• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Growing
    • Our Garden ’18
    • Our Garden ’17
    • Our Garden ’16
    • Our Garden ’15
    • Our Garden ’14
    • Our Garden ’13
    • Our Garden ’12
  • Raising
  • Building
  • Simplifying
  • Preserving
  • Recipes
  • About
    • Contact
    • Terms

Northern Homestead

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Growing
    • Our Garden ’18
    • Our Garden ’17
    • Our Garden ’16
    • Our Garden ’15
    • Our Garden ’14
    • Our Garden ’13
    • Our Garden ’12
  • Raising
  • Building
  • Simplifying
  • Preserving
  • Recipes
  • About
    • Contact
    • Terms

How to Deal with Multiple Plants in one Seedling

Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Google+
Google+
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Share on StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Yummly
Yummly
Email this to someone
email

Seedlings are great for short season gardeners. They help us to extend the growing season up front. Transplanting seedlings can be tricky though. Here is how to deal with multiple plants in one seedling.

Seedlings are great for short season gardeners. They help us to extend the growing season up front. Transplanting seedlings can be tricky though. Here is how to deal with multiple plants in one seedling.

Do you start your own seedlings from seeds or do you prefer to get them from a greenhouse? I prefer to start our own seedlings and see the miracle of life develop. But we also buy seedlings from a greenhouses here and there. With good seeds I often get a 100% germination. Since I plant about 3 seeds per pot, to make sure I get at least one plant, I and up with 3 plants in one pot. The same is true for greenhouse seedlings. Often there is more than one plant in one seedling pot. Take a close look, what you think is one seedling might be multiple plants.

Do not assume that if a greenhouse sells multiple plants in one seedling together they should be planted together. There is a ‘too close’ for any plant. If you have done this, and your garden did not grow well, this might be the reason. If plants are too close they compete with each other, resulting in smaller, sickly plants.

Sometimes though, if you start your own seeds, there is an empty pot in between. Not to worry! Here are some ways how you can still use most of the little seedlings without planting all of them together. However, not all plants react to transplanting and dividing alike. Let’s take a closer look.

Night shade plants

Night shade are plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, and ground cherries. These plants  grow roots along the stem. That’s why we can grow tomatoes from cuttings. The same is true for little seedlings. Note, this is best done when the plants are still young and just developed their first pair of real leaves.

How to grow tomato seedlings from cuttings

If you planted 3 seeds and two germinated and grow very close together, just gently cut off one of them without disturbing the roots of the main seedling you want to keep, put the cutting in water, and soon you will have a second seedling. I have successfully done this with tomatoes and peppers, but I’m sure other night shade plants would do it too. Always worth a try.

How to divide tomato seedlings

If the seedlings do not grow too close, water the plant really well (it should be muddy). Now you can gently pull the additional seedlings, again without disturbing the roots of the main seedling you want to keep, and plant it right away, burying more of the stem.

Cucurbitaceae plants

Cucurbitaceae are plants like cucumber, watermelon, musk melon, summer squash, and winter squash. These plants are very sensitive, they do not like cold soil and do not tolerate any frost, they also dislike transplanting. You will hardly have any success multiplying these seedlings. If you get more than one in one pot, just cut them off without disturbing the main seedling. Be very gentle with the seedling and do not disturb the roots. I know, it is hard to cut off a healthy seedling, but planting them together will bring you less than one healthy seedling would.

Sprouting Seeds

Many of the Cucurbitaceae plants are very fast growing. It might be better just to sprout a seed than to start a seedling. Sprouting speeds up the germination, transplanting a seedling slows the growth down. I put my Biosta Sprouter into good use. Last year I had much better results with my sprouted cucumber seeds than with my earlier started seedlings. Up front it looked like the seedlings were way ahead, but soon the sprouted seeds grew into healthier plants.

Most other plants

How to Deal with Multiple Plants in one Seedling

Now that we have dealt with the two extremes, night shade plants and cucurbitaceae plants, most other plants are somewhere in between. If I end up with multiple plants in one seedling I just gentle divide them and plant all of them (except if they are planted right in the same spot). Most seedlings do not mind it and grow into healthy plants. I often look for one seedling that has 3 plants, and save some money by gently dividing them. I also save some seedling space by using the multiple plants that germinated.

