Too many seeds germinated in each cell

Since my hands have become more arthritic my wife planted the seeds in our new greenhouse.
We have never been very successful with seeds because I think the compost we were using was rubbish and we are not very good lol.
When she planted the seeds I was unwell and let her get on with it the problem is she went a bit crackers lol and now we have up to 20 young plants in each cell.They are not developing true leaves due to overcrowding I don't have a clue what to do.
The overcrowded plants are Petunias F2 and F1,Lobelia, Alyssum and Antirrhinums what is the best way to thin them out?
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Hmm, if it were me, I'd leave the tallest one in each cell and pull the rest out.
If your fingers can't grip them, could you use tweezers and pluck them out?

 

Was just about to post what Armandii has just said. It's what I would do

 

Sorry to disagree, but I'd tend to take out the longest, leaving the shortest. The longer ones will tend to be spindly because of the competition. In my opinion, what you're looking for is short, stocky seedlings.

 

Just to add, with Lobelia, you should reduce the seedlings to a 'clump' of around 5 seedlings.

 

Thank you, Freddy. Always good to learn something new
I believed it is the tallest because those are the ones which have put on the strongest growth and so are the strongest of the bunch. I can see why you recommend the shortest.

 

I've always grabbed a 'pinch' of Lobelia and even with other really small seedlings like Petunias I've done the same and thinned them out as they get bigger,it's so much easier

 

I did the same with Nemesia this year . Now some seeds you get lovely individual seedlings sprouting up . Nemesia was like a birds nest tangled with spaghetti ! So like Loli just pricked out in little clumps. They are looking really bushy and healthy now

 

Thanks everyone for the replies
I will try and use tweezers to thin them out and leave the smallest seedling I have a large handle pair.Its going to take me a few days as I think I can only manage a couple of pots at a time then my hand will seize up.
At the moment many of the seedlings are really tiny particularly the petunias should I let them grow on a bit?

 

Dave, let me add, take out the longest seedlings but if you think the shortest one looks weak, go for the next one up, if that makes sense? Regarding your Petunias, I would thin them out as soon as you're able

 

I thinned out two trays of 20 cells each I must have removed nearly 200 Petunia seedlings I couldn't manage to do anymore.I have left two in each cell with plenty of gap between them and will see what happens.
I will try again tomorrow.

 

Thinned out the last two trays of the petunias they were not as bad as yesterdays and managed to do five trays of stocks but they didn't need many removed.Having problems holding the computer mouse now my own fault I wouldn't give up the Mrs has told me off lol.