Seperate seedlings?

[brekehan]

In my first attempt at seeds, I threw what I now think is too many seeds in each cell.

I planted Cucumber, which is doing fine, 1 seed per cell.
I planted Green Onion, which sprouted many seeds in one cell.
I planted Romane Lettuce, which also sprouted many seeds in one cell.

Question is, should I make some attempt at seperating the green onion and lettuce seedlings? A few of the cells have maybe 20 tiny sprouts going. I am worried they might tangle and choke eachother.

How can I seperate something so tiny? I don't want to disrupt thier growing roots and kill them, but also worry for thier future.

[rainbowgardener]

I start a ton of plants from seeds every winter to be ready for spring. To save space I always plant them pretty crowded in the little cells. Once they have one or two pairs of true leaves, I separate them out to be one per cell and then once they are a few inches high and sturdy I spread them out so that they are in 3" pots. So all of my plants are transplanted three times (the third time into the ground or the hanging basket or whatever their final growing place is going to be). They survive it just fine and are not usually set back by the transplant.

Just be sure your soil mix is a little moist so they loosen up easily and handle them very delicately. Try to mostly be touching the soil (you are going to dig up a tiny "root ball" of soil with the little seedling) and handle the plant as little as possible. Have the new cell with a hole ready when you dig the seedling so you can pop it right back in soil. If they are really crowded, you can dig a clump of them out together, then gently separate the roots with a toothpick. Sometimes a tweezers helps for moving the little seedlings.

[brekehan]

Adding pictures so people can see what I am talking about easier.

[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/001.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/003.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/004.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/006.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/007.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/008.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/009.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/010.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/013.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://christopherpisz.is-a-geek.com/images/garden/015.jpg[/img]

The big ones are the cucumbers I assume. Since there is one per cell. The problem is with the smallers ones all clumped up. which are the lettuces and the green onion.

[a0c8c]

like marlin said, tough love. You'll have to thin them out when they reach about 2 inches or they'll stunt each other's growth. You can try and seperate them, but you usually end up with more problems if they're that close together.

[brekehan]

How spaced apart should each green onion "sproutlings" be from one another?

How about the lettuce?

My packages are gone so I can't look it up.

I may attempt to seperate them for a few of the cells and see if I create more chaos or not, before doing anything to the others.

[CallMeJosh]

How spaced apart should each green onion "sproutlings" be from one another?

How about the lettuce?

My packages are gone so I can't look it up.

I may attempt to seperate them for a few of the cells and see if I create more chaos or not, before doing anything to the others.

I'd say separating the onions by 3 to 4 inches per seed should be enough to let them grow to a respectable size. I'm not too sure about the lettuce but keeping it close to the onions will do them a world of good (they're rated as great companions).