Lettuce....when to thin out

[Lamboluke]

So I've just sown some winter lettuce into my windowsill propagator and they are sprouting up quite quickly now.
I've sown the seeds into a 15 cell tray as I only wanted max 15 to transplant into my patch.
I've probably gone a little overboard with how many seeds I've put per cell but I'm just wondering what the best way to move forward with them is.

Would I be best letting quite a few grow a bit stronger per cell and in a week or two time choose the strongest one and remove the others? Or would I be best removing all but one now to stop them from competing?

[Guest]

Looking at the pic - both
I would reduce to maybe three per cell, then let them grow on then reduce to one.

[Lamboluke]

Thanks!! I did go a bit ott !!

[Lamboluke]

Thinned out. Just cut the heads off and they will compost down nicely.
Will let the 3 or 4 remaining grow a bit more and then keep the strongest one.

[Scarlet]

I hate thinning out! I use the smaller module trays with about 70 cells per tray and sow 2 seeds per module. I'm a bit tight on my seeds....

[Kristen]

They look better thinned out (i.e. no longer crowded) but I wonder if they need some more light, the white stems don't want to get any longer than they currently are.

[Martin H]

For lettuce, I use slightly bigger module trays and put 4 seeds per module. It's fiddly but with my best reading glasses and the point of my knife I can do it easily enough.

Thanks to some clever person on this forum, once I've watered them they go into the fridge overnight to spring them out of dormancy (best tip ever, never fails!), then into frame or greenhouse next morning. They show in just a few days.

I wait until they have their first true leaves before reducing to two and wait until they are jostling each other before reducing to one per module.

[Lamboluke]

They are currently on my windowsill in the living room. Would I be best placing the propagator outside so they get more light for more of the day?

[Lamboluke]

For lettuce, I use slightly bigger module trays and put 4 seeds per module. It's fiddly but with my best reading glasses and the point of my knife I can do it easily enough.

Thanks to some clever person on this forum, once I've watered them they go into the fridge overnight to spring them out of dormancy (best tip ever, never fails!), then into frame or greenhouse next morning. They show in just a few days.

I wait until they have their first true leaves before reducing to two and wait until they are jostling each other before reducing to one per module.

Sounds like some good advice there for the future. Thanks!

[Martin H]

Lamboluke, they will be too warm on your windowsill now that the light is diminishing. The cover needs to come off for the same reason, it's best to do this as soon as they germinate. The tray needs to go somewhere lighter and cooler, otherwise the seedlings will grow tall and thin and never make proper plants.

[Lamboluke]

Lamboluke, they will be too warm on your windowsill now that the light is diminishing. The cover needs to come off for the same reason, it's best to do this as soon as they germinate. The tray needs to go somewhere lighter and cooler, otherwise the seedlings will grow tall and thin and never make proper plants.

Ok so should I put them in my greenhouse which is around 10-14c? Or outside of it?

[Martin H]

Ok so should I put them in my greenhouse which is around 10-14c? Or outside of it?

Personally I would put them in the greenhouse with the lid off.

[Kristen]

For lettuce, I use slightly bigger module trays and put 4 seeds per module. It's fiddly but with my best reading glasses and the point of my knife I can do it easily enough.

Thanks to some clever person on this forum, once I've watered them they go into the fridge overnight to spring them out of dormancy (best tip ever, never fails!), then into frame or greenhouse next morning. They show in just a few days.

I wait until they have their first true leaves before reducing to two and wait until they are jostling each other before reducing to one per module.

I am WAY more mean than this ... but Gawd knows why as there are 1,500 seeds in my Lettuce packet, and I only grow half a dozen at a time (every couple of weeks), and Lettuce viability is definitely NOT measured in millennia!

I sow enough for half a dozen plants, so perhaps 10 seeds, in a little pot of very fine, sandy, compost (I use John Innes Seed compost, reused over-and-over, and microwaved between each use). When large enough to handle I prick out into appropriate modules, one per cell. If there are a few left over I prick them out into the edge of a cell [that already has a seedling in it] and in the event that one dies I transplant the edge-one to the cell that failed; after a couple of weeks I snip off any remaining "edge ones" so that the main central seedlings have free-rein.

I actually grow three different varieties of lettuce, and 6 plants of each, fortnightly during the growing season (I mentally plan to do this on 1st and 15th of the month, it gets done "round about" that time), and thus I use a 1/4 sized seed tray, 2 rows of 5 seeds of each variety, so 30 seeds and 6 rows in total, which fit nicely in the little seed tray. I use a pencil with a rubber and make a small depression in the compost with the rubber end where I want the seed - so I make a little grid of depressions in the compost first, and then drop a seed into each - I can nudge them with the pointy end of the pencil if needs be.

May sound like a lot of faff, but it then means that the seedlings have plenty of space, so although I have good intentions to prick out early sometimes other things get in the way, and if there is a week or two's delay the seedlings are still fine, and less chance of damping off / over-crowding / going leggy and so on, and also with the very fine compost they are easy to prick out (soil falls off the roots, very few roots get broken in the process).

In fact it has taken me far longer to describe the process than to actually do it!

[Lamboluke]

Personally I would put them in the greenhouse with the lid off.

Will do that. Thanks!

[Alison]

I am WAY more mean than this ... but Gawd knows why as there are 1,500 seeds in my Lettuce packet, and I only grow half a dozen at a time (every couple of weeks), and Lettuce viability is definitely NOT measured in millennia!

I sow enough for half a dozen plants, so perhaps 10 seeds, in a little pot of very fine, sandy, compost (I use John Innes Seed compost, reused over-and-over, and microwaved between each use). When large enough to handle I prick out into appropriate modules, one per cell. If there are a few left over I prick them out into the edge of a cell [that already has a seedling in it] and in the event that one dies I transplant the edge-one to the cell that failed; after a couple of weeks I snip off any remaining "edge ones" so that the main central seedlings have free-rein.

I actually grow three different varieties of lettuce, and 6 plants of each, fortnightly during the growing season (I mentally plan to do this on 1st and 15th of the month, it gets done "round about" that time), and thus I use a 1/4 sized seed tray, 2 rows of 5 seeds of each variety, so 30 seeds and 6 rows in total, which fit nicely in the little seed tray. I use a pencil with a rubber and make a small depression in the compost with the rubber end where I want the seed - so I make a little grid of depressions in the compost first, and then drop a seed into each - I can nudge them with the pointy end of the pencil if needs be.

May sound like a lot of faff, but it then means that the seedlings have plenty of space, so although I have good intentions to prick out early sometimes other things get in the way, and if there is a week or two's delay the seedlings are still fine, and less chance of damping off / over-crowding / going leggy and so on, and also with the very fine compost they are easy to prick out (soil falls off the roots, very few roots get broken in the process).

In fact it has taken me far longer to describe the process than to actually do it!

Am fairly similar although mine just get bog standard potting compost. As you I sow every couple of weeks but I use 6 hole modules with 2 modules of each variety. Each module has two pinches of 2 seeds across the pot. They are then thinned out to just 2 plants which are broken apart when planted out. Works really well