My question is this: When do the seedlings REALLY need their own little pot? Can I have my transplants with 4 or 5 to a pot until I put them in the containers? Or, if I need to thin them sooner than 8 weeks, when is optimal?
Hi, Cyn--
Could you carry them to transplant like that -- in "theory"? Well, I suppose you could try it, but it wouldn't be something I'd suggest or recommend.
Out of habit more than anything else really, I don't sow seeds in shallow flats or cells like many do -- I sow directly into 4 inch pots (ya know, those pots that are 20 to a standard nursery flat for annual bedding plants). And, how ever many seeds I need for one variety gets sowed into one pot (usually not more than 6-8 or so). I've been known to let them start putting out just the very beginning of the third set of leaves, but that's as far as I'd ever let them go.
I'm in the camp that thinks it's good for the plants to transplant up, and I'll even knock off the bottom third or even 1/2 or so of soilless mix off when I do it (IMO, it's much easier to separate them properly when the mix is a bit dry).
Then the seedlings go into their own individual 4 inch pots.
My feeling is that it is actually good for seedlings to carefully stress them a bit when they are young -- but the closer and closer you get to setting time, they don't take to it nearly as well, and it's actually to their detriment to stress them overly much at that point.
You don't have to rush out right this second, but the next time you are out -- go get more cups. :wink:
Did that answer your questions and concerns?
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