Remember, plants that are planted too close will suffer, if you afraid to separate them, better cut them away so you have just one plant per seedling. Most plant varieties can be gentle separated, night shade plants will grow even if you cut them off, but cucurbitaceae plants will not forgive any root disturbance.


We invite you to subscribe to Northern Homestead and follow us on Facebook or Pinterest for the latest updates.

More Planting Posts You Might Enjoy

How to plant, protect, grow and harvest early peas in an unheated greenhouse under freezing winter conditions.

How to Grow Early Peas in an Unheated Greenhouse

For starting seeds indoors you will need pots, good potting soil, seeds and a sunny window or grow lights. With Free Seed Starting Schedule Printable.

Starting Seeds Indoors (Free printable schedule)

Growing Overwintering Spinach in Cold Climate

It is always a very exciting day when tomato plants can go into the ground! Here a complete guide on how to transplant tomato plants into the ground.

Transplanting Tomato Plants into the Ground

Northern Planting Schedule - When to Plant What – And Why Not Follow the General Rule

When to Plant What – And Why Not Follow the General Rule

Combine starting seeds in vermiculite with all the other methods to start seeds by using it as a first very simple step. Here we cover the how-toe's.

Starting Seeds in Vermiculite

How to Grow Tomatoes From Cuttings

How To Grow Tomatoes From Cuttings

When to Start Tomatoes Indoors

When to Start Tomatoes Indoors

How to start tomatoes from seeds using a no fail method that involves less work. This method has worked for us for many years.

How to Start Tomatoes from Seeds

Planting a Fall Garden in a northern climate

Planting a Fall Garden in a Northern Climate

Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Google+
Google+
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Share on StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Yummly
Yummly
Email this to someone
email

Filed Under: Gardening, Growing, Planting Tagged With: Planting, Spring

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gingi says

    at

    Oh man! I wish I had this information last month! I went crazy with my first time planting from seeds and had like 3-4 tomatoes per cell.. I hated killing the extras, and had I known about putting them in water, I so would have done that! Now I know for next year!

    Reply
    • Anna says

      at

      Sometimes the easy things that make a difference. Hope your tomatoes grow well, happy gardening!

      Reply
  2. Stephen Grasser says

    at

    I always start from seed. I live in the Arctic (Nunavik) and have a couple of hobby greenhouses. One thing I’ve noticed is that there are absolutely no pests, save for lemmings. I dread introducing alien insects, etc. with pre-planted starters. Besides, it gives me something to do during those long winter months!

    Reply
    • Anna says

      at

      Welcome Stephen, you are really up north ;). I hear you on something to do in long winters. I am so glad we can grow indoors. Hope spring is coming for you too.

      Reply
  3. Janessa says

    at

    Perfect. Thanks for the details. Its helping me to know how many I can put in a pot. Cheers. Can’t wait to check out the rest of your site!

    Reply
  4. Kassandra says

    at

    I have planted a grapefruit seed that has four shoots from one seed. I am not sure what to do – do i cut the weaker ones, or attempt to separate them or just let them all grow???!

    Let me know, its my first time growing grapefruit.

    Reply
    • Anna says

      at

      Kassandra, we don’t grow grapefruit here at our northern garden. It sounds like you have one plant, not multiple, since you only planted one seed. In order to get a stronger plant I think you are better of to prune all but one stem back. But again, I have no experience, just common sense.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Welcome, nice to meet you!

Jakob und Anna winter 2Northern Homestead is a blog about urban homesteading in a cold climate. We write about growing, raising, preserving, and preparing our own real food.
Learn more ...

Never Miss A Blog Post

Find It Fast

Building

We share how we build things and use alternative energies. Building a greenhouse is almost a must in a northern climate to overcome cold and frost.

Growing

Growing your own food year round using organic methods. Here you will find many proven gardening tips and ideas.

Raising

Preserving

Under Preserving we share how we preserve food. With only about 100 frost free days, we want to preserve and store our summer bounties as much as we can to have homegrown food all throughout the long winter

Recipes

Simplifying

Project simple living

Popular Posts

  • How to Build a GeoDome Greenhouse How to Build a GeoDome Greenhouse
  • How to Steam Vegetables Without a Steamer How to Steam Vegetables Without a Steamer
  • Do Not Use Weed Control Fabric in the Garden Do Not Use Weed Control Fabric in the Garden

Footer

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Disclosure

Some posts include affiliate advertising links to Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, which give us a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you.

Copyright© 2018 · Brunch Pro Theme by Shay Bocks