Kitchen Garden Forum

Surely I'm not alone in this?

Buy packet of seeds for, lets say Curly Kale.
Open packet and sow either half or all of the seeds in a tray.
When they are a couple of inches tall prick them out into 3" pots.

Note carefully that I did not say prick out the twenty best out of the fifty or one hundred seedlings in the tray.

How ruthless or wet are you with those little plants you lovingly grew when it comes to the pricking out stage?
Do you find it hard to discard them, despite knowing that you have room for two rows of Kale 30' long, thus 30 plants at most.

As for tomatoes, well , I have room for three plus three pepper plants in my greenhouse bed and maybe two or three outside in a growbag house.

Dear Peter, i am truely ruthless, i only sow roughly the amount of seed i will need in the first place.
It saves that heart wrenching decision.

OH, I agree, but then it leads to the equally worrying situation the following year of "Will they germinate after being open for a year and the wife spilling washing up liqued on the packet?"

Bought a packet of Brussell Sprouts seed from Wilkinsons that had twenty seeds in, , normal packtes have about one hundred.

Dear Peter, thats what keeps us gardeners on our toes.

Hi, Peter

Like OH, I usually try to sow only what I need, plus one or two spares, because there is no way I can bring myself to discard perfectly healthy seedlings.

This year I've decided to sow more, but intend to sell the spares (if I don't give them away first to my lottie neighbours etc). I'm lucky enough to live in a place where I can leave plants and an honesty box outside the front gate.

i normally plant out about 30 tomatoe plants in the tunnel, potted on 52 this week .. guess some will chance it outside...green tomato chutney if the blight dont get them.
i allways end up composting cabbage seedlings when potting on, even though i only sow a few in a 3 inch pot at any one time.

I've almost cured myself by using modules. I use the 1/2 (by the way any techie know why I can't use Alt 0189?) tray size with 12 cells for most Brassicas, sow 2 or 3 seeds per cell and single them at seed leaf stage. It gets more difficult after that as all 12 go into 3" when I only need say 6,8 or 10.

I raise in very small modules then plant on into cavity infills 4 x 10 x 4 = 40 to a standard seed tray. If I don't plant them myself I sell them in packs of 10 under the farm gate policy. By growing in small modules the planting on is an absolute doddle. I can plant up 40 in about a minute. It actually takes longer filling the cavity insert with medium the planting on!
At the early stage I can select the sturdier plants for myself.
JB.

Dear Peter, i'm sure you are not alone in growing too many plants, but i do feel you are the only one brave enough to admit it.

hi peter,
i know exactly what you mean but ruthless is not in my vocabulary,i take the view if the little darlings manage to germinate when ive sown them ( i'm not the organised type)then they deserve a life.
at present i've got 87 seedlings of 8 varieties of tomatoes we grow about 30(blight permitting). i've found giving plants away to neighbours and other plot holders is a great way of making new friends.won't be doing much down the plot for the next few days as my better half has done his back ,still our garden needs a bit of t.l.c. so every cloud...

My husband always sighs when he sees me sowing toms and peppers as I always sow far too many. I give them away but last year, I surpassed myself and ended up with twice as many pepper plants as I needed! I had peppers galore when they fruited and gave them to anyone who wanted some....no-one refused! I even had requests! I have been very strict with myself this year though. No, I can't dispose of healthy plants either. I do find that once a packet of seeds has been opened, no matter how good the storage system is, the germination rate isn't as good the following year. Cheers.

I also try my best (foolish I know) to pot on as many seedlings as possible even though I may not sow all from the packet, there are always at least a few (well rather a lot) for 'just in case'. I am aware of feeling over responsible and even protective of each little 'plantling' . Perhaps I should stop talking to them! Nature does its best to germinate and grow and I always feel great joy at the first sign of leaves peeping through the soil (though perhaps not the same feeling when unwanted weeds appear). I do take it seriously even though I am a 'just having a go and see what happens' type of gardener. With 3 dogs and 2 cats I must be a bit daft and its extended to gardening. Probably have to send an SOS the day I become completely over run !

Certainly you have to sow more than you actually need to allow for failures, which are to be expected more with open pollinated seed, and take account for poor seedlings which will never make it to the plot.
I know that most people have great reluctance to scrap unneeded plants but it is something all gardeners should be prepared to do.
We are talking about vegetables in this instance but if you were growing Perennials, where germination is always a bit iffy, it would cost you an absolute fortune potting on unwanted seedlings or you may not get enough. This means you have got to sow far more than you need and dispose of those you do not need or want. Always ask about before finally scrapping anything.
If you are on an allotment I can see no reason why you cannot declare to your neighbours what you intend to grow and enter into a sowing agreement so that plants can be shared and swapped. This means that you will have a very varied selection without over producing instead of say 10 people all producing the same variety.
I am not an allotmenteer but have no difficulty in disposing my excess plants. It is now even easier than it was a few years ago since the great 'grow your own' revival.
I suspect that somehow on allotments there is a breakdown in communication and this must be rectified. But how!
JB.

Peter, I suspect this is a topic that many of us agonise over. I personally hate to throw away anything that has struggled to life and in the past I've tried to give away surplus veggie seedlings or just dot them into small bare patches in my mixed borders wherever there's a few inches of space. (Consequently our garden is a rather eclectic). I now know roughly how many plants my vegetable patch will support and try only to sow enough seed, with a few spare in case germination is low. Consequently my seed boxes are crammed with half used packets of seeds. My broccoli packet dates back several years. Because I like to grow several varieties of tomato each year, I have one packet of tomato seed which I've been delving into for about six years. Even my parsnip seeds were leftovers from last year and I've germinated sufficient seedlings to keep me going this year.

PS And when I ever do have weak or straggling seedlings which end up being consigned to the compost heap I always say "sorry" to them before ending their life. How crazy is that? If they were animals rather than plants I wouldn't be able to do it. I even stoop down on the pavement to pick up stray worms and put them in a safe place to avoid somebody trampling them to death. My husband has long since grown used to this bizzare behaviour but I must confess that I do get raised eyebrows from passers by.