transplanting: how many and into what?

[michele sadauskas]

Hello everyone,

Just wondering if I could receive some feedback on what others are doing when transplanting their tiny alpine plants. Do any of you transplant in multiples?, and into what type of pot?

I am germinating my seeds in 4 inch pots and oftentimes wonder how many I should be pricking out and into what? I like waiting till they get a bit of size, but know I don't want to wait too long.  For exm. I have some gentians that need to be transplanted out...if I do them singly into plug type containers...then it is hard to consistently keep all my plug trays watered correctly(considering I have  many different seedlings at many different stages).  So I think, should I transplant a few into say a 2.5 inch container? Easier to take care of, but?

I am sure there is no one answer, or a right or wrong way, but I love to hear what others are doing.

thanks for your help
michele

 

[David Shaw]

Hello Michelle and welcome to the forum.
You ask about transplanting seedlings and so can expect several pages of conflicting 'truths'!

The only time I pot on in clumps is with bulbs seedlings. When these are crowding out the seed pot I transfer the whole lot into a larger container with a stronger compost. Easy to do and one of the many reasons that I like bulbs

With other seedlings I 'try' to seoarate out into individual plants in individual pots. They cover acres of garden space but it is better not to have to try to untangle the roots at a later stage. Small pots take up less space and use less compost and keep the roots nicely confined. But they are the very devil to water properly. A small pot with a little bit of compost dries out much more readily than the greater mass of compost in a large pot. It is a conundrum and I think one that you have to work out for yourself.
One difficulty that I have is deciding how many seedlings to transplant. If the seed have germinated well there may be dozens of seedlings in a pot. But do I want dozens of plant 'A' for my own use or even to give away? Often half a dozen is too many but I don't like dumping healthy seedlings; for one thing, the six I transplant may die whilst the ones in the compost bucket could have lived! Such is the stress of being a gardener.

Good luck with your transplanting.

[Robert Pavlis]

I usually do not prick out seedlings too early, so by the time I do it, they have grown into each other. The up side is that the plants are larger and easier to handle. the down side is that I usually damage some of the roots as I transplant them.

I first decide how many plants I want to keep. I rarely want more than 6. I then split the seeding pot into 6 sections and pot them up. This might give me a dozen seedlings in each new pot. I let this go for a week or so to see how the transplanting went. I then take scissors and cut off most of the excess seedlings. I leave a few in each pot. As they grow, I thin them again, until I am left with one in each pot.

This way, I rarely end up with empty pots.

The above is used for seeds that need cold treatment, since I grow these outside in winter (unheated sun room) and let them sprout naturally in spring.

For seeds that can sprout warm, I prefer a completely different treatment. I sprout the seeds between two layers of tissue paper, that is kept wet. As the seeds just start to send out their root, I pick up the seed and plant it, usually 2 or 3 per pot, depending on the number of seeds. I end up keeping just one seedling per pot.

I really like this seeding method since I can tell exactly what is sprouting and I don't have a lot of pots sitting around that never produce seedlings. There is also no transplanting of seedlings.

For sprouting I use small parts compartments - these have small plastic trays, maybe 12 or 24 to the box. Found at hardware stores. Each drawer has one type of seed in it.