Top heavy plants/ skinny stalks

Hi people,

I'm growing plants inside. Some are completely fine. Others (like my goji plant) are growing perfectly healthily except they have fallen over so their leaves are on the soil! It's like they're top heavy or their lower main stem is too skinny at the bottom to support the leaves and any extra growth. Their leaves are green. There is no disease or pest. Does anyone know what is causing this, and how I can help them grow strong enough to hold themselves up?

 

When you say 'inside', I take it you mean in the house, rather than in a greenhouse or conservatory? Many plants won't tolerate being indoors for very long - then need light and good air circulation. I've never grown gojis but your plant may well be responding to stress. Elongated, weak stems are often a sign of insufficient light.

 

They are inside my house next to the windowsill. Unfortunately I do not have any space of my own outside to put any plants or put a greenhouse, so it's the only place I can grow them :( Is there anything I can buy to give them more of the light they like that's not really expensive to buy or run? Maybe I could buy a fan for air circulation and hot days. If they are given the correct conditions will they perk up and become stronger, or will they be weak forever more now?

 

Are you growing plants mainly for crops, or for pleasure? There are plenty of decorative plants which will happily live indoors. As far as crop plants go, you need to chat to someone on the forum who has lots of experience of growing them - hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will be along shortly. It's certainly possible to grow some things indoors. I once worked with a girl who turned her large office window into a sort of mini greenhouse and managed to obtain quite a crop of tomatoes and peppers!

 

Mainly for crops, but I have the odd ones that just look nice. Tomatoes and peppers seem happy, and basil and passionflowers. Chives are growing but for some reason, again, they are floppy and aren't straight. Parsley is sort of alright but some are a bit floppy like the goji. I've moved one Nasturtium to somewhere with more light because it fell over. The other one is alright. I have other plants too but am sure you don't want the whole list :hehe: Basically most are fine but the others all have the same "looking healthy but are floppy" thing.

 

My guess is that the 'floppy ones' are the plants which will never be very happy indoors, no matter what you do. But as you've already found, there are some things you can grow.

 

Hi JW.

I am afraid I agree with ClaraLou. If plants don't get enough light they tend to go leggy. I don't know Goli - but I have just had a Google, and they would be very happy outside, and are hardy when full grown. But if you don't have the space - you don't have the space.

I can only suggest you grow them in the best possible light, and support them with canes. The legginess won't effect the overall health of the plant, and it should still produce berries.

There are methods of using artificial light, but unless you are an enthusiast or simply want to grow Cannabis inside :D they would not be worth using.

 

Like the others have said, legginess is a symptom of growing outdoor plants, indoors. I tried it with Ipomaea one year - not a great result. It did well to begin with, but soon got very straggly and weedy looking.

Perhaps stick with those plants that you find are happy indoors and avoid the ones that have got top heavy in the future. At least until you have some outside space that is.

 

Shiney, :hehe: I shouldn't have used the C word. :dh:

My light box is currently switched off - so all the police will get is a nice cup of tea. :D But I would invite them into my garden, where I am growing Datura (second most popular hallucinogen after you know what). I also have Nicotiana sylvestris and murabilis, I suspect you could smoke both of them. Then there is Leonotis nepetifolia (Klip or Wild Dagga to those in the know), Leonotis leonorus (kind courtesy of sh! you know who in Portugal - that well known hotbet of Lotus eaters) Oh! I am out of Lotus at the moment but I do have Leonorus japonicus - all of which you can smoke. :wink:

It sounds a bit dodgy - doesn't it. I think I should just stick to my old poisonous plants - Aconitum, Brugmansia, various Solanums etc.

 

:rotfl: :rotfl: I've just posted elsewhere that most of my neighbours are into dog poo and old bikes, rather than horticulture, but I'm doing them an injustice. A thriving cannabis farm was recently discovered in a house just around the corner from me. A great deal of skill and effort had clearly gone into ensuring that the plants were happy and healthy.

 

ClaraLou - you are absolutely right about the skill.

I have looked at Canabis sites on the internet. Whatever you may think about the product, the fact that someone can grow plants entirely indoors and look after all their needs, means that they are doing something right. For me the key question was what level of light plants need - the answer 100 watts of fluorescent light over a growbag tray.

For most of us, we just manage to keep plants alive inside over the winter months, but they don't really thrive till they are put outside when the weather has warmed up.

 

Indoor horticulture is definitely a challenge.

I remember reading somewhere that, before it became illegal, Christopher Lloyd used to grow cannabis in his borders as an ornamental. At least, that was his story ...

 

All my plants are legal, no naughty ones :D The goji is sort of growing upwards in a weak way, although when I looked in the soil yesterday I noticed a see-through tiny worm thing, ew ew noo! I stuck pesticide in the soil, I hope that will get rid of it, but it was a bit unnerving seeing something like that when my plants don't even grow outside. My guess is something flew in through the window, or there was something in the compost to begin with (I only repotted it recently-ish). I hope that's got rid of it!

My nasturtiums are all falling over now and the bottom leaves are turning yellow :( I don't know what to do about that because I can't give them any more light. Other plants are growing and thickening up but they still look a bit weedy, they aren't straight.

My chives are actually looking a bit better and not quite so droopy.