I hope you were enthused to start your seedlings off indoors recently. By now they should have germinated and you may be wondering what next. Once they have a couple of true leaves (not the cotyledons – or first leaves the seed produces), it's time to move on up!
If you sowed multiple seeds in small container, you must thin them to 1 plant per pot, either by snipping off all but one plant with a pair of scissors, or separating the seedlings and repotting them in individual containers. This is the same process if you planted seeds in seed trays.
Ensure the seedlings aren't too wet; this makes it easier to separate them. Fill the new pots with well-watered fresh compost. Using a blunt kitchen knife, ease a group of seedlings out and let them fall apart. Alternately, if they've grown together, gently tease the roots apart. Separate the individual plants, handling them by the leaves not the stems. Make a hole in the new compost and ease the roots in, before filling in with soil mix. Ensure the seedling is at the same depth or a little deeper than before and gently firm the soil around it. Water it without flattening the seedling (easier said than done) and leave it to recover for a couple of days out of the sun until it gets over the shock of its new home.
Most commercial compost has enough nutrients for several weeks, so you shouldn't need to fertilize unless you've made your own mix, in which case fertilizing every 10 days may be recommended. If you overfertilize, you run the risk of leggy fragile plants.
Few things can go wrong at this stage – only underwatering or overwatering! (Or freezing, scorching, being eaten by bugs, birds or cats). Continue to water the young plants regularly: the larger the leaves, the more water the plants need. Check that there is adequate air flow, and avoid waterlogging the seedlings. Overwatering can result in “damping off” where apparently healthy seedlings suddenly keel over. If you examine the stem carefully at the soil line, it will look pinched – this is a fungus that thrives in wet, poorly ventilated places. You may be able to save the remaining seedlings by removing the dead ones and improving conditions, but prevention is better than a cure.
Now is the time to congratulate yourself on how well your seedlings are doing and wonder where on earth you're going to plant them all. Perhaps now is also the time to start trading with friends! (Master Gardeners may use the VMS to do so with fellow Master Gardeners - it's very handy!)
Next up: Tough Love