imafan26
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How do you start and separate small seeds

How do you plant small seeds and get good spacing so that the seedlings can be easily separated?
When you do have seedlings bunched together, how do you separate them safely? At what stage can you try to separate them?

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applestar
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This depends on size of seeds, but I rely on bamboo skewers or chopsticks to pick up and position tiny seeds. Touching the pre-moistened seed mix is enough moisture on the tool to pick up single or multiple dry seeds — depending on size and number of seeds, I use the skewer or chopstick. Alternatively, dip the tip in water, then soak off excess droplet of water on moist paper towel.

Overall, I prefer to pre-space tiny seeds and delicate seedlings when planting in community pots ... or separate by using things like micro soil blocks (1 cm square) or those keurig coffee pot cups, especially with delicate seedlings.

Tomato and pepper seedlings are sturdy enough to manipulate even at just seedleaf stage — moistened bamboo skewers work well. If you are adept with chopsticks, you can also use the skewers like forceps, too ...but mostly, I use the skewers to separate and tease apart the stems, leave, and roots, and hold them by a seedleaf.


Seedlings are generally less likely to tangle up at full unfurled seedleaf stage — they tend to grow branching roots as they grow the true leaves, and those are the ones that tangle up mor easily. Again, if the roots and seedling stems are strong enough they can be micro-manipulated.
— It helps to completely saturate and float/separate out the seedlings from the growing medium. When potting these up, support/suspend the seedling by a seedleaf with tip of skewer over a hole, then sort of squirt the seedling and settle in place with a pipette of water. This helps to float/spread any side roots in with the potting mix And let everything settle back in naturally as the water soaks in.

imafan26
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I am planting cutting celery and parsley. I lose about 1/3 of the seedlings on transplanting sometimes more. I lost all of my cilantro seedlings, but that was because I skipped a day watering. I'll try the skewer method since I have a lot of those and chopsticks too.

I have not have had much luck with very small pots growing outside. They dry too fast or hold too much water. Outdoors they are on a bench master so the bottom is also aerated. I don't leave the seed pots in a tray since it could rain overnight. I have tried many times to sow single seeds in 4 or 6 packs and I even have trouble keeping transplants alive in them. I am trying again now with pre-soaked Hibiscus seeds that were already sprouted after 24 hours soaking.

pepperhead212
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For parsley and cutting celery, I soak the seeds overnight in a 500 ppm GA-3 solution, then put them in a petri dish, with about six layers of PT - I just cut about a 6" length about 1" wide, and layer it. I moisten it with a hydrogen peroxide solution - a tb of 3% to a pint of water. Parsley sprouts in as little as 5 days using this method, then I move them to a pot, or a place in the ground. I often use a pair of tweezers, and an eye loupe, to handle the seeds with the sprouts.

imafan26
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Thanks pepperhead212, I don't have petri dishes but I could put the paper towels in ziploc bag. What is GA-3 solution? Is that similar to Superthrive?

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applestar
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Isn’t that gibberellin for increasing fruitset, etc.?

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TomatoNut95
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I have no trouble separating seedlings- I scatter itty bitty seeds in a shallow container and wait until the seedlings show their first set of true leaves. Then, I use the pointed end of one of my plastic plant labels, pry the seedlings from the soil, very gently pull apart clumped babies and then plant into its own little seperate pot. Unfortunately I wind up having to destroy many of the seedlings because I can get too many and I don't have enough planting space for them all.

A plastic spoon works good to. Whichever method works good for you! :wink:

pepperhead212
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imafan26 wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 1:00 am
Thanks pepperhead212, I don't have petri dishes but I could put the paper towels in ziploc bag. What is GA-3 solution? Is that similar to Superthrive?
GA-3 is one type of gibberellic acid - a hormone, which is produced by plants, and I think some types of fungi are used, for commercial production of it. I'm not sure if it's in superthrive, which smells like B vitamins, if I recall! As applestar noted, it is used for setting fruit, but that's foliar spray, which they do commercially - not something that I do. When researching this, most of the seed treatment I saw references to were about flowers. But I saw something about them using foliar spray to create seedless fruits - I always thought they were just hybrids. Maybe that's what creates some of those seedless peppers I sometimes get. They also use it to speed up sprouting (a.k.a. malting) barley and other grains, when making beer, and other alcoholic beverages.

When I first got it, I tested a number of old seeds I had in my stash, and tested them compared to water, 1:32 peroxide solution, and 500 ppm GA- 3, soaked 12 hours in each of them. I didn't compare them to saltpeter - I would have run out of petri dishes, plus I knew that helps peppers, from a test I did years ago, compared to a water soak, and there was a definite speed and % increase, with pepper seeds, but I haven't found any noticeable advantage with others I have tested, like the herbs.

Peppers were actually slower, with the GA-3, tomatoes about the same, and eggplant, parsley, cilantro, okra, basil, and chard were definitely faster, as well as higher % with those old seeds. I've used it with a number of other seeds since then, and got faster sprouting, with most.

imafan26
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Thanks Applestar, that must be it.

I use Superthrive for orchids but not for seeds. Superthrive has mixed reviews. It contains mostly Vitamin B1 but also contains an auxin similar to IBA. It helps to stimulate dormant orchid nodes and as a growth booster for orchids. However, it is not a fertilizer. If it is used on an orchid that is in poor condition and is not fed at the same time, it will kill the orchid instead. IBA stimulates root growth but not crown growth. A higher nitrogen fertilizer is needed to stimulate the leaf growth.

Thanks pepperhead212, this is the first time I have heard of gibberellic acid. The seeds usually don't have problems germinating if they are fresh and at the right temperature. I usually just have problems spacing and separating them.

The only seeds I need to treat are some pepper seed, especially the wild seeds. Potassium nitrate works on those.



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