First year gardening. I obviously threw a bunch of seeds in a small container doubting they would even sprout. I want to save as many tomato plants as I can! Do the leaves or stems indicate when a good time to separate them is? Thank you!!
by 000000luna
3 Comments
Should have done it last week. Go for it and give the solo seedlings a little water to help them settle in.
So what I would do is first consider how many you really want. I do the shotgun blast method for seed starting certain veggies. If i want 1 tomato plant I usually start 3-5, then I pick the best looking strongest one and snip the rest off at the dirt level.
If you want to keep them all that’s one thing, if you want 5, pick the 5 biggest you like and snip the rest. Then separate into individual pots/starting trays. Gives ya a little buffer of protective roots around the one you want. I find it reduces transplant shock a bit personally. Also technically the snipped plants will turn into a simple nitrogen source for the future plant. It’s probably a negligible amount of nitrogen by the time it breaks down to that point.
I repotted mine today since it’s not warm enough at night for them to go outside.