Beginner Gardening: When to Pot-Up?, 4 by Gymgirl

Gymgirl wrote:
Peggy,
We were ALL such novices, in the beginning. That's the beauty of belonging to Dave's Garden. There are other, more experience growers here with TONS of information and YEARS of experience, and they're all willing to share the knowledge!

Ok. Did you reread my post above about how to identify the "true" leaves. Locate the very first two leaves you saw when the seedling came up. Those are NOT true leaves. They are the cotyledons, or nurse leaves. Look for at least 4-6 leaves that have come up after those first two. If you can count at least 4 new leaves, POT UP THE SEEDLING.

Now, regarding more than one seedling in the same pot. You have two options:

1. Simply snip out the stems of all but the STRONGEST looking seedling in that pot. You will still need to pot it up when it gets at least the 4 TRUE leaves... or,

2. Let all of them grow together, until the majority get 4 TRUE leaves, then, separate the seedlings. You can do it. That's how I managed to end up with 208 tomato seedlings last January -- I can't ever bear to just destroy a perfectly good seedling, no matter how many there are...

If you attempt to separate multiples in a pot, here's how I do it:

FIRST AND FOREMOST -- Avoid handling the seedling by the stem, as much as you can avoid doing so!!! You can damage it without knowing it. Handle the seedling by the leaves, to the extent you can do so....

►Withhold watering so the soil dries out just a little bit, but not totally, just before you start separating. If you water beforehand, the soil will stick together too much, and you'll have a harder time teasing the root balls apart.
►Since you're using the APS deep rooting system, your root balls should already be nicely developed, which puts you ahead with each seedling in the cell.
►There's a BIG HOLE in the bottom of each cell, right? That's the beauty of this system. The hole is so you can stick a finger in and push the entire plug out from the bottom! Do it.
►Once the plug is out, use a kitchen fork to gently tease the plug into sections/chunks with a seedling in each chunk. You might manage to get it right in half, you might not -- no matter, long as you work gently, and don't handle that stem more than you have to. Try to keep as much soil as you can on each root ball.
►Now, depending on what you're potting the plant into, drop a little potting mix into the bottom of your vessel. You don't need very much in the bottom, because the seedling will develop roots along all of the stem that is buried, so the more stem buried, the more roots developing. Try to expose only the leaves above the 2 nurse leaves, if you can. Plant the seedling deep.
►So, drop that seedling down as far down as you can (which is why I'm liking those drinking water bottles more and more for potting up...see the link below for a picture)
►Hold the seedling in the middle of the vessel with one hand and drop more potting mix down into the vessel with your other hand. Once the seedling is anchored about halfway with mix, you can stick your fingers in and gently press down the potting mix. Very gently. If you can't get your fingers in, just give the bottle a firm tap on the counter so the mix settles down. However, you don't want to PACK it down too tight....Keep filling the bottle, leaving about 1" before the rim. If you have to top water for a minute, you need this space to avoid your mix washing out.
►Once you have all your vessels potted up, set them into a drip tray and use your kitchen hose sprayer to GENTLY water in from the top, JUST until you see water coming out of the bottoms of the bottles (DON'T FORGET TO POKE DRAIN HOLES IN THE BOTTOM). Don't over-saturate. They'll suck up any remaining water as they need too. If you have more than about 2" of water that's dripped into the tray from all the bottles, suck it out with a turkey baster after about 10-15 minutes. This is excess water the plants have not sucked up.
►Never let your seedlings sit in the excess water, after they've been in it for a maximum of 15 minutes. By then, they've taken up what they want.
►All future watering should be from the bottom of the tray.
►When I water seedlings for about the first 4-5 waterings, I add 1 capful of Hydrogen Peroxide to one gallon of WARM water and pour it into the tray until it rises about 1-1/2" inches up the bottom of the bottles. The peroxide helps with damping off (in my experience). Damping off is that seedling malady that causes your seedling stem to turn black, pinch itself closed, and kill your seedling. It is believed that watering seedlings from the top contributes to damping off. Not sure why it happens, but it can. Since I've used the H2O2, I've not had an instance of damping off.
►If you notice your leaves turning purple, this is an indication your babies are too cold, and too wet at the same time. You know how a human baby turns blue when it's too cold? Same thing...So, adjust your watering and/or your room temperature. Check for DRAFTS!!! They are notorious for causing "blue baby" syndrome...
►Warm in the beginning is great for germination. However, after your babies have popped, it's best to turn down the heat, and grow them on in a cooler temperature. Too hot, and they'll grow long, leggy, and straggly. You want them to grow short, fat, and stocky. The cool will facilitate this, so adjust accordingly.
►Finally, not enough light will cause long, leggy and straggly seedling, as they stretch to find the nearest light source. I use two regular 48" fluorescent shop lights per shelf (side by side) for a total of 4 lights per shelf. Concrete blocks and wood board shelves...

TWO TIPS:
►I'm generally potting up with used potting mix that I've sterilized in the microwave, so my potting mix is WARM to the touch when I pot up.
►I use WARM to the touch water from the tap when I'm watering the seedlings in.

I've learned that WARM is a recurring theme with tomato seedlings....

LMK how you make out, ok?

Hugs!

Linda

P.S. Go look at this thread. She's the fellow gardener I learned about the water bottles from...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=9021587