Re: I've Sprouted!!!

**AtlantaMarie** 4/24/2014, 8:58 am

Add me to the list! I apologize to them too.

catbranch 4/24/2014, 12:52 pm

I'm not sure how I'll handle the thinning since I haven't achieved that level of success yet; however, I have been concerned about when it comes time to harvest them. I'm thinking the first one I have to pull up from the ground is going to be painful for me. They are my cute little babies! I don't want to end their life cycle...

I've Sprouted!!! - Page 2 1280598131

but indeed I will!

**walshevak** 4/24/2014, 10:14 pm

catbranch wrote:I'm not sure how I'll handle the thinning since I haven't achieved that level of success yet; however, I have been concerned about when it comes time to harvest them. I'm thinking the first one I have to pull up from the ground is going to be painful for me. They are my cute little babies! I don't want to end their life cycle...

but indeed I will!

Pulling up the unneeded extras is not recommended as it disturbs the needed plant's roots. Notice I don't say the unwanted seedling because we all want the seedlings - we just don't need that many. Instead get a small pair of scissors and cut the tops of the unneeded seedling off. My problem is that I'll try to pull up the whole clump and tease out the roots and transplant. I wind up with more unneeded plants than you can imagine. This is also the rational behind Mel's advice to only plant one or two seeds in the square using the recommended spacing. Cutting down 1 extra is not as hard as trying to thin a whole area of lovely little seedlings.

Kay

**AtlantaMarie** 4/25/2014, 9:02 am

I'm actually trying very hard to only plant 1 seed at a time so I don't HAVE to thin. (Then I have more seeds for later! That old OCD thing... lol.) If something doesn't germinate, I can always plop another seed in.

Am I always successful? No, but I've been surprised at how few I've doubled up on.

catbranch 4/25/2014, 10:10 am

I am soooo glad hear this about just planting one seed in each hole. That is what I did in every hole, every square. The next day I read somewhere that you should plant 2 to 3 seeds in each hole and I thought I had really screwed up. I was going to mention it on here, but was too embarrassed hahaha. Embarassed

Luckily, the 1 seed per hole is working out. The number of seeds and sprouts are equal so far. The only ones that haven't sprouted yet are the carrots, green onions and chives. They are making me nervous and I'm wondering if I did something wrong on those, like miss the hole entirely.. it was getting rather dark at that point, or heck maybe it's the wrong time of the year... I dunno. I'm kinda going with the learning by trial and error at this point because if I make/print one more chart to relentlessly ponder over, I fear my head will explode.

Cathy

**AtlantaMarie** 4/25/2014, 10:17 am

No, no, you're fine! I'm having the same thing with the carrots & beets. It may be that they were too deep and are not getting quite enough light. Who knows...!

BREATHE! It's okay! Remember - it's all a process.

I've Sprouted!!! - Page 2 2636062189

catbranch 4/25/2014, 10:27 am

AtlantaMarie wrote:
BREATHE! It's okay! Remember - it's all a process.

Funny you should mention that. I do find myself holding my breath quite often.
And here I thought my week long headache was due to pollen! silly me

**AtlantaMarie** 4/25/2014, 10:49 am

Yeah, I used to do that a lot. Then I found out that it was my sleep apnea carrying over into the daytime!

rofl

(Sad, but true...)

**Kelejan** 4/25/2014, 1:45 pm

Carrots always take a long time to sprout. What I do sometimes is put in a carrot and a radish. The radish tells me where the carrot seed is. Hopefully.

CapeCoddess 4/25/2014, 1:47 pm

catbranch wrote:I'm not sure how I'll handle the thinning since I haven't achieved that level of success yet; however, I have been concerned about when it comes time to harvest them. I'm thinking the first one I have to pull up from the ground is going to be painful for me. They are my cute little babies! I don't want to end their life cycle...

but indeed I will!

I have a terrible time thinning also. I end up with excess plants because I too often pull them up and replant them.

But how about when you have to behead them, like I just did with my poor pepper babies. Oh the pain! I've Sprouted!!! - Page 2 Img_2063

All that nice beautiful new growth just laying there on the table... Sad

CC

**sanderson** 4/25/2014, 8:13 pm

Thanks for reminding me to pinch off this year's new peppers. They had flowers and that was painful!

Sponsored content


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.