Techniques Sowing and starting indoors

Thinning seedlings: what, why and how

What exactly is thinning, why do you need to do it, and what is the best way to go about it? Is it equally important for every vegetable?

Young rocket seedlings — *Rocket seedlings*

Beautiful, tiny plants. Your first seedlings.

And every day you watch them grow.

Until you hear a ping in your pocket. And the app says: "Now it's time to thin them out. Ready?"

Gulp.

You keep reading: "Leave the biggest seedling in each bunch: Cut away the rest. Use scissors and show no mercy."

And then? You freak out:

Thinned rocket seedlings — *Photo by @daddytalks: "This morning, our first massacre in the rocket zone."*

Sound familiar?

We all have mixed feelings about decapitating those sweet little plants.

But, we have to.

What is thinning out exactly?

You never know in advance if every seed will grow into a plant. Some seeds just don't feel like it. So, you always sow a few extra in each hole.

But if they all come up, you have to thin them out. It just means removing extra plants.

Here, I'll give you an example:

Rucola

Nine rocket plants fit in one square, giving each plant enough room to grow.

When sowing, make nine holes in the square and place two or three seeds in each hole, just to be safe.

Several rocket seedlings growing in each sowing hole — *Several seedlings growing in each sowing hole*

If they all sprout, you'll get several plants in each hole. It's too crowded. So, you leave the best and remove the rest. You end up with 9 plants:

Thinned out radishes in a square vegetable garden patch — *Ahh, that's better*

Why do you have to thin them out?

A plant needs enough room to grow. If you leave all the seedlings, they'll start competing with each other for light and nutrients.

The result? None of them do well.

How do you thin them out?

It's best to use scissors: cut away the extra seedlings just above the soil mix.

Thin seedlings so they no longer compete with each other — *Cut off the tops, don't pull them up*

By cutting off the tops of extra seedlings - instead of pulling them up like weeds - you won't damage the remaining plants' tender roots.

"But Jelle, the app says that thinning out isn't necessary for some plants."

That's right.

Those are mostly vegetables with pickable leaves. Like purslane, spinach, and Asian salad mix. So, it doesn't matter if you leave a few plants per hole: you can harvest everything later on.

Several winter purslane seedlings growing happily in each spot and won't be thinned out — *All the purslane seedlings can stay put*

But if you leave 2 carrots, beets, or radishes in one hole, they won't grow. Or you'll get something funky:

2 carrots intertwined because they weren't thinned out — *Can't really untangle this pair of carrots*

These types of vegetables have long, wide roots. It's extra important to thin them out.

Carrots can be especially tricky:

Cut away the extra seedings of carrots with scissors — *Is there 1 plant here or 2? Or 3?*

So, make sure you stay on your game when you thin out your plants.

How can you tell which plants are seedlings?

Seedlings can sometimes be difficult to recognise, mainly because their first leaves look different from the leaves that appear later.

But when you sow our seeds, the app shows you what the plants should look like at every stage, including the seedling stage.

The Makkelijke Moestuin app includes all our seeds — *All our seeds are included in the Makkelijke Moestuin app*

If you use other seeds, it's not the end of the world when it comes to thinning. If you sowed them the right distance apart, you should be able to tell which are vegetables.

If something plant-like appears in a different spot, then it's either a random weed - and you won't see many of those - or you're just a sloppy sower 😉

Thinning in brief

Thinning means removing surplus seedlings
Follow the app's advice
For vegetables that need thinning, leave one seedling in each sowing hole
Use scissors to cut away the extras
Do not overthink it, just do it 😅

One more tip from the community: you can eat the seedlings you cut away*, and they are delicious on a cheese sandwich.

*Except seedlings from tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and courgettes.

Good luck!

Head to the seed shop