Feeling sorry for seedlings

[Rosalind]

Yes, but I'm also a sucker for baby birds that fall out of their nests.

Unfortunately, it's really really hard to predict germination rates sometimes. You gotta seed heavily on occasion.

 

[vfem]

Oh I know how you feel.... I have to thin my spinach here soon. The ducks and chickens will have such a blast that morning though.

 

[setter4]

It's not a feeling thing for me, it's a waste thing, I want every single seed to grow into a beautiful and/or delicious plant!

I 2nd this...I don't hear them screaming or anything, I just picture that beautiful mature plant that I just pinched off. lol

 

[smom1976]

I feel this ...

I plant this little seed, I tend to it .. trying to get it to grow strong... then I kill it..

I hate thinning..

 

[vfem]

I feel this ...

I plant this little seed, I tend to it .. trying to get it to grow strong... then I kill it..

I hate thinning..

Yep, that's it! I just did it yesterday and watched the chickens wrestle each other over about 10 plants I thinned down. I was so not happy at all.

What killed me was I only had about 10 carrots come up so far, and 8 of them were all clumped together and I had to thin those down. I was pretty annoyed.... I did add more seeds, but it seems such a waste!

 

[bid]

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. I don't know how many of you watch the cooking shows on tv, but all the rage nowadays is micro-greens. Baby versions of the mature plants. Radish, beet, spinach, and of course lettuces and many more I am sure. Now we can all thin ruthlessly without feeling guilty and put the thinnings in a salad.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I've never liked it either. I try to give away my extra tomato starts and thereby save every single one that germinates.

 

[theOEGBman]

I feel this ...

I plant this little seed, I tend to it .. trying to get it to grow strong... then I kill it..

I hate thinning..

That's exactly how I feel as well. I put so much effort into raising my garden, and then I go through and pick through the ones that I want to kill. Not fun! That's why I usually sit out there and take my time picking up each seed and spacing it properly, but with carrots and lettuce, I dont even bother.

 

[Rosalind]

Stupid seedlings. Weird thing happened--for some reason, although I carefully counted out exactly 5 seeds/pot, some pots all 5 came up and others, nothing, nada. They are all the same breed, too, all from the same seed packet, so go figure why seeds not two inches away are doing great and others didn't.

Do I try to thin them and use whatever seed I've got leftover (in some cases, there's none leftover) to re-plant the empty ones that didn't go, or do I try to very carefully pick out the ones I would have thinned and re-pot them in the empty ones?

Already decided that out of the ones that have an overabundance of seedlings in general, I'm going to pot some up separately and wait a week to see if they take. If they do I'll give them to a co-worker who is taking a break from her usual gardening because she's too pregnant to bend over a cucumber bed. If not, oh well.

 

[patandchickens]

I'd try to rescue the to-be-thinned ones. Unless they are so close as to be inextricable without serious damage, I've always had quite good survival doing that. Think of it as you planted them in a flat and are pricking them out to individual pots now -- just a really *small* flat

Pat