How to thin out seeds

[Matt84]

Hi,

I have started sowing lots of seeds in standard 6 x 4 seeds trays on windowsill with lids. I never had much luck with sowing seeds so I put quite a few in each section (I always used to do it outside and it was probably too cold) however this time I have had plenty of seeds coming. My only question is how do you thin seeds out, for example I have sown amaranth and there must be 20 seedlings popping up per section, what is the best thing to do. Should I take out all but the strongest seed and then pot them up when ready or just pot up the whole section when ready.

What I don't understand is whether growing a lot of seeds in each pot(once potted up) will discourage growth, I.E each plant will have less nutrients, or would more competition mean the plant will try to out compete the others and grow stronger/ or would you just get more plants(I would like to get as many as possible, within reason)

I had some suttons tomato seed trays and the instructions stated to tease out every seed apart from the strongest, is this always the best way or does it vary from plant to plant. If anyone has any info on this it would be great,

Many thanks in advance

[stella]

Best bit of advice I was given was when you start with seedlings make sure you have everything you need to hand, compost, pots, different size twiddlers etc. nothing worse than making a start and having to keep going off to get things.

[Capsid]

Pricking out seedlings was my first weekend job as a kid. You carefully separate the individual seedlings and then plant each into a large seed tray. Depending on the size of the seedling I can get around 8 x 4 or 10 x 5 per tray. They can get quite big in the trays and from there may be planted out to their final positions.

I find that I do about 2 large trays and have more than enough for my own use. Any spare I leave in the original tray and give to friends for them to prick out.

[Two_Sheds]

I hate thinning out, so I tend to sow very thinly in the first place.

When I have to thin out, I just nip off the tops of the weakest plants, so they die.
It saves injuring the seedlings that you're trying to keep.

In the wild, lots of seedlings may germinate, but some of them will be stronger and will eventually shade out and kill off their brethren

[sarraceniac]

I often wonder why, when you only want about a dozen of a plant, when you buy a packet of seeds, they send you 200 or even 2000. Then I realised you can thin them TS's way. Why bother potting on the runts that you are thinning? When I first started gardening my mate (a Mr. Noah) and I were scared stiff of losing a plant. The first year I grew tomatoes, I tried fitting 30 tomato plants into an 8 x 6 greenhouse and was worried because I had to leave some out. It's a nonsense. That's why I am now of the Two Sheds school of thinning.