Binkalette
Senior Member
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:53 pm
Location: Minnesota - zone 4a

How to thin my seedlings?

I have a rather small garden out back, so I won't have enough room for ALL of the seedlings that I started. Also.. I realize I put WAY too many seeds in some of the cups. This is only my second year having a garden to grow things in, last year I just did pumpkins and rhubarb. So, I have a few questions..
How should I thin my seedlings out (how to choose who goes and who stays?)?
How big should they be before I pot them up?
Where can I buy compost since I don't have my own?

I've been setting a fan to blow across the tops of them for a few hours during the day, I read this will make their stems stronger?

Here are some pictures of the seedlings I have currently:

[img]https://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l208/Binkalette/IMG_1575.jpg[/img]
The pumpkins are in the front there just barely starting to come up.
Behind those are my Alyssums, both the white and purple kind.. I think I really need to thin those pots out.
Behind those are the red bell peppers, they haven't come up yet. :(
After that is the Tomatoes, they are Roma tomatoes.
The next ones are the Cucumbers. How many of those should I have in the garden? I don't really know how big they get.
Behind those are the lavender seeds, they have not come up yet either :(
Then the Basil.
The Parsley is second to last, just barely starting to come up.. I can see one or two little green shoots.
The last one is the Oregano.. REALLY needs thinning. Planted way too many of those.

So, suggestions? How do I do this?


Also, what should I add to my garden soil this year? Last year we just started it.. it is a raised bed garden because our yard is all clay. We dug out the clay about 1' down and then built it up another 1', and filled it in with 'garden soil' and peat moss. I want to find some compost to buy somewhere and add that this year. Last year I just fertilized with Miracle grow, the regular blue stuff.


One more thing. Because my garden is so small, if I don't have quite enough room for everything, what would do best in a pot?? Tomatoes?


Thanks for any help!

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

The herbs are good in containers -- basil, parsley. The oregano and lavender are perennials, but only hardy to zone 5. If you are in southern MN, you are zone 4, otherwise 2 or 3. But you could plant the oregano and lavender in containers and bring them in for the winter -- especially if you can give them good light indoors.

The bell peppers would probably be the next best thing to do in containers. You can do tomatoes in containers, plenty of people do, but you need at least 5 gallon bucket size container, if not a bit more and you still need a way to stake/ cage it, which can be a little trickier in a container.

The cucumbers can be grown up a trellis to save space in the garden; they do get big. And the pumpkins get huge. One pumpkin plant will occupy 50 -100 square feet before it is done.

Re the thinning. Some people just take a little nail scissors and clip off the extra plants, to be sure not to disturb the ones you want to save. I'm pretty obsessive about all this, so I tend to dig them all up and separate them (GENTLY) and inspect the root systems. That's the best way to tell which ones you want to save--the one with the biggest healthiest root system. But it's easy to injure delicate little seedlings, so don't try this until you are used to handling seedlings and have a delicate touch.

Don't mess with them until they have the true leaves, preferably the second pair of true leaves (yours are mostly just showing seed leaves). By then they are a little sturdier and cope with being transplanted better.

Binkalette
Senior Member
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:53 pm
Location: Minnesota - zone 4a

Thank you! :)

If I grow the cucumbers up a trellis, will I need to put slings or anything to hold the developing cucumbers like you would for pumpkins? Sorry if that is a silly question.. I've never grown them before so I don't really know what to expect.

garden5
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Posts: 3062
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:40 pm
Location: ohio

Binkalette wrote:Thank you! :)

If I grow the cucumbers up a trellis, will I need to put slings or anything to hold the developing cucumbers like you would for pumpkins? Sorry if that is a silly question.. I've never grown them before so I don't really know what to expect.
Welcome to the Helpful Gardener, Binkalett :D! Stick around and you will be amazed at just what you will learn.

Regarding your question about the cukes: you don't have to worry about using slings, especially if you harvest them small. It is actually good to harvest them this way since it will cause the plant to continue yielding thought the season.


One tip regarding the peppers and toms you have growing: get a fluorescent shoplight (4 ft., T8) and put it about 3in. or so above your pepper and tomato seedlings. Put it on a timer so that it stays on about 16 hrs. each day during the normal daytime hours. This will greatly benefit them. You can learn a lot more about the lighting requirements in the seed starting threads on this forum. Definitely give those a read.

Good luck with your garden this year! :o



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