2 Ways To Thinning: The Hard Way & The Easy Way

There are two ways to thinning your garden, the simple way is to pluck out the smaller, weaker looking seedling and toss it into the compost bin and say good-bye forever.  The second way of thinning is through transplanting which consists of digging out all your plants (roots and all) and replanting them individually spaced out appropriately for mature growth.

Many of the seed packets I've come across have directions that suggest planting 3 seeds per  hole then thinning the plants out once they've reached about 2" tall.  Sometimes not all your seeds will germinate and so even after planting 3 seeds, only 2 or even 1 will sprout, all 3 will sprout if your lucky.  But even knowing I could have it easy and simply pull out the weaker seedlings when thinning I always choose to transplant instead, I just can't seem to get myself to simply pluck those little babies and say good-bye (I suppose that's the novice gardener in me). Veteran gardeners always seem to say that thinning by saying good-bye is always the best way to go, after hearing their explanations I can understand why.  With transplanting you risk losing all the seedlings by digging them up, not only do most plants find this move stressful but you also have to make sure not to damage the roots< A very good reason to nix the transplanting in my opinion, especially if you suffer from unsteady hands.

And though most veteran gardeners generally have this common belief regarding transplanting versus the 'good-bye' thinning method, I've had thus far, fairly good odds with transplanting results, even with seedlings that are too small to be transplanted (ie. thinning my lettuce bed).  Thinning by transplanting my tomato seedlings was equally successful and I was 5 for 5, all my transplants survived though one did look quite disheveled for days, but it wasn't anything a bit of added nutrients and good watering couldn't fix.

So I guess the question remains, do you thin out your plant bed by transplanting or say 'good-bye'?  I say the choice is yours, but you should try to transplant at least once, it's a bit of fun and you can make a more experienced decision that way.