See(dl)ing double

[gringo]

A quick question to you seasoned growers please?

Every advice website or thread seems to recommend that if I get two seedlings germinate in the same cell, to get rid of the weaker one. What is the theory behind this? Better yield or taste or growth rate or....?

Why can I not treat them like one double stemmed plant?

(Tomatoes, tomatillos, and chilis if that's relevant, I grow in containers)

[Nicos]

I hate destroying new seedlings ,( especially if they are expensive ones!) consequently I only sow one seed per pot and remove empty pots.
More space, yes, but no waste!

[roitelet]

Two pants in the same pot =overcrowding

[Bigmallly]

The reason you cut out the weakest seedling is so as not to disturb the other one. If you left them both in situ, they'd be competing for nutrients so in my mind you would have 2 weaker plants..................try it.

[Alison]

I hate destroying new seedlings ,( especially if they are expensive ones!) consequently I only sow one seed per pot and remove empty pots.
More space, yes, but no waste!

Same here, first couple of years I sowed 2 per pot and found that I got 2 germinate in some pots and none in others so potentially I had the right number of seedlings in total but not in the right places. Separate pots is definitely the way to go.

[Lisasbolt]

Depends of where you are planting them out?? i have left them to go for it in the garden with plenty of space and have done just as well, but their roots could go wherever they wanted and nothing invading either side.
What i often do is when they are very small gently lift out and separate into 2 pots, no need to kill them unless it is a very common seed but then i hate doing it then also.

[muddled]

yep...I'm a big softie as well and painstakingly try to seperate and transplant both seedlings

When seedlings are forced to compete they get leggy trying to beat their cellmate to the light.
I now sow my seeds in pure vermiculite with no soil at all. Once they germinate they lift effortlessly to be transplanted without snapping roots.

Its a ridiculous way to go about it though...especially when there more than a thousand seeds in the packet...one of my many foibles

[Scarlet]

Neither would have room to grow. I use large flower buckets for both chillies and tomatoes and they require watering everyday and need the room for root growth, apart from lack of nutrients, pots drying out quick, you wouldn't have room to train/prune correctly either. they would be a tangled mess.

[vixylix]

I can't bring myself to kill them off - so I plant one per module where I can, or I also painstakingly separate them before planting on.

[gringo]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels overly protective of my seedlings

I have grown two plants together on occasion in the past and haven't noticed much, if any, difference. But after very poor germination rates last year I doubled up this year and now have loads of pairs. If I was any good at pricking out and transplanting it wouldn't be a problem but I'm not so it is.

I'm assuming a snip is better than a pull so as not to damage roots of remaining seedling?

[veggiechicken]

A snip is supposed to be better, but I can't do it - seems heartless
When I sow 2 seeds to a module I put them in opposite corners, so there's some space between them if they both germinate. Then I dig one out and pot it on...........and wonder why I end up with so many plants

[gringo]

Ah! The too many plants 'problem'! Somehow, every year I do manage to cope with the tmpp. If it continues in its exponential growth I may have to take up guerilla gardening this year!

[veggiechicken]

I plant them in odd corners of the garden and let them tough it out. Tomatoes do surprising well left unpruned, fed and watered

[sparrow100]

Two pants in the same pot =overcrowding

Personally I hate overcrowded pants...

[Bigmallly]

How does 50 seeds per module sound...............

Tomatoes from Seed: My 10 Most Important Seed-Starting Success Factors - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS