Gardening: Seedlings — thinning, watering and feeding

Now that your seedlings have germinated — yes! — what do you do next and how do you do it? If you planted two or three seeds in your little disk or box of soil as every book tells you to do (and as I have, too) and they’ve all come up, every book will tell you to “thin” — choose the sturdiest of the three and snip the other two off at the base. If you’re like me, you’ll hate doing this. It doesn’t feel right.

I have solved this problem by not planting two or three seeds in every box, but planting only one. The reason to have only one seedling in each spot is to avoid their competing for food and water.

As for watering, here the situation gets slightly more complicated. You cannot water seedlings the way you water adult plants. If you do, you’ll wash the little creatures right out of the soil. This means you can’t use an ordinary watering can or, for that matter, anything large because your stream will be too strong.

The method I use goes as follows. I have the trays out on a table on the deck during the day. I fill a large pail of water and put it next to the table on the ground. Then I use a really small cream pitcher — it’s actually delicate china and pleasing to the eye — to dip and fill with water. If your pitcher is small enough, it will enable you to bring the lip right to the edge of the tiny seedling container. Not two inches above, not one inch above, but right at the edge.

Now, if you water slowly, all should be well. It’s sad when your hand slips, and you’ve washed one little fellow right out of its new home. Now you’re trying to stick it back in again and it’s wilting away right in your hand. Bad moment.

Now for that big pail of water next to your foot. It should contain food. Whatever fertilizer you use, reduce the strength to one third. I don’t feed until the second pair of leaves appears. I’ve never read that that’s the thing to do but it feels right to me. I like to see a little strength before I ask a plant to do more.

Now you’re on your way, as I am. My cosmos seeds germinated in two days and I didn’t soak them!

One further point that I think is important. If your memory is at all spotty, if you find yourself arriving in one room in the house and not remembering why you went there, you might want to take some precautions. Since this happens to me all the time (and I resolutely contend that it has nothing to do with age, it’s related to having an active mind), I use the following procedure, which I recommend.

Make a sign, preferably on a piece of cardboard, and place it some place where you will encounter it on a daily basis. I put mine on the stairs to my bedroom on the second floor. The sign says “seeds.” This way, I will always be reminded to water them and bring them in for the night. Of course, the sign doesn’t have to say anything, since most likely you don’t ordinarily have a piece of cardboard carefully propped up on your staircase, but I like the symmetry of proper labeling.

Next week, transplanting.