Thinning sprouts?

[r4eboxer]

My seeds have mostly germinated, and pretty much all of them I put in came up. So now I have 3-4 sprouts in each cell. What is the best way to go about thinning? And do I wait until they get the second set of leaves or do I need to do the thinning today?

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Well the best way is with a pair of scissors. I can not do that, it is like silence of the lambs for me. I divide the cell up and repot all the seedlings. I am just that way.

 

[catjac1975]

My seeds have mostly germinated, and pretty much all of them I put in came up. So now I have 3-4 sprouts in each cell. What is the best way to go about thinning? And do I wait until they get the second set of leaves or do I need to do the thinning today?

They can be pulled easily unless they are squash and the like-then cut them.

 

[wsmoak]

This is why I only put one seed in each cell. I just *can't* kill them once they've sprouted. What if I pick the wrong one?!

If you must, clip them off with a small pair of scissors. I would worry about disturbing the roots of the one you want to keep by pulling the others out.

Do you mean second set of *true* leaves? If you only have cotyledons right now, wait until they grow a bit so you can keep the largest/strongest looking one.

-Wendy

 

[r4eboxer]

This is why I only put one seed in each cell. I just *can't* kill them once they've sprouted. What if I pick the wrong one?!

If you must, clip them off with a small pair of scissors. I would worry about disturbing the roots of the one you want to keep by pulling the others out.

Do you mean second set of *true* leaves? If you only have cotyledons right now, wait until they grow a bit so you can keep the largest/strongest looking one.

-Wendy

They just sprouted a few days ago so I will wait a while and pick the strongest. After seeing my broccoli and cabbage I did only put ONE SEED per cell on the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and celery I put in cells today. I figured if I don't get a sprout in 15% of my cells that's better than pulling out the wrong one. I have 72 broccoli starts so even if I kill more than half of them that's still too much broccoli. I wasn't thinking and just kept seeding until I ran out of the pack , Thing is I still have 3 pkt of broccoli seeds left, enough for the next 5 yrs.

 

[lesa]

I snip off the weakest two with a pair of scissors. I feed the tiny sprouts to my chickens- so I feel less guilty!

 

[hoodat]

So long as it is only a few per cell I wait till I am sure which of them seems strongest before I thin. That way if something happens to one the other can still grow. On my Chinese greens I find that they do better in the garden if there are several growing as a small cluster rather than spacing too far apart.