly Seedlings


How to fix a leggy seedling my pinching the seedling back so it branches out and becomes bushier.
Don't snip just under leaves, leaving stem.
How to fix leggy seedlings by planting them deeper, adding grow lights, pinching them back, increasing plant spacing and replicating wind.
The wrong place to pinch or cut back.
How to fix leggy seedlings by planting them deeper, adding grow lights, pinching them back, increasing plant spacing and replicating wind.
Cut back just above the plant's leaves.