When you pot up your young seedlings, do you plant them deeply up to the cotyledons or just to the same level they were when you removed them from their first germination spot?
Fairly deep, but maybe not all the way up to the cotyledons.
No problems with the young stem rotting, Joe?
I try to plant them a little deeper but it doesn’t always work out that way. I’ve never had a problem with the stems rotting on the deeper ones, however, I don’t transplant them until they have one set of true leaves.
Thanks, Seil. I pot up my seeds in individual pots just as they sprout in the petri dishes. At about 8 weeks, they are tall and the cotyledons are often about 1" - 1.5" above the soil. At that point I consider potting them up further, and that’s when I always question whether I should plant them in a larger pot, deeply up to the cotyledons. I have done it before numerous times, but somehow I always question whether I should do that.
I think potting them up once the seedlings’ stems are relatively hardened shouldn’t be a problem… just wanted to see what y’all do.
hey judith how do you use the petri dishes? sounds like something i would like to try!.
Hi Judith,
I always tried to transplant young seedlings at the same level. I never experimented at various depths to see if there was a difference, but the tender new stems looked to me to be very inviting for fungal spores.
Jim Sproul
When mine germinate they go into seed starter trays first to grow up a bit before I put them into cups. I tried going right into cups but found a lot of them died when I did that.
I do something different every year. Now the seeds go into trays in the greenhouse and when the temp. goes below 32F they will be moved to the basement. The germinated seedlings get transplanted when the tallest are smashed on the domes usually about eight leaves. Some of the roots are quite large by then and get broken and the some of the trays get churned pretty good so you end up potting up some one leafers and the rest get poked back till they grow more. None of this seems to bother them much, after all they are fairly tough plants.
Interesting thing this year was a group with scroungey top growth but had nine inch or so roots.
Last year about 75 seedling 7-9 inches tall where planted deep and they DEFINITELY where set back. Neil
We’ve never had a problem planting them deep…yet. I’ve been growing rose seedlings for four or five years. However, we transplant thousands of annual seedlings each year and sink them all up to their necks without a problem. I figure it’s better to get the sturdiness than risk the plant flopping over. Our potting soil is straight bog peat, a much heavier soil than most mixes, and it’s sopping wet at transplant. We cover newly transplanted seedlings with white cloth row cover for a week or so, which seems prevent damping off.