For a lot of plants, it's actually possible. Those over-planted coffee plants from grocery stores are unusually easily to separate and replant, and they're the first to some to mind.

In the end, the only things stopping you is lack of time/energy, and how delicate the seedlings are.

Hmmmm.

Dragonfruit seedlings are incredibly easy to separate if they're more than a few millimeters apart. Mangosteen, however, refuses to transplant well at any stage.

You'll have to tell us more about what you're growing.

I really hate doing this too, I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Thanks for the replies...I have a plethora of flowers and a few veggies. I didn't realize how much one pkg of seed could do!

Dahlias, verbena, scarlet climber, moonflower, irish eyes, tithonia, moss roses, petunias, alyssum of all colors, impatiens. My seedlings came up so fast! Most of them said 10-21 days for germination and they came up in just a couple. For veggies, only my kohl rabi is up so far.

Has anyone had a problem with black-eyed susan vines? That's the only thing I have that hasn't come up. First thing I planted and one of the things I was most looking forward to.

I planted some BES vine seeds that I harvested from a neighbor's vine last year. They were up within a week. I planted two seeds in each cell of a used pony pack with seed starter mix and put them in a plastic bag to keep in moisture. All but two sprouted. They've been under lights with my maters and peppers and I'll soon have to pot them up. I don't know enough about them(first time growing), but maybe the age of the seed affects germination? Did you plant them inside or out?

LOL I hear you, I hate to do it too.

My GF and I have a richitual worked out when I have to do it.
I get her to leave the room and cover her ears so she can't hear the screams coming from the culled seedlings. LOL

Time to pot up some things for me too.

I've been procrastinating because I don't want to do the "off with their heads" snipping to thin some beforehand.

With my fumble fingers, though, trying to separate those tiny roots is a risk.

Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do something before they crowd each other out and die altogether.

I hate this part too! A cross beween guilt for killing them and the waste. I have been Googling it and found some info from different extentions.

There must be a way to do it as greenhouses do it all the time from flats. This is from one extention.

First transplanting
When seeds have germinated and the seedlings have formed their first true leaf, the plants should be separated. Carefully loosen the soil around the roots with a knife blade and lift the plant along with the soil that hangs onto its roots. Plant each seedling in its own 3-inch pot, or space seedlings 2 inches apart in a seedling flat.

Another said loosen root with a knive. Lift with the knife while gently holding the true leaves, not the stem as it will damage the seedling.

I think I will speak to some people at the local green houses about it. I don't want to lose 2 seedlings trying to save one.

This actually worked on my dahlia's extremely well. Just a firm but gentle pull on the little ones and plant them in another container and water well! I only ruined about 3 of the little weaklings. The transplanted seedlings seem to be doing well the day after too. I have one scarlet climber that got a little limp, but a little water and it perked up.

I do believe next year I will use the Jiffy peat pots only for my little tiny seeds like verbena and Impatiens. My bigger stuff outgrew them way too quickly.

BTW...the seedling do look nice and neat and they are more fun to watch after the thinning out!!

Ack, lost another post somehow... hmm...

Anyway, what I wrote was that I use a chopstick (as in Chinese food) and stick it into the soil at an angle so the point is directly beneath the seedling to transplant. I then move it up and down a few times to loosen up the soil. Then, I gently pull on the seedling to transplant. If it resists enough that I think roots are going to break, I work the chopstick a little more, repeating until it comes loose freely. I then immediately put it in a hole in its new pot, fill in the hole, gently tamp down the soil on the old pot, and water well the new pot. Once all seedlings are out of the old pot, I water it lightly.

Only rarely do seedlings die in this manner, in my experience. In the past week, I transplanted about a dozen basils and a ronde de nice squash in this manner, and every one of them survived. A couple weeks ago I transplanted about two dozen tiny english daisies, and they did quite well too.

Question on thinning. What about the really tiny seedlings like moss roses and petunias? Do you really want to thin those down to just one, or clean out the strays and wimpies?

What about the really tiny seedlings like moss roses and petunias?

I at least try to save them. As mentioned, I transplanted English Daisies a couple weeks ago (really, I did so too soon, but they were just soooo darn crowded!). The biggest ones were under a centimeter each. I haven't tried to assess the survival rate on them, but just from looking at the planter pots, it appears quite high.

Just be gentle, loosen the soil first, try not to break roots when you pull, get them in their new destination quickly, and water right away, and you'll be fine. :)

I've had pretty good luck using a long pointy bamboo skewer (the BBQ ones) to loosen the dirt around each seedling and lifting up the dirt a bit before pulling on the leaves. I then use the skewer to "dig out" a new hole for it and use the skewer again to guide the long root into place.

I have to do this to my lobelia, and that is going to require more precision than brain surgery!!

I've got a few (w.s) gal. milk jugs of petunias that are a few weeks away from transplanting. I too do not want to lose any plants. I've transplanted (w.s) snapdragons and clarkia so far but I am finding it hard to get the plants out in a nice clump. In trying to gently pull the clump away from the others I always seem to kill several babies in the process. : ( Should I just try to cut the plastic away from the plants first before taking the plants out?

karenrei,
you sound like you've got this transplanting thing down pretty well.
I've been using a weeder tool to pull small clumps out. Baby plants have grown pretty much right on top of each other so taking one at a time is pretty impossible.
I don't have chopsticks or bamboo skewer... what else might work?