A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Plant Propagation Aaaack! I don't know what to do?!

So I planted all those seeds last week, and they germinated VERY quickly!!! Especially with the heating mat, they seemed to come up within 2 - 3 days.

SO...I think I was over zealous when planting the seeds and put too many in each cell, especially with the sunflowers. They seem to have all come up, and the stems are so thick there is hardly any soil in the cells for all the plants!

They haven't developed their first true leaves yet though, so I'm at a loss as to what to do...I feel like they need to be transplanted to a larger pot to give them some room, but everything I read says its too early.

And...many of my herbs won't come up despite the heating mat, keeping it moist and dark, etc. My cumin, rosemary, and lavender are being very stubborn! Any help???

Hi there, and welcome to the Forum!

I know herbs, especially lavender, takes a loooong time to come up.. took a month for my lavender, and I've only got one sprout so far..

I have always been told not to strat sunflowers indoors, just start them early outside.. they may get too big..what about thinning them out, if their are multiple sprouts in each cell?

I think you're right about not starting the sunflowers indoors...but I'm going to try to save the ones I can. So you think it would be ok to thin them out at this early stage? They are growing SO quickly! Or should I just try to transplant them all to bigger pots?

If they are as crowded as you say, it will be nearly impossible to transplant without damaging most or all of them. Best to take a very small pair of scissors (toenail or sewing) and clip out all but the strongest two or three in each peat pot. Badplanter is right about those sunflowers. I let my two grandkids badger me into letting them start some in peat pots this year and they all grew to approx. 5 inches tall before I could put them outdoors. They all ended up in the compost bin. We will be direct seeding some this weekend, lol.

Oh wow...mine area already 3 - 4 inches tall, growing like weeds. By the time May rolls around they'd be HUGE! Darnit, I hate to scrap these little guys but I guess I learned my lesson! Everything else I planted is comign up very nicely...I'll just have to wait on the stubborn lavender a bit.

Thanks for the advice.

Rosemary is also dificult to start and to grow. I had to buy a plant and get a special kind before I had any success with it. Of course I can't remember where I wrote down the name of the type of Rosemary I bought. If I run across it I'll let you know.

If your plants are already that tall..
Try transplanting them..

Just remember if you're handling them,
to handle them by a leaf...
If the leaf rips off, no biggie..
If you handle them by the stem and you crush
the stem, it'll kill the plant..

Try to transplant a few...
***I am alwasy so chicken to cut or snip one
of the baby plants.. although it is always recommended
not distrubing the roots.. and letting the healthy ones
grow***

Weezies right, go for it.

I did the same thing you all did, went and planted my sunflowers too early. I just transplanted them this week into larger pots. These may do till I can plant them outside, but if this cold weather keeps up I may end up transplanting them one more time.