Survival of The Fittest - seedlings get first thinning

I'm already geeling guilty. Partly as I should have thinned the seedlings about a week ago (about 20th April), so as to prevent them competing with each other for light... but mainly as I feel cruel. Having planted and nurtured the seedlings, encouraging them to grow, I'm now thinning the herd.

While speaking wth Phil she says she feels the same. However as it's survival of the fittest it was time for thinning.

A quick update on seedlings' progress...

Planted 12th Apr:

22nd Apr (Day 10). L to R: 1 B.Sprout, 2 x 1 B.Sprout, 2 x 3 Tomato (Mm), 2 x 2 Tomato (GD). Which is a pretty good start. They should all be thinned to 1 per cell.


26th April. All starting to get tall. Chatting with Phil (my veg guru) they may be all getting tall as they are competing with their cell-mates to get the light, so there's a chance they are too tall and thus a bit wussy. Brussel Sprout 1 fell over under his own weight ages ago and I presumed him dead, but he continues to grow and has even got little sprout leaves now! So we'll just keep him going for now.

27th April: The key when doing anything with seedlings you want to keep is to only touch them by their leaves. When you are planning on removing some you can touch them however you like. The spouts were ok, but the others needed to be thinned to 1 per cell. The idea on putting them in reasonably sized cells to start was that I could leave them in longer, but only if it was 1 per cell.


I had to be careful not to disturb the other seedlings as these were now quite well established. I must remember with the herbs to thin them a little quicker.

Before & After for the tomatoes:

For the Sprout it was more about a helping hand, so I stuck in a plastic label to try and rest it against:
It still falls over now and again, but this helps a little. I'd try and tie it, but the stem still seems too fragile. As only one germinated I'll probably try starting another of it shortly. I planned to sow some direct as well anyway, so I'm not too worried.

Update: 2nd May. The seedlings are definitely starting to turn ino small plants now. The tomato plants have little hairs on their stems (just like real tomato plants!) and the sprouts have little leaves like the individual bits of a brussel sprout! Don't know if they've grown too leggy already due to unnecessary competition, of if they'll carry on just fine and bear loads of yummy veg in the months to come. Only time will tell.