Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi folks,

Silly question time again from me. How do you prick out seedlings?

I have a few modules of lettuces that are starting to get leggy and I neecd to seperate them a bit (and can't plant outdoors this week due to predicted snows by weekend). And I have also sown my brassicas too thickly into modules and had a good germination success rate, so expect to have to do something with those within a few weeks. (And should I furter mention that I sowed my borlotti beans at 2 and my mange tout peas and dwarf french beans at 4 each to a loo roll - all romping away madly!! So should I do something with those too?)

Anyway - how does one (especially one who is not necessarily the most graceful and light fingered) thin out such seedlings to keep em all (have enough space for them all and feel bad consigning any to compost unnecessarily)? I need basic, step by step instructions for this process please (can do lots on a general guideline, but am afeared of this one, sorry).

Well I can tell you how I do it but I suspect every gardeners has his/her own way! I take a thin teaspoon and with the handle I gently lift the compost under the seedlings. Then picking them up by the leaf (not the stem - it's fragile and you can damage it) I gentley jiggle the spoon handle till I can separate it from the crowd. Sometimes a clump come up at once - lay them on a bit of newspaper or something and tease them apart - again holding by the leaves. Then fill a small pot - or module cell - whatever you are transplanting into - and make a hole in the centre of the compost with your spoon handle. Place the seedling roots into the hole and tuck the compost around them. Job done! No specialist equipment needed.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Thanks Flum - that's exactly what I needed - to "see" how to do it, and you explained it beautifully. Now to try tonight with the first lot......

My grandad used to to borrow one of nanna's knitting needles to tease them out. He also had a very steady hand!
I have been using the handle of the teaspoon for my tomatoes and none damaged so far... I guess the proof is whether they keep on growing!

janeyo

Perhaps this is why my Tigerella toms have not suvived potting on to bigger pots, although my other varieties did....

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si'sraisedbed

How many plants do you actually need? When I sow in modules or cell trays I sow 2 or 3 seeds per module and then pull out the ones I don't need so I'm left with one or two plants per module. The whole point of growing in modules is so that you don't have to transplant. The plants suffer less from moving and get off to a better start. As for beans, one per toilet roll is plenty. They don't appreciate being moved, so I would pull out the extra ones to leave a maximum of 2 per roll and let them get on with it till you are ready to plant out.

I only had large modules rather than the small ones, and not a lot of windowsill space for a lot of sowing. So I stuck about 10 seeds into modules about 4cm square. I know, too dense, but will know better next year. Meantime, I'll try and salvage as many as possible over the next fwe nights and the weekend (after which I should be able to leave them overnight in minigreenhouse so can use all that grew).

And me peas and beans are all older, so I really didn't expect them all to grow - but will pull a couple out. And start a few more rolls afresh when i get windowsill space back again.

I recommend letting the pots or trays dry out quiet a lot before you try and separate any clumps of seedlings. Wet compost is heavy and roots will be easily broken. Drier compost allows the roots to untangle and you should get away with minimal root loss. Obviously, water as soon as possible on repotting. Try it, but believe me drier is easier.

Thanks for that tip Cutecumber. Will stop watering today then, for weekend work.

Thanks to everyone for their hints - I managed at the weekend to do my pricking out and I think I only lost 2 seedlings to careless handling and a later one due to the toddlre stepping on the modules But I have now 4 module trays (each 24 large mods) practically full of lovely baby brassicas and hopefully will get them strong enough to plant out in coming months. They certainly all seem to have survived the transfer process anyway - 3 days on.