First Time Herb Garden - Do I Thin my Herbs? (Pics Include)

[twobunnies]

Hi All!

I'm growing herbs from seed for the first time and I'm looking for some advice. I planted a variety of herbs in pots with the intent of growing them in our insulated sun room and they are growing great so far. (Though I tried some seeds in a seed starter pods and none of them grew!!!) My big question is... Do I need to thin my herbs? They are pretty crowded looking, but this is my first time doing this and I feel awful if I have to pull out a ton of my new seedlings, but at the same time, I want to get as strong and bountiful plants as possible. The basil, thyme, and parsley are about 2 weeks old in these pictures (since planting), and the rest are about 5 weeks old (since planting). I've been seeing some dying off on the chives and cilantro with some sprouts simply dying turning brown and dying, but the dill, basil, and mint all seem to be going very strong. These pots were intended to be their permanent homes, though I may transplant the mint or chives into a bigger pot at some point since they are perennials, but right now I need to know what to do about thinning, if anything at all.

Should I thin these out? What is my best approach for thinning if I need to do it? How many would I take out and how do I best remove them? Any way to save the sprouts I pluck out or remove? Thank you for any help!

EDIT: Not sure what order the pics uploaded in, so hopefully people can tell what pot is which. The plants behind the cilantro and dill in the back row are asters and candytuff flowers.

[ButterflyLady29]

The chives are fine. The others need to be thinned or divided. You can thin by cutting the smaller/weaker plants off at ground level. Or you can divide by cutting the plants apart. To cut them apart just use a knife and slice from the top down to the bottom of the pot, make a + shape when you cut. That divides the pot into 4 sections. Some will die from the roots being cut but most plant will live. Take the sections and pot up into larger containers.

[Asica]

I get cilantro and dill plant like that all the time. I do not divide them, just plant them in a group. The same for parsley. I can see giving more room to basil.

[rainbowgardener]

I would thin them all except the chives. Unless you have a gigantic garden, you don't have room to plant any where near that many, so just clip out a bunch of the extras (like a least half! harden your heart ). The ones left will grow so much better, it will more than make up the difference.

And the soil in your pots looks very dried out.

[imafan26]

I usually grow my herbs in community pots that look like that. I try not to put a lot of seeds in a small pot. If you have some friends you can transfer a few bunches of the basil and flowers into other pots when they get a little bigger. Then transplant the clumps as they grow out into individual pots you can sell or give away. Dill can be transplanted but it is tricky, you have to be careful not to break the roots. Cilantro can stay in clumps or you can spread them out more when they get bigger and eat the trimmings.

[twobunnies]

Thank you very much for all the advice! I will try to thin them out today. I might try to transplant some of the thinnings, but a lot I'll just probably cut. Time to harden my heart because I feel bad about cutting them!