My "early" garden was a bust, even with shadecloth on parts of it, though I may have waited too long before shading. I grew 4 kinds of corn, all supposed to be heat & drought tolerant & got nary an ear, but it bloomed. On the other hand, my fall garden did well & I managed to get at least some tomatoes. My winter garden is peculiar--lettuce & some greens bolting, broccoli making loose heads, etc. In January. Just enough cold weather for my cabbage to start heading finally. I have planted a couple of cool weather tomatoes in hopes they will survive, but the others stay in for now. Most of the black tomatoes will continue to produce in heat & a few others. I find myself freezing more now so I know I will have it. Last year was a sure cure for complacency!

All the big box stores and hardware centers carry economical T5, T8 and T12 four foot shoplights with normal outlet plugs. I think my total ran $30. Yes... some do look leggy. Regarding temps, I've noticed that HIGH temps can cause brassicas to get leggy. For warm weather crops, those sound like ideal temps for the most part -- ideally, around 80-85 soil temp. Usually, though, the main reason plants get leggy is from trying to stretch towards light. So.... once the seeds emerge, IMMEDIATELY under the lights and keep the tops of the plants no more that 2 inches below the lights throughout the "lighting" stage of growth. Hope this helps. Kevin This post was edited by woohooman on Mon, Jul 22, 13 at 16:17

When you transfer them to individual pots, try planting them deeply, up to their first set of leaves. They'll probably be ok. Consider investing in a grow light. That way you won't have to trust the weather. I used to start seedlings using natural light, but I had the same problem you did. If they happened to come up during a bit of cloudy weather they'd get leggy. It's nice to have a grow light for a backup at least. They're not very expensive either. Warm temps can do that too, or can at least make the legginess worse, but that seems more out of our control than light (unless, I guess, you can put your growlight setup in your air-conditioned house). I have my growlight seed-starting setup in the garage, so there's not much I can do about temperature control, but since most of my seedlings are in there in the fall and winter, it's not that much of a problem.

@floral - I have already removed it from the water heater for a few days. Its the next to the window in the kitchen. I might move it outside tomorrow, to start hardening it off. I forgot to move it today. Tomorrow is suppose to be fully cloudy and 75. Thanks. When I put it in the soil, i will bury it deeper.