Growing Things

I found this little tutorial while cruising my suggested video list on YouTube, and thought it might be a good one to share.  I would note, though, that grasping the seedling by the stem isn't really a great idea.  It's very easy to crush the tender stem, and kill off your seedling.  I try to do as little grasping and tugging as possible, and prefer to use the tip of a wooden skewer to gently probe out the rootlets.  After the seedling is free, I grasp it gently by one of the leaves and, again using the wooden skewer, tuck it into the new pot.

It seems to me as well that they put far too many seeds into each little peat pod to begin with.  I have much better luck starting 2-3 seeds per pod, and then using a tiny pair of sharp scissors to cut out the weak seedling leaving only the strongest one to survive.  I suppose it all depends on how many of your seedlings you wanted to survive, or how many adult productive plants you need in your summer garden.  I've gotten pretty ruthless over the years, as I've found one very healthy plant will out produce multiple "weaklings" over the course of the summer, and need far less hand-holding to get established and stay healthy.

Apparently, the Law of the Jungle applies in my garden!