Do not exclude light

I use a 2b pencil ... it writes on the labels too :thumb: and the "rubber" on the end is good for pushing seeds into the seed-trays (which can help for some larger seeds).

 

Sankey Potting Tray Workstation (60cm)
Clueless I find a potting tray invaluable when pricking out etc. Its handy to seive your compost onto and mix with sharp sand or perlite if your are so inclined. Then you can fill all your multi cells or pots ready for pricking out.
You will probablly find pricking out a tad fiddly at first , but you soon get into a routine

 

Some seed should never be covered eg Lobelia, Begonia, Poppy, Antirrhinum, Calceolaria but can be given a light covering of fine Vermiculite after germination just to anchor them down.

 

Thanks again for all the useful tips.

How do I know when its time to have a go at this pricking out game? Quite a few of my coreopsis seeds have germinated and are looking healthy enough. They are about 5mm tall so far.

 

Depending on the size of the seedlings, when the first pair of leaves are fully open, these being the seed leaves, not true leaves.

If that's not possible as soon as you're able to handle them, perhaps at the first pair of true leaves stage.

 

Most things I read say wait for the first true leave, but I'm with Sheal, if the first Seed leaves are large enough that you can handle them then get on with it - perhaps wait a week after germination just so the roots have SOME length to them!

 

I always wait for the first leaves to truly form before pricking out . This is normally 4 to 6 weeks from sowing the seeds. If I have been lucky enough to get 100% germination , I would thin them out on the seed tray as they go along.
One thing I can't understand , I sow seeds similar to Kristens method above , so I am sure I have within reason distributed the seeds evenly over the seed tray. When they germinate why do you sometimes get a bald patch , with no germination

 

I'm interested about what people thing about leaving seedlings longer before pricking out.

I suppose I should do a side-by-side test.

My thought is that if I prick out early the plant only has a single root (or maybe slightly more). It comes out intact. It transplants without any damage. That has to be better than a well formed root system that is bound to suffer some damage being extracted.

or am I kidding myself? Am I damaging root hairs that I cannot even see and knocking the plant back?

 

The issue of pricking out is I believe one that is swayed by personal preference and the plant being pricked out.

Whilst most seedlings can be removed and potted on with no ill effect, there are many that dislike root disturbance (I lost one of my Lapegaria seedlings despite being very careful).

But my preference is to do them ASAP. With very small seedlings I find it easy enough to lift with the skewer and transplant without needing to touch the seedling with my fingers.

Here is a picture of some chilli seedlings..........



I will probably leave these in this pot for another three or four weeks before potting on as I already have twenty plants potted up. Over the years I have successfully transplanted many seedlings like this without loss in the following manner;
1] put some lukewarm water in a bowl
2] run the "rootball" under the tap (lukewarm again) to wash most of the soil away
3] place the rootball in the bowl of water and tease the plants apart and pot on.

 

Well I've just had a bash at it, and I must say it was extraordinarily fiddly

I used a kebab skewer to tease them out, and to make holes in the compost in their intended new homes. I'll tell you what surprised me though, and this is a real eye opener for me. Even at such an infant stage of their development, they have such surprisingly long roots. I'd say the roots were probably twice the length of the top growth.

Anyway, I've sprayed them with the water sprayer, and stuck them in an unheated propagator with the lid on to keep the moisture in, our of direct sun.

I've put them in toilet roll tubes cut in half and packed with compost in a tray. Having tried paper pots before and saw them go mouldy, I'm slightly worried that fungi will take hold. Because of that, I've quarantined them off in their own propagator, separate from all my other seedlings.

I'm guessing that the next few days will be critical, as the seedlings settle into their new homes. Obviously they aren't big enough to have any kind of energy or water reserve in case I've got it wrong, so I guess for the next few days I'll have to keep a close eye on them. Does that sound right?

 

Its obviously easier when you've done it at least once before as you know what to expect.

provided you didn't break the roots when you transplanted them they will be fine. They are in no different a scenario than they were before - they have soil round their roots

Seeds do put down roots-before-shoots. The seed leaves come up and then nothing appears to happen. I can be a couple of weeks before the first true leaves arrive. In that time lots of work goes into developing a root system.

You'll find you get little mushrooms growing off the glue on the loo-rolls. The mould that grows on newspaper pots is benign and can be ignored. Either will do

Misting the newly pricked out seedlings is a good idea, as is keeping them out of direct sunlight. Hopefully in a couple of days you can start treating them "normally" again.

I don't know anything about Coreopsis though, so I have no idea how small/large and fiddly they were to prick out.

Couple of things:

I bury all seedlings up to the seed leaves (but no deeper) when I prick them out. Something the stalk that comes out of the seed is quite long (particularly if the light was poor) - so called "leggy". Burying them up to the seed leaves sorts that out.

I put a few "extras" close to the edge of the pot - so about 10% of my pots get 2 seedlings. If any fail I used those to "refuel" the pot that failed.

 

I must admit that I use the plug trays as they're so cheap.

I'll add one wee tip to that. I use ordinary m/p compost up to about 10/15mm from the top, where I use fine seed compost for the fine seedlings. Just because there is less chance of damaging the stems as you firm them in.

 

I like to give my plants more root-room than that (3" pots for example), but I do have the space for them all ... my assumption is that my plants are more advanced when they go out if they are in pots big enough to have held all their root growth.

Newspaper pots for me are 2"-ish diameter and 4" deep, and I use those for things that want a deep root-run.

 

Me too, but space is an issue!
By the end of March lots of stuff will be in the coldframe freeing up the space to grow these plugs on in the larger pots too. The 40 cell trays are about the right size for 6 to 8 weeks growth whilst the days are short.