Seedlings back on heat at night or not?

[bario1]

Soooo,

When you're germinating a tray of seeds in the heated prop and some have come up but not all, do you put them back on the heat at night to help the stragglers along, or will that cause the already germinated ones to go leggy?

[Bren In Pots]

I know this isn't any help but I gave up using seed trays in my H/prop for that reason, now i sow in either newspaper or small pots just a couple of seeds in each.

[burnie]

I sow in modules, so I can remove plants one at a time too.

[Small pumpkin]

I sow in modules as well. So I can remove them as they come up.
Still no help, sorry.

[bario1]

Damn all you smart people! Do you really sow leeks and onions in modules? How big is your heated prop??

[Small pumpkin]

Leeks and onions are sown in modules. But they don't get spoiled with a heated propagator .

[burnie]

I have 15 Onion seeds, one in each module, may not sound a lot, but I have grown them to 5 pounds in weight so the freezer will be full of sliced and diced for the winter recipes.

6 almost ready to pot on and one just peeping, the rest will get another seed in at the end of the week if no more show. Planted in MPC so there's food in there for them, so no great rush to pot on and less chance of soil disturbance.

[mcdood]

I take them off the heat altogether, let the strong get stronger while allowing the stragglers their last chance to emerge before you prick out.

[bario1]

Leeks and onions are sown in modules. But they don't get spoiled with a heated propagator .

Yeah i know it's totally unnecessary, I just want to kickstart them - after that the prop is going away until March!

[nickdub]

another way round it is to chit the seeds in the warm in a plastic box ( I use the airing cupboard) and just move the ones that germinate out to compost in whatever containers you like, once the seed starts to show a root - you could use a propagator at this stage, but whatever don't put the chitted seed in to cold compost ( if the compost has been outside, I generally warm it up with some boiling water poured over the container its in, then test with my finger to make sure its not too hot)

[Scarlet]

I'm another that generally sows veg in individual modules but flower seeds I usually start off in trays.
Same advice as Mcdood - take the lot out as soon as a few have shown their heads. The others soon follow.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Damn all you smart people! Do you really sow leeks and onions in modules? How big is your heated prop??

Yes and no

This season(haven't said year because I started sowing way back in November) I've sown onions in tiny plug plant trays(won't do that again as they dried out too easily), in root riot cubes(won't do that again also because of watering issues) and in half sized seed trays in my new two tray sized Stewart heated propagator. With the heated propagator the germination is generally very uniform so there is no issue with stragglers especially since I consciously sowed more than I needed. If there had been any stragglers they would have not been needed and would have been culled. I've then pricked the seedlings from the half sized trays into cellpack 40's and they have then been grown on in my growbench which holds 9 full sized trays with bottom heat and T5 growlights over.

[bario1]

Well my Bedfordshire Champion have come up strong, no need for them to go back in the prop, but my leeks and red onions have about 5 seedlings each, out of probably 50 seeds in each tray... so they're going back in at night until they make a decent showing!

AP you growbench sounds great...

[veggiechicken]

Out of the prop when about 50% have germinated, onto the windowsill during the day and balanced on the lid of the prop overnight.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Well my Bedfordshire Champion have come up strong, no need for them to go back in the prop, but my leeks and red onions have about 5 seedlings each, out of probably 50 seeds in each tray... so they're going back in at night until they make a decent showing!

AP you growbench sounds great...

If only my growbench was bigger .

I've recently sown Red Baron and Red Amposta onions. Red Baron super even germination. Red Amposta really disappointing to the extent that I'm going to have to resow. What variety of reds have you sown?