New to petunia seeds and way over planted

[Karyn]

Hi!

First of all, thank you for having me in Helpful Gardener! I'm new and this is my very first post so please forgive if I'm not asking questions properly or in wrong area.

I'll start by giving a general background of my Petunia dilemma and then cut to my question. Since I'm extremely new to this I feel like I need to be detailed so please forgive that as well.

Every year I get freaked out by the extreme prices of unhealthy looking, short lasting petunias from the usual local sources. They not only come in cheap ugly hanging baskets that I have to put into my nice ones but they are usually poor quality at a rich man's price So I decided to purchase 6 packets of seeds and try my hand at starting from seed.

I've never had luck with seeds (very few actually sprout) SO I thought nothing of ignoring the instructions printed everywhere on the internet of putting three or four seeds per pod and I pretty much used up all six packages and, what has turned out to be, way too few pots and pods. They ALL sprouted and FAST, much to my shock.

I'm just 9 days in and have literally THOUSANDS of little sprouts which are, of course, WAY too close together (about 20 in 1 single inch) and I put them into various mediums including those little grow pod mini terrarium seed starter things to my actual hanging baskets. They are coming in like crazy.

I have them under grow lights and plastic 12 hours per day and they bend their tiny baby bodies toward the light so I turn as well as mist each morning.

My concerns and desperate need for advisement from you seasoned experts:

✓ I now realize my error in putting WAY too many seeds in each pod and pot (both).

✓ At nine days they are still too teeny and fragile to try to "thin out". I'm afraid that I'd kill all of them by trying to handle their tiny little bodies.

✓ I thought perhaps the strongest will simply survive sparing me the thinning process this early BUT they appear to be "fighting" themselves and I fear NO sprouts will flourish.

I have attached photographs for you both with the plastic covers on my sprouts as well as off so that you can see best as possible.

What should I do to ensure I've survivors? Do I need to purchase a lot of soil and start spreading them out through various baskets and pots so that they don't strangle each other and if so how do I do so without damaging the fragile little babies?

I live in a condominium building where I can't put chicken wire or protective means around my patio to keep rabbits and deer out so they were really meant for hanging baskets but it looks like I'm going to have to plant gazillions of them in pots for the patio as well.

Please advise to the best of your ability! I very greatly appreciate your help as I feel terrible realizing that it's my fault that a bunch of these little baby sprouts are going to die because I did not believe the seed manufacturer due to my previous experience with seeds... I did not expect even 1/10 of them to actually sprout.

Thank you so very kindly!

[Karyn]

I couldn't figure out how to edit my post so I'm adding this and hope that you read this.

Apologies that all of my photos are upside down. They are right side up in my phone but when I posted them here they turned upside down. I hope that's not an indicative foreboding of what's to happen with my poor little petunia babies

[applestar]

Welcome to the forum . It’s OK they turn right-side up if you tap/click on them.

I know the panicky feeling when things go wrong and you want to fix it but not knowing exactly what to do.

I’m going to give you two things to do right away. There might be other/more advice forthcoming—

1. the lights are too far from the seedlings and need to be positioned much closer — lower the lights or raise the plant trays higher on risers (sturdy box or other surfaces)

2. you can start thinning by trimming with sharp tiny pointed scissors like embroidery scissors
— cut/cull seed stems close to potting mix surface
— trim all around a small patch and/or trim swaths dividing a larger patch into 4 or 6 tiny clumps of 3 or 4 seedlings each (you can thin those later)
— aim for tiny clumps about 1/2 to 1 inch apart for now
— use tweezers or forceps (or bamboo skewers held like chopsticks if you are adept) to pick up and remove all the trimmed/culled pieces so they don’t cause problems later

*AFTER thinning them, let’s talk about starting to fertilize them with weak / diluted fertilizer
* I want to say aim for ultimately keeping about one seedling per 1 square inch for now
* Once thinned and separated, you’ll be able to save extras by transplanting later after they grow true leaves and are sturdier

Oh, and if you are reluctant to cull that much, and want to save more, use a fork or spatula inserted vertically between a larger clump to basically scoop an entire portion. (Go deep — roots are at least as deep as they are tall). Have another pot with moistened hole in the potting mix to receive the scooped portion. You can use two forks if you have steady hands.

(You can also use a good sharp steak knife to lay those peat/coir pucks on their side and cut in half or 1/4’s — or they may simply be divided if you cut off the netting)

This is easier to do if you have a pair of small, straight paddled tongs (maybe for serving toast or bakery goods?? — I bought them from soil block making website) — I use the tongs with a plastic dinner fork or 1” wide painters spatula to support the scooped portion.