Portulaca) Moss Rose seedlings

I sowed Moss Rose seeds that have germinated but the seeds were so fine (and I guess I overdid it) that each media pellet as about 40 or 50 little shoots in it. They are all about the same size and look about the same health wise. Do I thin them down now to just one or two tiny shoot, wait for them to get larger, or what? I don't remember sowing that many seeds per pellet, but maybe I did. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

That is easy to do with such tiny seeds. I would wait until they get a little bigger before I tried to thin them, that way I wouldn't be as likely to disturb the tiny seedlings that I wanted to leave.

Heck - I'd plant the whole pellet and wait for the survival of the fittest.

I would thin them now while they are tiny because the roots are small and easier to pull without disturbing neighboring seedlings. Use a pair of tweezer to pull, or a small scissor and just cut the stem to the soil line. Start with 1/2" of space between plant incase some don't make it. If they do, you can thin out to stand 1" apart. Ofcourse, if you just want a few plants, you can thin out to give them more space.

I get them volunteering in my window boxes every year, usually in dense clumps where a seed capsule fell the previous season. I let them get about a half inch or so high, or until they have two or three sets of leaves before I separate them. In the window boxes, the soil's pretty loose and I can just lift the clump, tug them gently apart, spread them out & replant them. They don't seem to be set back very much. With my volunteers, I have noticed that those with white flowers tend to be much more vigorous than many of the bright or dark colours are, particularly when they are tiny, but it's fairly easy to tell them apart even when very small. White flowers, and some other pale colours, have all green stems while dark or bright colours, such as reds, oranges & hot pinks, have reddish stems. If your seeds were mixed colours, be careful when you thin them and keep the ones with reddish or darker stems, unless you want all white or pale flowers.

Well here's where they are now. They look like little bushes but they seem healthy. Now i really don't know what to do... thin them or leave them be and pot them up as is. YOUR OPINIONS ON WHAT TO DO would be much appreciated - especially if you are a moss rose lover

Honestly, I would pot them up and some will probably start to fail, and then you can pluck out the weaklings.

Too bad it is in that contained little thing.... peat pot? I'd soak them in water and very gently detangle them and plant them out separately.

Awwwwwww look at yoru babies. Is that the only pot you have of them? if it is I woudl just pinch out some at soil line.

If you transplant, handle the stems very gently, but would do like Pagan said , remove cover and soak first and they wil just abotu fall apart so you can get at them easily.

Well, if Starlight said it, it's gotta be right!

I am about to pot them up into 20 ounce plastic cups, but before I did that is why I posted the question about thinning first or not. I always cut the casing off the peat pellets and it hols together pretty well. Unless I am misunderstanding you I think I am best off just potting up as though it were one plant and let nature take its course (or so you think they will all choke each other out?

Michael.... you pottign them in to way to big of a container. You wil los e them out of sheer loneliness. : )

If you have like 1-2 ounce bathroom cups , I would use that. You cna get them at walmart. They sell the liek the almost see through plastic ones. They look liek little souffee cups. Punch, with screwdriver or take a knife and poke a coupel of small drain holes in the bottom of the litl ecup and plant one plant per cup. A bag of like 80 count is like 2 bucks or something like that.

It gonna take about 6 to 8 weeks before those little seedlings are big enough to really be a good solid plant.

The big think is ot be very gentle with them in handlign themfor transplant, and yes youwil probably los e a few becaus e you will pinch the stems to tight. try and handle by leave s as much as you can transplanting.

I for yoru soil mix, I would just mist it a little bit if t dry just to get a tiny bit of moisture in it, you don't want it wet or soggy.

Fill you cups with the soil, gently cut nettign off, and lat on side and yoru babies wil fall out. Use somethign very very skinny make atiny hole, put in yoru seedling and gentlyu pinch a tiny bit of dirt up around it. do not bottom or over head water . Bottom watering wil keep them pots soggy and cause fungus nats and other fungus to develop. Just mist them in.

Portulaca don't liek to be too wet or soggy they store water , too much and you'll rot yoru plants big time.

I have purslane which is liek a second cousin to portulaca out in the gh, later today wil get ya picture and sho ya just how big mine are and in what teeny tiny pots, well trays they in. Ya wanan step up gradually.

Small potting up is actually better for me right now because it's still too cold in the garage to move my light setups there (Spring is so late in coming to Minnesota this year) and I am already so short on space. But...

are 2-3 ounce bathroom cup really right? That is barely any bigger than the pellet thing they are in right now. The next step up in cups would be kitchen size, 5 ounce, I think.

The 20 ounce I was planning on using (and have used in the past) are only about maybe 5-6 inches tall and about 3.5 inches in diameter at top, so I thought that was about ideal for the post pot up. Maybe not, although I already potted up the tomatoes and several other flower seedlings to the 20 ounce.

(So is it that portulaca need this smaller cup especially or this is just general advice about potting up in smaller containers.) I'll wait for opinions before going any further with them. And thanks!

Michael.. You can us e either size. remmer actualyl you shoudl had just one seed in that peat pellet to begon with, but it to hard to sow them unles s you using pellete d seed , then you cna get one in a pot.

20 ounce is good fo rthings like Daylileis, Tomatoe s peppers stuf that will get a large root system fast.

When you start small and step up you hav eles s chance of lossign the plants. I us e little half inch x half in cells and wil leave the seedligns in that til l they get really root bound , then it into 6 packs or 2 " pot s and then up into 4 or 6" .

Gonan have to wait til tommorrow for pics. ha d to go town and do othe rstuff and totally forgot. Sorry. Will see if I cna find my old seed startign threa dof rya to look at and will come back and post a link to it.

Here ya go.. go down to abotu february 20th an dbunch of photos and stuff all the way down
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/800902/

Over on the winter sowing thread we talk about transplanting HOS~ Hunk Of Seedlings. It's a nice compromise approach that really works for me. When confronted with a mass of seedlings work them apart into hunks. Maybe 2 to 4 hunks for that peat pellet. Then transplant each of the hunks. Much easier than trying to separate every little tiny seedling (drives me mad). A few more little plants per transplant means you have some to lose in the process and still be assured you will have a couple strong ones after replanting.

It's easy!

I did the same thing you did. I put mine in a bowl and slowly added water. This allowed me to separate them. I had plenty to share and plenty to put in my beds. They came apart easily with their hair thin roots when I added the water.

Charlene

Thank you all (and especially Starlight for all the past work on photos) for your help with this.

Gladly! We only ask for pics of the progeny in return...