Oh goodness, here we go again. As my tomato seedlings have reached about 2-inches tall it's time to thin them out (as in spread them out), don't want them fighting for space now do we. I get flashback attacks of the time not that long ago when I had to thin out the lettuce bed, trembling sweaty hands and heart racing. The experience was absolutely nerve racking but it turned out pretty well, only lost two little lettuce seedlings that hated me enough for it to commit suicide. The lettuce seedlings were quite a bit smaller than these 2-inch tall seedlings so I figure I should do fine.
Currently the tomato seedlings are in a state of agitation (as pictured above), they're like little children who don't want to share. So the goal is to thin them out so they all can have their own little space (as seen below).
1st step, digging out the seedlings. With my spade in hand I dug deep and far away from the seedlings to remove them from the ground without harming the roots in any way. I set the seedlings still in their original soil aside and proceeded to the 2nd step, digging new holes in the plant bed for the seedlings' new home, one hole for every seedling, all holes 1.5-ft apart from eachother.
3rd step, I then went on to what I think is the most difficult part of thinning out any plant bed, separating the seedlings. The roots are quite fragile and so being ginger and patient when separating the whole plant (roots and all) is key. The leaves if harmed will grow back, but the roots if harmed will kill the entire plant. I think I may have lost one tomato seedling during this process but 1 out 5 isn't so bad, right?
4th step, I placed individual seedlings in the freshly dug holes (one seedling per hole) with fresh soil and covered with fresh soil so that the root was well below the soil line but not so far down that the soil line was too far up the seedling stem.
Now you can see how much happier the tomato seedlings are in their own little space (pictured above).
I also felt that this was a very good time to put in some structural support for the tomatos which would eventually get about 6-ft tall (I sure do hope they survive to make it that high- that would be exciting!). I figure it would be more difficult for me to put in some kind of support when the plants are bigger as their roots would be longer and thus easier to harm. Since I have limited supplies I decided to use this circular support for three of the tomato plants, the idea is that (and I hope this works) the tomato plants can grow on each side of the circle, seems pretty iffy but I'm 80% sure it'll work.
So, now with my second thinning experience behind me I'm a pro, right?
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