There are no hard and fast rules and it's never just one thing. Seedlings grow just fine for me with natural light in a south facing room. There are plenty of windows. A small ficus calls this room home and is very happy. I've grown aquarium plants in this room with no artificial lighting as well. Along with lighting considerations, care must also be given to avoid over watering. Keep the sterile seed starting mix moist but not soggy. Also, apply dilute liquid fertilizer only after the second set of true leaves are formed. Some other things that are frequently overlooked -- seedlings tend to be less leggy if there's some natural breezes and good air circulation. My winters aren't too harsh so I set seedlings out on a bench in bright partial shade to keep them pre-hardened during daylight hours. Wind hardening is part of the overall picture. If I didn't have this well lit room, I would use cheap shop light fixtures with full spectrum (natural sunlight) bulbs (5500-6500 Kelvin). I'd run them on a timer for 12 hours on and 12 hours off to simulate a normal day at the equator. And I'd run an indoor fan periodically.

Dave, "Zinnia grow so quickly and turn leggy almost overnight so most feel they are best direct seeded outside." I agree that it is generally better to plant zinnias directly outside when that works with your schedule. However, I think Dale was trying to get an early start with his zinnias, hence the attempt at starting them early inside under lights. I agree with everybody who identified Dale's problem as not enough light. I just want those who are considering starting zinnias indoors to know that they will not "turn leggy almost overnight" if you provide adequate light. With enough light they are quite docile and well behaved, and you can get an early start of a month or more if you have an adequate light setup. The shelf in this picture has four two-bulb T8 shoplights over it. The shelf measures 2 feet by 4 feet, and with a total of eight T8 fluorescent bulbs over it, the light on the seedlings is good. That picture was taken a couple of days ago and I will be setting most of those zinnias into the garden in the near future. There are a few "late arrivals" in the picture that will spend some more time inside. They would be just cutworm fodder if I set them outside now. All of those zinnias are hand-hybridized hybrids, so I give them better care than I would for seed-packet zinnias. ZM

Ralph, I am battling a similar problem to you this year. I have plants that are nearly three months old and only about three inches or so tall. Several of them died early on and the ones that survived just have not thrived. I used MG orchid mix which worked good for me last year...plastic starter pots and definitely did not over water. If anything, I think I damaged them from underwatering. They were in severe wilt mode several times before I watered them and I think that essentially killed off some of their root structure. I have already repotted them once and the root structure was less than optimimal. But as suggested above, I would guess your problem is partially a nutrient problem but more likely an over watering problem. I just went to the other extreme. Repotting in a better soil in plastic and less watering will likely help a lot. But, do what I did and go out and purchase some starters from a garden center and then you don't have to stress out if your seedlings never turn around. I hate the idea of buying plants after going through three months of growing my own but, hey, some times you just have to bite the bullet. Bruce.

Sorry guys, I never got any sort of notification that anyone had responded to me. Tete, they do get lots of sunshine. They're in a south-facing window with a grow light to supplement so they don't stretch. I live in 6A so last frost isn't until the beginning of May here - it's snowing right now actually! I actually moved the grow light a bit further away. I thought it could be too intense for them. It's LED (the 2-foot GE grow light balanced spectrum), not fluorescent, and it was only about 4 inches away. Gj, I did slow it down with the fan. My tomatoes didn't like it and started curling. I still use it, but from much further away so the leaves barely move. I'm not sure how the basil feels about it, but when I repotted them they did have amazing roots. JoJo, I realized this is part of my problem. I have never started seedlings before and didn't know anything about fertilizing. There's so much conflicting advice. I started them in Jiffy Mix which has no fertilizer. I was so afraid of fertilizing them too soon that my tomatoes developed awful deficiencies and my latest round of basil started to turn yellow. What npk fish emulsion do you use? I have Neptune's Harvest 2-4-1 but I'm concerned there isn't enough nitrogen and was thinking of getting some 5-1-1 and mixing them. I also got them OUT of those peat pots and into some plastic cups. Those peat pots are just awful. I spent all day watering them. My first round of basil (the subject of this post) that I was growing to keep indoors is now doing fine and is working on the third set of leaves. Between giving my plants fertilizer and getting them out of the peat pots, the change in my basil was nearly immediate. By the next morning they had doubled in size. I wasn't sure if it was the fertilizer or the plastic cups that was helping, so I didn't fertilize my next (for outdoors) round of basil, and now they are yellowing and I'm trying to fix it. I had bumper crops of basil when I bought transplants for the garden (18 months worth of pesto in the freezer! I thought it was hilarious the absolute piles of basil I had), but starting from seed is a whole different ball game! I'm more confused now than when my son was a newborn.