Monday, March 18, 2013

Starting seeds indoors - the progress

What has been happening in my grow house for the past two weeks? Here is an update. 
The seeds sprouted nicely. I usually place 2 seeds per hole just in case one doesn't sprout and that sometimes actually happens. Here you can see my tomatoes. It is time to take one of them out.


Some people use scissors and cut one of the seedlings, so they don't damage the roots of the one they are keeping in. But because I plant in a very loose soil I didn't find it a problem to pull them out without any struggle. This a photo after.


How do I choose which one to eliminate? It is not necessarily the smaller looking one. If you take  a look at your plants, choose the one that looks stronger to you, the one that is almost developing second leaves, not the one that is taller. Taller is not necessarily better. You can use your motherly instinct and you won't mess up.


These are broccoli and brussel sprout plants. You might think that they look good but actually they are becoming a bit leggy and I don't like that. See, your seedlings are suppose to be short, grow their stems wide, and develop new sets of leaves. What is happening here is that the seedlings are looking for more light and are trying to reach it. In that case they are not developing the right way. Rather they are growing their stems long and thin. What I have to do is raise my boxes closer to the light. I will do that and include a separate post about what happened. Hope it helps!


4 comments:

Patty said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patty said...

I actually tried cutting like suggested by babcia and the stem kept on growing. LOL. So pulling them out gently does work better.

Judy Rucker said...

I need to thin out my broccoli plants and it's breaking my heart! I really do not like this part of gardening. To get rid of a perfectly good plant! I think next time I'll just plant one at a time and take my chances. These heirloom seeds are so good I haven't lost one yet! lol.

Monika said...

Judy, or you can replant them! That is what I did and now I have extras ;-)