Expert: C.L. Fornari - 4/6/2009

Question
Thank you for taking my question C.L. I have planted maybe 60 petunias in a plastic starter kit bought at Home Depot. They are now beginning to come up. When I put the seeds in each of the 60 individual planters, I put too many in some and not enough in others. 2 questions: How does one place each of those small seeds in their prospective pods, and when they come up do I thin them out? I live in central California, Morgan Hill, just south of San Jose. Thank you for your consideration. Don

Answer
Don,
Since the pods are probably small, it's best to have only one plant growing in each one. In the future place one seed per pod. Now, however, you'll need to separate the ones that more than one are growing in a cell, but I'd wait and do it when they have two or three sets of leaves on them. At that point they will be strong enough so that they won't be damaged by separation, but young enough so you should be able to carefully tease their roots apart and plant one per pod or one per small pot.

If you let too many grow in a small space, the restricted root-room will mean that they don't get as large and if left too long that way can become stunted.  With plants, what goes on in the soil is reflected above ground, so the more root room below for each plant, the larger it grows up above.

all the best,
C.L.
www.wholelifegardening.com