Yes definitely need more light. I’m less familiar with LED growlights but the one LED system I have needs to be within a few inches, especially in the seedling stage.
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I should add that unless they are hot or very warm to the touch, grow lights can be hung low enough to actually touch the plants unless that prevents the light from spreading out enough. Light intensity is governed by an inverse square law so you want the light as close as it can be without damaging the plants from heat.
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Seconding everyone’s comments on the light, that’s why they are tall and spindly.
As far as why they’re not making new leaves - that happened to me last year, they all put out their baby leaves and in a couple of cases, their first set of true leaves and then just stalled. Even though I had the light right on top of them. This year I did 2 things differently and I’m not sure which thing helped or whether getting nothing last year was just a fluke:
I got a heat mat, around $20 on Amazon. Warm weather crops like to sit on something warm. If your apartment is cold or drafty that could be impeding them.
I also - and I don’t think you’re technically supposed to do this, but it worked for me - put a TINY bit of seed starting fertilizer right on top of the pellets and watered it in. Like, a small pinch. I have read that you shouldn’t do that until you’ve potted them up because it can be too strong for them when they’re tiny. But I figured what the hell, last year everything didn’t grow and then died, so why not at least try. It seems to have worked pretty well. This is the one I used, which appears to be meant for seeds and new plants: https://drearth.com/product/root-zone-fertilizer/
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I posted a version of this on my journal but figured I’d share here as well. This morning I watered all of the larger potted tomatoes and peppers, which dried out slower than the smaller pots, which already needed water 2 days ago. This is going well enough that I don’t think I will delay my planting calendar next year to keep my solanums in the smaller 2” pots, so I’ll likely invest in more 4.5“ deep form pots for next year so that everything is a single standardized pot instead of a mix of recycled 4.5“ deep pots, 4.5“ shallow, 4-5” round pots, and a handful of 3.5” deep squares. Greenhouse MegaStore has them for like $4-5 for a 15 pack so not overly expensive.
It was a little bit messy moving the newly watered pots back onto the shelves in a way that hopefully doesn’t bother Alchemist too much but not that big a nuisance to keep them watered because the compost-fortified potting mix (as well my own ad hoc compost-rabbit manure-vermiculite mix) holds water well so only needs watering 1-2 times a week so far.
Also making a list of some other things I might want for next year already, lol, like maybe taking another stab at asparagus or getting 1-2 more disease resistant apple trees (or the old-timey insect resistant variety Baldwin, which I have one of but I let it get girdled so it’s slowly regrowing from above the graft and likely won’t fruit yet for 1-3 more years) to shade our western exposure on the house.
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Kale has sprouted in my egg carton. What do I do with them? Move to bigger pots? When? I’m assuming they will outgrow the shallow egg carton before they’re ready to go in the ground. Do I keep the actual egg carton bottom when I re-pot and hope it decomposes?
(I added some fertilizer today, since the reddish leaf outline I guess is not enough potassium?)
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OH ALSO. Our first beans fiiinally started sprouting, but one bean is now above the soil? Do I need to put more soil around it? How did it even push its way up?
Yes, our dirt is terrible. Everything after this has gotten a potting soil assist.
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Your dirt looks like my dirt.
Also, after nearly two weeks I have one basil seedling! Literally nothing else has sprouted (out of probably 60-70 seeds put in potting soil). Hoping that these next few days will have a rash sprouting spree.
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My dirt looked like that last year. I’m working on amending it. If it’s any consolation, I did get a few peppers, some rhubarb, some spinach, and a metric shitton of oregano anyway.
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Your egg carton makes me think tiny dinosaurs should be lurking amongst the sprouts
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I need to get some plastic dinosaurs to be my gardening buddies now you’ve said this.
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Yay basil! Good luck with the sprouts.
What are you doing to the soil? I think we’ll be ok. We’ve got a lot of starts, and we can share the bounty from the amazing step-garden. Started up the compost bin, so we can work that in next year.
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If I recall correctly, Greyweld successfully summited Mt. Compost 2019 after a months-long trek 
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I potted up seedlings out of my egg carton quite successfully using a teaspoon. Then I reused the egg carton. Mine are styrofoam though (don’t hate - there are no alternatives available here even when there’s not a pandemic).
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Uhhh there’s still some on a tarp in the driveway… It’s been over half a year. At this point the rest I’m using for slow supplementation.
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So, we are having what is likely to be record cold for this time of year tonight and tomorrow night. Therefore, of course, today I discovered that the squash seeds from 2010 that I planted out at least a week and a half ago because nothing to lose have produced a miracle baby tiny squash seedling. This is like the virgin birth of squashes. And of course the temps tonight are like to kill it. I’ve put a bucket over it, and a bag over that to add more insulation, in hopes I won’t have to be the one who killed the cucurbit messiah.
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If it snows tomorrow am I supposed to keep hardening off my seedlings or is the point to protect them from extreme cold? Ever since I learned plants can get sunburnt I don’t trust my instincts on this.
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It depends on what plants they are. Some plants like cabbage/kale/broccoli/peas can take quite cold temps (though I would be wary leaving them out below freezing if they haven’t been out in 30s temps already). Some plants like tomatoes/peppers/eggplants will often be stunted and have lower yields if you leave them out below 40s (I use 50 as a cutoff for those - if it is going to dip below 50 overnight I bring them inside). Some plants like lettuce can tolerate quite cold temps, but again, it would sort of depend how cold of temps they have already been exposed to…
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One cold night down, the squash ** seems to have lived, and also maybe my tomatoes. But tonight will be colder.
** This is a yellow summer squash, so extra sensitive to cold.
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My peppers looked great before I took them outside today around noon, and when I went to bring them inside one had fully snapped and a bunch of the others had really wilted leaves. It was pretty windy but sunny and in the 50s. It looks like the pictures I’ve seen of damping off but on individual leaf stems. The stalks look fine. Any idea what happened and how to prevent it from happening again or getting worse?
