Advice on potting-on, especially brassicas

[Snoop Puss]

I'm never very confident about potting on. Usually I sow a few seeds per smallish pot and then thin out to one seedling per pot, where they remain till they get planted out. This year, however, some of my pots have no surviving seedlings and I find myself in a position where I need to extract a few brassicas (kalettes - like Brussels sprouts) and pot them on to make up for the losses?

The seedlings are currently at the two-leaf stage (true leaves, not seed leaves) and are maybe a couple of centimetres apart. Is it feasible to pot them on? If so, any advice on how I should go about it?

Or do I risk losing all of them and so should just give up and start off some more seeds?

Thanks.

[hamamelis]

No reason why not to, brassicas transplant pretty well in my experience.

Just be as gentle and careful as you can, keep as much root as possible with each seedling, and handle them by the leaves, not the stem. Should be fine.

[sparrow100]

Same as hamamelis really - I prick out all my seedlings at seedling leaf stage, and use a sweetcorn fork to tease the plants out without destroying the root or stem.

[bario1]

I pot on brassicas every year, currently I have a load in trays that need pricking out. I let them get pretty big (4-6") so they're less delicate, and I bury them up to the first true leaves, as they've usually flopped over with a bit of horizontal stem before growing 'up' again. Works for me!

[Jungle Jane]

Water them first so they break apart easier,then I use a teaspoon to do the fragile work,I've got a 3" pot with eight petunias in it to separate when I find some courage

[Martin H]

My method is to take the entire rootball out of the pot and then tease it apart gently with my fingers.

Brassicas seem to like being transplanted, they seem to do better than if you just thin them out. So go for it.

[Snoop Puss]

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll do it this evening so they have the night-time cold to recover.

[Muddy_Boots]

Same as all the previous advice, wet the compost so its moist then use something to tease the roots out for each plant and handle using the seed leaves. Place into new pots making a hole in the compost for the roots and then firm in, water and leave to grow further.

[Tripmeup]

Yep I pot on brassicas every year with no ill effects (so the slugs tell me anyway )

As said already, just be gentle and take your time..With brassicas, I always try to make sure that when you pot them on, that they are securely held in their new pot (i.e not floppy)

[burnie]

I've never potted on brassicas, leave them in the modules until ready to go in the ground, I have Golden Acre Primo and Romanescque( can't spell and neither can the auto checker lol), just out of the blow away and will grow on where they are for a couple of weeks until hardened off and in the ground. Brussels will be following then the Swedes the same.