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Take seedlings out or leave 'em in?

18 years ago

I have seeds in a 72 cell flat under a dome. They are now in varying degrees of growth, from seedlings to no germination yet. Should I leave the seedlings in under the dome while I'm waiting to see if the others germinate, or should I remove them some how to give them air?

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Comments (8)

jdog006
18 years ago
If you vent the dome, they should be ok.

If they are starting to show true leaves, you might want to pot them in small pots until it is time to plant them in their permanent places. If you put them in their own pots, you will be able to use a very weak fertilizer without bothering the smaller or ungerminated plants/seeds.
Guy_Holman
18 years ago
Hi

I would worry about damping off if not well vented. I always repot straight after the seedlings emerge, less likelyhood of root damage when done really early I find.

All the best

Guy
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john47_johnf
18 years ago
I do as Guy does and to make it even easier plant single seeds in small cells and you can then move the whole cell to a new tray. Also my germination tray is not under lights so I want to move the newly emerged seedlings under lights.

Johnf
clairewags
Original Author
18 years ago
I would like to take them out. I don't have them in those little peat discs, they're just in a soil mix. I hope they don't mind getting transplanted too much.

Thanks for your help!
john47_johnf
18 years ago
I don't use peat disks either but cell trays. I have also transplanted them from non cells--take as much surounding soil as you can--they'll be fine

Here is a link that might be useful: cell tray
habbob
18 years ago
I leave them in until they get their first true leaves. Just take the lid off for 1-2 hours a day.

I use the same set up as John and I've only had had a couple seeds damp off, and I'm not even certain it was that.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
I do as Guy does and plant into cups ASAP after emergence.
clairewags, I didn't see anything in your initial post regarding lights.
When I transplant into cups, I remove the new seedlings from their cells that were receiving bottom heat. Once in cups, the lights go on immediately for approx. 15 hrs. / day.

Today they were all moved to their vacation condo in my greenhouse until planting time. :)

Paul B.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
"I would like to take them out. I don't have them in those little peat discs, they're just in a soil mix. I hope they don't mind getting transplanted too much."

What I found works very well for me is an infants spoon. I use the spoon we had when my son was a baby, it's tiny w/ a long handle.
Scoop the perimeter of the cell to take as much soil mix as possible, then tuck them in their new transplanted home.

Paul B.

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