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Plants growing in bunches. Remove them?

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FALaholic

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I transplanted my seedlings into their own SOLO cups. To prevent damaging the seedlings. I scooped up the seedling that I wanted to grow out, and the surrounding seedlings. I originally planned on removing the accompanying seedlings, but seeing as they are doing as well as the main plant, I wanted to ask if I should keep em.
 

DGBAMA

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Next year i may shop the solo cups and leave them in single cell trays. My late started Virginia did great without the extra transplant step. i
 

Knucklehead

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I start mine in 1020 48 cell trays with a solid tray under the cells. To water, I pull out one of the 4 cell sections and put a couple of quarts in the bottom tray. I start the seed in the cells straight to the dirt, just sprinkle them on top, don't bury them. Once they have germinated, I start weeding them down to a manageable number per cell, leaving the best looking three or four and then take them down to one per cell. As they grow and start to shade one another, I trim the leaves (not the bud head) to give them room. This also seems to strengthen the stem. I leave them in the trays until they are ready for transplant. By that time, I may have given them a haircut two or three times so the faster growing ones don't shade out the slower ones. I get the trays from www.growerssupply.com.
 

deluxestogie

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Knucks,
I would discourage direct seeding to the tray, if you germinate more than one variety per tray. This risks stray seeds falling into the wrong cells, and confusion of varieties. When I seed to a cup of soil, I carry that one cup to the far side of the kitchen to seed it, and place a lid on it there. So there can be no chance of stray seeds. As soon as a radicle emerges, the seed is then placed into its own cell in a 1020 tray.

Bob
 

Knucklehead

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Knucks,
I would discourage direct seeding to the tray, if you germinate more than one variety per tray. This risks stray seeds falling into the wrong cells, and confusion of varieties. When I seed to a cup of soil, I carry that one cup to the far side of the kitchen to seed it, and place a lid on it there. So there can be no chance of stray seeds. As soon as a radicle emerges, the seed is then placed into its own cell in a 1020 tray.

Bob

Good point. For the grow out seedlings I did separate each 4 cell section along it's perforated tear line, and seed it away from the others. After germination and thinning, I ended up with 4 plants of a single variety per 4 cell section, with a total of 12 varieties per tray. For the larger grows, I just grew out in multiples of four.

The only advantage I really saw was that I ended up with the strongest plant from each cell, after thinning down from around 8 - 10 plants per cell. I'd thin down to the best four, then in a few days thin down to the best single. I don't know if it made a difference in the long run, but at that early stage, some seedlings were obviously better looking and stronger.
 
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