When I first started growing plants form seed, I planted two seeds per pot and then played “survival of the fittest” with a pair of scissors. The stoutest looking plant survived…the other…snip! When I joined the Tomatoville.com forums and came across Craig LeHouiller’s “Dense Planting Method” it revolutionized my propagation techniques and made life a lot easier and way more efficient.
I’ve never had any damping off problems with this method until this year and it was my fault for keeping some of my trays of seedlings too moist. I lost at least 500 seedlings and several varieties, but have re-planted many of them and ordered more seeds for the ones I didn’t have extras of. I should be able to be caught up by the end of April…fingers crossed!
For those of you that like to pre-order your plants, feel free to send me an e-mail at jworley1@hotmail.com with the types you want and quantities of each and I’ll do my best to have them ready for you whenever you want to pick them up. I may not have some varieties, but have added some others to replace them..trust me all of them are going to make for beautiful and delicious eating this summer!
Here’s some pics of the transplanting process…if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
They pop out easily
Then you just pull them apart…don’t worry, they can handle rough treatment!
I hold the seedling between my fingers just below the cotyledons and then put handfuls of my soil mike (8 parts compost, 1 part Perlite, 1 part Vermiculite). All those fuzzy hairs will turn into roots and will be ready to go in the garden in May. I press the soil down a little to keep the seedling upright then water gently with water from my rain barrels.
Repeat this process a few thousand times and VOILA!
KC Tomato Times Blog 