Hello! Hope everyone is doing well today... I need some help figuring out the starting process of sowing seeds/thinning/ transplants. A week ago my roomate and I planted all of our little seeds into cell packs (Each cell is about a penny in size), and by golly they have taken off!! Only problem is, we don't know when to thin them, or when to transplant them to bigger plants? All of the little lettuces have grows so much, but are tall thin little things.... are we growing them right? Here are some pictures to help! Thank you so much for your time!
You should probably thin now, you can eat the thinnings of lettuce as baby sprouts. Just cut the extra off at soil level with scissors. They look like they could be transplanted now too. As to keeping them from getting overly leggy, 1. use a brighter light, or move the light closer (just above the leaves. The leaves will burn if they touch the light, so watch them) 2. Use a fan on them, or gently wiggle them with your hand, or shake the tray several times a day. Any of those things will tell the plants that there IS a reason to make stronger stems, and so then they will.
What are the red stemmed plants in the foreground? If it's beets or chard, they're a compound seed. Each seed is actually made of multiple seeds fused together, so you should only plant one seed per container. Alaskan hit the nail on the head. Unless the seedlings get adequate light, it's hard to grow any plants that will size up to transplant size before lodging over into a tangled mat. If you can get a light directly over them you might be able to slow them down enough to get them into the soil in decent shape.
