Seedlings - a basic question

Hi all,

I'm a new gardener (introduced myself a couple of months ago) and have literally just planted some seeds and some seedlings of various different vegetables. I have a really basic question, which is probably dumb (!): I bought some beetroot and purple broccoli seedlings but when I tried to divide them to plant them into the ground individually, the roots were really entwined and to split them up I had to break some of them. Is this the wrong way to go about it? Does this mean they're now damaged?

 

When you buy seedlings buy them small - they will be easier to separate - and if you buy larger plants, thinking you are getting "more" for your money, the plants may actually have spent too long in the pots and actually become stressed - which will translate into poorer crops later on.

Beetroot can be grown from "clusters" of seeds. These produce several plants i one clump, which can't easily be separated. Let them grow, if there are loads thin them to about 3-per-clump (using scissors if you need to, rather than pulling and potentially damaging the remaining ones) and then "thin" by removing the other two as they fatten up. This will give you some early crop, and then the ones that remain will fatten up some more for you final harvest.

 

For years when I got too many seeds germinating in seed trays and pots, I would go to great lengths to lift them all out and carefully disentangle the roots, in an attempt to save every one. I always ended up with too many plants and quite a few stunted ones amongst them.

Recently I had the 'brain wave' to snip off unwanted ones with a pair of nail scissors - cutting them off as close to the ground as possible. Simple, no root disturbance to the ones I wanted to keep and I end up with a sensible number of plants. It only took me 30 years to realise this!

 

Thank you all for your replies - I wish I'd asked before I pulled them apart! I know for now though, so when these ones flop I'll do better with the second batch - that's definitely a good idea to cut them with scissors. Will they not just grow back though if you snip them off close to the ground?

Thanks again - everyone is really helpful on this site!

 

"Will they not just grow back though if you snip them off close to the ground?"

Not if the plants are very small, they won't have enough root, or surplus energy stored, to re-grow.