Hard to 'thin' out seedlings...

[chuck_n_grace]

Hi,
Last year Grace and I began growing seeds for our first garden. As the seeds began germinating we became very excited. Each day we tended the young plants. I became a bit 'attached' to those little things. As the story goes, I couldn't let any of them go. So I squeezed them throughout the garden wherever I could.

Consequently, as you can surmise, the plants competed for an ever shrinking source of nutrients. We grew veggies but they were not certainly anything to brag about.

One year later....

It's been six days since we planted over 400 seeds. We deliberately added several seeds to those small cells. We agreed that when they began to grow, we would 'thin' them out. The seeds have done exceptionally well in our heated nursery.

So, sucking it in, I cut the extra veggies. Those cucumber seedlings were very healthy...but I cut them out.

Am I the one that struggled with 'thinning' out plants when they first got started?

Regards,
Chuck "The Veggie Whacker"

[fran]

I used feel like a murderer when I thinned out the seeds, but now I eat them! I use them in salads and stir fries, very fashionable these micro-greens

[Millymollymandy]

I don't have any problems with thinning out things like lettuce that you can't sow one at a time.

However I absolutely refuse to sow several cucumbers/squash/courgettes/sweetcorn in one place and then thin them out! What a waste of expensive seed. So I sow a single seed in a little pot then if one doesn't germinate never mind. However as I usually do an extra one or two to compensate for this I often end up with extra plants, cos I just can't 'kill' this kind of seedling!!!

[oldjerry]

It takes a lot of practice to direct sow small seed in to the ground,without it being to thick or there being gaps.Don't forget the tilth makes a lot of difference too.It's not the end of the world if you have to gap up,but here's a couple ofideas:
I have ,in the past,mixed carrot seed with a little dry sand when sowing (obviously water when sown).
You can pregerminate small seed and then plant carefully(Loads of work,but you wont waste so much)
(Ireally rate this) If youmake a small troughfrom thin smoothed timber V shaped(small plastic gutter might do) say 3ft long(or the same width as your deep beds) then sow your carrot/radish/cos/parsnip (i.e. small) seed in that(on the greenhouse bench.Then when it's germinated take out a trench the same profile,water the trough well and slide it in.

[CasperCastle]

Heh, you definitely aren't the only one.
I go so attached to all the tigerella tomoato seedlings I grew last year that i planted the ones I didn't have room for in a local park.

It seemed to work out, as when i popped back during the summer they were mostly gone.
Some foragers got an intruiging surprise!

[chuck_n_grace]

Tomatoes in a park...that's an interesting idea.

I've got over 48 broccoli plants that are now looking very nice. However they are crammed into a small space so many will have to go. I guess I'll have to drink a couple of beers to build up the courage and insensitivity to take a whack at many of them.

Of course some plants don't like their roots disturbed so transplanting extra plants might not be effective. Need to look into this more.

Regards,
Chuck

[Cassiepod]

I'm the same. but having read some info on seed saving from the real seed website and having their assuarance that seed keeps for up to 3 years, I'm now planting a lot less than the whole packet and trusting that the majority will germinate which avoids me having extras and alos the plus of no seed to buy next year (if I forget to seed save). I also bought a little syringe type thing for sownig small seeds, it's got a plunger that you press down and it dispenses one (or a few) seeds and I'm trying that this year for carrots, lettuce etc to reduce the amount of thinning require, just dispense seeds at the recommended thinning interval.

[chuck_n_grace]

Cassiepod,
I have a lot of trouble sowing small amounts (or 1) of the tiny seeds.

Do you have a link to a photo showing the dispenser you're using this year? I'd be glad to get one and learn how to use it.

Thanks,
Chuck

[chuck_n_grace]

Well I did it! I got up the courage, and pulled out about 40 nice broccoli seedlings (3" tall with leafs about 5/8" in size). Left us with about 48 nice plants. I picked the healthiest plant from each spot in the ground. Did it all while sober. Once I tore a few out...it became easier.

Regards,
Chuck

[chadspad]

I couldnt bring myself to thin out parsnips but ended up with hundreds of tiny ones which werent good for much more than soup and very few large ones, so did learn my lesson. I do still try to replant them elsewhere though - still cant completely destroy them