setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on

plantoid 4/26/2016, 5:22 pm

I sowed 1/3 of a packet of long trailing Lobelia flower seeds at the end of January into three of my bottomless grow tubes 7 put them inthe heated LED lit bed to get them germinated at 19 oC . The seeds are like very very fine silver sand so there is little change of sowing them thinly .

They germinated profusely in nine days .. so to get more space in the bed I slipped them out into a 15 oC heated bed in the glasshouse , using a home made lit candle to provide night heat to keep the frost off . Today I judged that at just over 2/5 ths of an inch tall the seedlings might be ready for planting on in fours in other bottomless tubes as most had actually produced the second set of leaves .

Half an hour before starting the exercise I stood the tubes with the seedlings in 2 inches of room temp rain water to help the matted roots slide apart ..it worked a treat .
I spent the next couple of hours carefully filling 33 of the 1& 1/2 " dia bottomless tubes with freshly made re-hydrated sterile coir compost & ever so gently started the potting on . Finding that using a home made pointed spindle to make the planting holes 1/2 " wide in a cone 3/4 " deep and a pair of plastic medical grade tweezers to lift the tiny plants by a true leaf was the best way of doing things.

Picking the tangle of the baby plants root mass apart with the closed points of the tweezers & the pointed spindle was a far more easier for the long soaking that they got .

I now have 33 tubes with four plants in each ... it will be interesting to see how many survive the potting on for these is these are the smallest plants I've ever potted on .

**sanderson** 4/27/2016, 2:49 am

Amazing how much time we will spend on little seedlings. Loving care! Very Happy

CapeCoddess 4/27/2016, 6:59 am

I bet they'll be just fine, David. I often pick up tiny extra sprouts with my fingers and stick them in a hole, made with a pencil, in a cell where nothing sprouted. I end up with way too many plants that way but I just can't bear to cut them down.

CC

johnp 4/27/2016, 9:09 am

CC I do the same thing, can't waste even one seedling. I met my limits however this spring. When I was planting outside I must have spilled a seed packet of something because I have hundreds of seedlings in one square. Don't know what they are yet, looks like I am growing bean sprouts. Rolling Eyes

**Scorpio Rising** 4/27/2016, 7:01 pm

With those wispy little guys I think you are doing the right thing plantoid.

I am the mad snipper when it comes to seedlings though....the strongest gets to live. Sounds brutal....I guess it is! setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on 1280598131

setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on 1280598131

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setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on

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Re: setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on

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Re: setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on

Re: setting up the seed bed plants into mini pots to grow them on


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