May 15, 2005
SEEDLINGS TO SMALL PLANTS: THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, BABY!
So if you read the article on seed germination then you might be finding yourself looking at some seedlings popping up out your peat pellets, or soil, or whatever you planted them in. Congrats! Honestly, getting the seeds to germinate is the hardest part of this whole process. So what next?
Just about all of the advice I've read and passed along says to sow two to three seeds together in each hole in your peat or soil. So it’s quite possible that you're seeing one, two, or three seedlings popping up in roughly the same location. That's okay for now, but later we're going to have to make the tough choices...
Each seedling is going to sprout and the top will divide out into two leaves. These very first pair of leaves are called "seedling leaves" or cotyledons. As your seedling grows, more leaves will begin growing out of the stem. These are referred to as "true" leaves. The cotyledons will soon whither and drop off. This is completely normal. Its when the first true leaves start growing out that the seedling begins to feed itself with sunlight (photosynthesis) and soil nutrients. (Up to this point the seedling has been feeding itself off of nutrients contained within the seed itself.) So true leaves can be thought of as the seedling finally getting a job and moving into its own apartment. If you germinated these seeds in peat pellets, now would be a good time to water once including some plant food in the water. Any balanced plant food will do. This plant food will help stimulate root growth, which is critical at this stage. And make sure the seedlings start getting as much sunlight as possible.
If you have multiple seedlings growing from the same peat pellet (or sown in the same pot), continue nurturing them until they have two or three sets of true leaves. At this point you're going to have to decide with one of the cluster looks the healthiest... and snip off the rest. Cold, I know, but only the strongest survive. Deciding which looks the healthiest? That's completely a judgment call, really. Look for a healthy stalk, fully formed leaves, and good color. Usually the choice will be pretty obvious. Cut the rest down.
You may be asking yourself "Why do that? Why cut some down? I'll get more chiles if I let all of the plants live, right?". Even at this young stage, those seedlings are fighting each other for root space in the soil, and that's only going to get worse as they get bigger. But a plant is only as healthy as its roots. If your ultimate goal is to repot these into large containers and you keep them ALL, you'll end up with a potted cluster of small to medium sized chiles plants with so-so yields. Why? Because none of the plants got as much space for their roots as they would have liked. But if you trim down to just one plant getting ALL of the soil volume for its roots, you'll actually end up with a larger, healthier plant yielding more (and bigger) chiles.
What I usually do after "thinning the herd" (so to speak) is give the remaining seedlings another watering including plant food, then let them grow another set or two of true leaves. Now its time to transplant into 4-inch pots (that's four inches across the top). This is a pretty small plant pot, but its a good introduction to real soil and allows the seedling to really start growing a root ball. Fill the four inch pot with potting soil and wet it thoroughly through in the sink. Now burrow a hole in the center of the dirt large enough for your peat pellet. I like to remove the fine mesh casing holding the peat together so as to give root growth unfettered access to its new soil. Gently drop the peat into the burrow in the soil, push the soil in to fill in the rest of the whole, and you're pretty much finished! Just water one more time to make sure the soil settles around the peat, and put the newly potted seedlings on a sunny windowsill.
When the seedlings get to be about six inches high, repot into six or eight inch pots using this same process. If you've gotten this far then your seedlings are now small plants...
NEXT TIME - HARD AS STEEL: PREPARING THOSE POTTED CHILES PLANTS FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS
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