Dividing tomato seedlings

[cjp1953]

Some of my seedlings are 2 to 3 inches high with 3 or 4 sets sets of leaves.I put 2 seeds per peat pellet.A couple pellets have very nice seedlings that are the same size but they are side by side touching.Can these be separated with out damaging the roots.I was going to just thin out the smaller looking one.But not all my seedling are doing that nice and may not make it.I want to make sure I have enough plants and at least 1 plant per type of tomato.I have 8 different varieties.I hate culling a healthy plant.If you damage a few roots will that have an bad effect on the seedling?

[cherokee]

No problem. I sometimes plant 10-15 per cell when they are up & growing simply remove the plug from the cell and gently roll the root ball between the thumb and fore finger and the plants will separate ~happy trans planting.

[Ricky Shaw]

I'm amazed at the resiliency of transplanted tomatoes that I've separated, despite my fumbling novice hands. However, I feel it's come easily to me because I use a very loose starting mix. I can see, the denser the media, the more difficult the root separation would become.

[cjp1953]

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

I'm amazed at the resiliency of transplanted tomatoes that I've separated, despite my fumbling novice hands. However, I feel it's come easily to me because I use a very loose starting mix. I can see, the denser the media, the more difficult the root separation would become.

The Jiffy pellets look to have a very loose soil.Thanks for the imput as I have some great looking seedlings.The nice ones are the newer seeds.The older seeds are the late growers.Now I need to mow down my vetch and rye and then cover with a tarp to warm the soil.Going no till and will plant into the covercrop.

[sjamesNorway]

Go here:

http://www.craiglehoullier.com/resources/

And watch Craig LeHoullier's "Transplanting Video". (You won't believe how he does it.)

[cjp1953]

Originally Posted by sjamesNorway

Go here:

http://www.craiglehoullier.com/resources/

And watch Craig LeHoullier's "Transplanting Video". (You won't believe how he does it.)

Thank you looks very easy,only thing I'd worry about is pushing them down in the soil and breaking the stem of the plant.I might use a pencil to make a hole and shake the container.Thank you again,great video!

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by cjp1953

Thank you looks very easy,only thing I'd worry about is pushing them down in the soil and breaking the stem of the plant.I might use a pencil to make a hole and shake the container.Thank you again,great video!

I'm more careful than he is - I don't have so many to do. I make a hole with a spoon, and gently lift them in holding on to a cotyledon, then fill in around them. On the video you can see that the roots can take a lot of handling. I read that some damage is actually beneficial, because it trains the roots away from a "taproot" habit to more spreading.

[taboule]

I started a similar thread a few weeks ago, more observations here.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=40384

[seaeagle]

I didn't see the video, but I am assuming these plants have started to establish a root system.Why not just a day or two after they pop out of the soil while they only have the one taproot, transplant them at that time.That is the way I do all my seedlings, not just tomatoes and it is no shock to the plant or anything.Just keep them well watered for a day or two.It is almost to easy.

Done it both ways and both ways work but I find this way to be the easiest and most efficient.

[timbucktwo]

Originally Posted by sjamesNorway

I'm more careful than he is - I don't have so many to do. I make a hole with a spoon, and gently lift them in holding on to a cotyledon, then fill in around them. On the video you can see that the roots can take a lot of handling. I read that some damage is actually beneficial, because it trains the roots away from a "taproot" habit to more spreading.

I have to say, watching Craig's video several times as I did the dense planting one & using the same Metro Mix 360 media I couldn't believe how easy it was to both separate the densely planted seedlings and then push a single seedling into the dry media in a Solo cup, works with peppers too.

Definitely sold on this, but found out that the cells of the 50 cell starter tray that were planted with more seeds supported each other better as they grew in height than the ones that I only had a few seeds for, so I might come up with a different plan for varieties with fewer seeds to start.

[cjp1953]

Update on these seedlings,all came though and are growing strong.Put them outside for an hour yesterday,starting my hardening of the plants.Will go out today when the temps get into the 60's this afternoon for a few hours.This will continue for the next two weeks and they will stay in the garage at night starting next week.Wil plant out the last week end of May.Thanks to all who responded.

[MadCow333]

I've got big seedlings. These are grown from my 2015 Cherokee Purple tomatoes. Not sure whether or not they hybridized with Beefsteak or Park's Improved Whopper. But they *grow*, nonstop. lol

They are in loose media. I take a plastic fork and lift the plug out of the seed tray. Then I lay it on a sheet of plastic and use the fork to separate the individual seedlings. Big as they are, they can still be easily massaged apart.

[oakley]

Not exactly what you want in a seedling....so leggy. But surprising they will do fine once
re-planted for the most part.
I would get those close under lights a few weeks ago to develop a stronger stem and less 'leg'.
Much risk of dampening off with such tender stem.

I divided and re-potted the rough speedy way with not much care and the culls, the weaker ones, were tossed in a heap on the potting table pushed aside with some damp soil to clean the surface. The next day the top leaves and stems were perky and reaching up for light. Literally bent themselves up while the bulk of the stems were still laying down. Tough puppies they are.

[MadCow333]

I don't have any grow lights. Or shop lights, for that matter. I have a cupola on top of an Italianate house and that'll have to do. Really grown the old fashioned way, without electricity. lol The seedlings would have been out of those trays more than a week ago if the weather had cooperated (didn't go into freeze, snow, & sleet storms) and I didn't have to work weekends. Next year I will not start nearly as many seeds. I didn't expect so many to actually sprout. My other limitation is I have indoor cats, and I have to keep these poisonous nightshade plants where the cats can't chew them.

[cjp1953]

Mine have grown with thick stems,I have the shop light down touching the tops of the plants.This has caused some leaf damaged where they touched the bulbs even though the bulbs are only warm to the touch.I had them outside one day last week but then the weather got too cold to be outside.This weeks weather is much warmer.They were out 2 hours today and I will increase the time by an hour or so each day until next week.Then I will leave them outside overnight and plant on the holiday weekend..Right now they are 6 to 8 inches tall but very thick looking plants.