Thinning

[Briteyez83]

I have cilantro and bib lettuce that are seedlings. Being a first time gardener I asked a lady at lowes about herb growing and such when I bought them. She told me to plant a bunch of seeds and then just thin them later. She didn't say when or how to do so. I tried to attach a pic of what they look like but I can't figure it out. So my question is how do you thin an herd and when do you do it?

[digitS']

With thinning, it is kind of - the earlier, the better.

Of course, you might have something show up and eat 12 of your plants and if you have just pulled 24 and left 12 . . . But, you can't cover all the bases. It is best to give the plants that remain in your garden a chance. A chance comes with risks.

So that they have enough light, water and plant nutrients - they need some room. Not allowing them room to grow just leads to a whole bunch of stunted plants.

Your plants will require a different amount of room depending on the time of year. Cilantro seldom requires more than about a 6 or 8 inch circle to live comfortably. Bibb lettuce probably needs more like 10 or 12 inches. These would be minimums.

If you have room elsewhere in your garden, you can transplant your lettuce seedlings. They will need plenty of water and some shade for a few days to recover from the root disturbance. You won't have very much success trying that with cilantro. It is one of those plants with a tap root and they don't transplant well.

If your thinnings are going to the kitchen, just be very careful with the plants that remain. If they are going to the compost pile, same story . . . but, even tiny plants can have use in a meal from the garden.

Steve

[PunkRotten]

I'll add: Instead of yanking on plants use scissors and cut them at ground level. That is the best way to thin seedlings.

[Briteyez83]

I'll add: Instead of yanking on plants use scissors and cut them at ground level. That is the best way to thin seedlings.

I was going to ask something along those lines. Lol If you don't mind, I want to message me your email and ill send you the pic I took this morning. That way you can see my growth and weather or not I should thin them now or wait a bit

[PunkRotten]

You can post pics here. Go to tinypic.com or photobucket and upload a pic then post the link. I usually thin it down to about 3 plants and let them get a little bigger before I finally remove the rest. I leave a few plants in the beginning as a kind of insurance. When you thin you want to try and pick out the healthiest looking plants.

[Briteyez83]

That's the tiny.....they all look healthy. Lol ok ill post a pic in a min

[Briteyez83]

[img]https://s1145.photobucket.com/albums/o513/Briteyez83/?action=view&current=2012-06-29_06-25-28_936.jpg[/img]

[cynthia_h]

The "clumps" of little seedlings are ready to thin w/scissors. The ones in rows may not be quite ready.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Briteyez83]

The clumps are actually rows of bib lettuce. How would I go about thinning them thought? Is there a certain way and how much do I thin them?

[mtmickey]

In photobucket, if you click on "image code" (to the right of the picture) and paste that here, the picture will show up in the forum, like this

[img]https://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o513/Briteyez83/2012-06-29_06-25-28_936.jpg[/img]