when shall I prick out my seedlings?

I planted some seeds a few weeks ago and the bigger seeds like the lupins came up quite quickly and I have replanted a lot of these in bigger pots. I also planted a tray of teeny seeds- verbascum- and they have come up and are just about to throw up their second set of leaves but they still look so fragile and tiny. They are in a big seed tray at the moment. Can I leave them in that until they get much bigger or shall I do it as soon as the second set of leaves are there? Also as they are so tiny and i am not that delicate myself do I have to pot them up singly or can i just do an inch square for instance and plant that up? (you can see from the title I am getting the hang of this garden malarky!)

 

Hi Lazy. I find it's a balance between safely transplanting while the seed leaves are still providing some food for the root system, the later leaves providing energy for the growing plant and the rigidity of the stem and that all important factor of confidence in handling tiny plants. As with everything, practice makes perfect and the best advice I can offer is to have everything to hand, be comfortably seated and allow at least 3 X the amount of time you think you will need so ditch the mobile, lock the door and enjoy peace while you get on with the job.

You are right about lupins, they develop nitrogen fixing legumes on the roots and don't take kindly to being moved later (you can also use bio degradable pots or loo roll centres and plant seeds singly) but some really delicate seedlings are best left until the second or even third set of true leaves emerge.

 

I plaated my seeds straight into peat post this year in groups of 2/3, intending to destroy weaker seedlings - BUT I think Peter has had too much of an influence on me and when I pulled them out last Sunday I could not destroy them so planted them into new peat post and they look fine.