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Post by daylilydude on Nov 12, 2017 10:01:38 GMT -5
When we start our own seeds we always start way more than what we need, so my question is... what makes you cull a certain seedling?
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Post by paulf on Nov 12, 2017 10:16:39 GMT -5
If it is weak, malformed or the smallest of the bunch after the number of seedlings I really want are chosen. If I plan on twelve, the largest, healthiest twelve are kept the rest tossed unless there are some really great looking seedlings and I can't bear to get rid of those, so then I will chose say 18.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 12, 2017 14:12:55 GMT -5
Weeeelll, I've gotten better over the years, but my seed starting goes like this:
Picks up tomato seed packet. I think I want two of this one, so I'll sow 4 seeds. Looks at packet. Oh, wait, this seed is four years old, I better sow 6. Moves on to the next variety and the scenario mostly repeats. Picks up really old favorite variety that I've decided I MUST have this year, sows all 12 remaining seeds.
I plan the garden to hold (for example) 60 plants, so I plan for 30 varieties, two of each. Then the sprouting happens.
Looks at all the tomato babies. Looks at pre-planned garden map (for which these seedlings are destined). Decides that I can make more room after all and throws out the map. I'll make a new one later to accomodate 20 more tomato plants. Begins potting up plants. The first two varieties I do great at! Choose the two healthiest, chuck the two smallest sprouts in the compost (also discard any that have only put out one true leaf or any twins). I can do this! Receive text from brother/mother/sister/friend asking about which tomatoes I've started and did I possible have an extra of xyz variety? Quickly decides that this is the first of many texts. I better pot up more than I need. Adjust planning to pot up 3 of each variety. Lament the varieties I've already discarded excess of. Then as I'm potting up I remember the year I had damping off and had to buy tomato plants. Or the year that I dropped an entire flat on the basement floor and lost half the plants. BY the end of my potting up session I'm potting them all up AND considering retrieving former discards out of the compost.
End result is: Plan for 60. Sow for 120. Actually pot up 240.
Many times in recent history those excess plants have literally saved someone's tomato season after something happened to their plants. So I guess it's working for me in some strange irrational way.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 12, 2017 14:41:46 GMT -5
I usually plant 2 seeds for each plant that I want, saving the strongest, except for those I have very few seeds of. And, come germination time, there are sometimes either old seeds or a new variety that is not germinating well (or at all!), so then I have some empty pots, and have to figure out what I want to fill them with, using some of those excess seedlings I have.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Nov 13, 2017 9:39:49 GMT -5
Pretty much what Dave said, but I plant 3-6 seeds for older varieties.
It's so hard to cull seedlinge, but I think I finally have it through my head that sticking extra plants in (especially in an Earthbox or raised bed which is already a small, confined space) results in less harvest, not more.
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Post by meandtk on Nov 13, 2017 10:03:22 GMT -5
Cull, what is that? ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/3247375/images/LO3fz8obUsoM1TzmCkAS.png)
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Post by september on Nov 13, 2017 10:40:12 GMT -5
Ladymarm, I follow your thinking exactly! I like to grow 2 of each, so start 4 seeds ... maybe 6 if it's one I can't do without and have older seeds. And then there's the time I started the entire packet of ten+ year old seeds and had nearly 100% germination with about 19 plants when I only wanted 2! I've been able to get rid of my extra plants to my sister, who drives 200 miles to visit me in mid-May and drives home with her vehicle stacked like a jigsaw puzzle with boxes and trays of seedlings to distribute to her friends and neighbors. As far as culling, I don't discard any as long as they are making progress. I've had some late runts go on to do as well as the early ones given time to catch up. Any leftovers I don't have garden or pot space for get planted at the edge of the compost pile where the deer usually eat them before they have a chance to set tomatoes. So I convince myself that I'm not the one doing them in!
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