Trimming Young Plants

[ScottRW]

I've been watching youtube videos for entertainment about how the "Big Boys"( commercial tobacco farmers) goes about growing and harvesting tobacco. And I see they trim the leaves on the young plants in the greenhouses to keep the bigger ones from overshadowing the smaller ones in the planting trays.

Any of you guys do that? And if you do how do you do it? and do you have any tips or tricks for a small time/ hobbyist grower like me.

The "Big Boys" use a modified lawnmower on rails.... I don't need that...lol

 

[deluxestogie]

Just use a pair of sharp scissors. Once some of the seedlings overshadow their neighbors, then trim them (up to about 2/3 of each leaf) every two or three weeks, until transplant time. Avoid injuring the stem's growing tip.

From 2014.

Bob

 

[ScottRW]

would you use something for a guide for height?

 

[deluxestogie]

No. Just make the leaves shorter. All of these butchered leaves will just become trash at the very base of the mature plant regardless of how carefully you manage them.

Bob

EDIT: If you don't clip enough, then you have to clip more often to avoid shading the slower seedlings. But the clipping strengthens the root system, increases the alkaloids to the baby leaves, and thickens the stems.

 

[parabolic]

Bob, thoses seedlings look quite big, is that the normal size just about ready for transplating into final container/location or let them grow even longer?

Lee

 

[deluxestogie]

That photo bears a date of 11 May, so I'm sure they went outside into the planting bed within a week. But clipping is not about how much to allow them to grow. They get clipped until they are transplanted, whenever that turns out to be. Sometimes it may be delayed by a late frost or some other event.

Seedlings should appear about as hardy as in the photo, when they are ready for transplant. If they are much smaller or fragile, the bugs and snails and birds will destroy them overnight.

Bob