Topic: Selecting the best seedling

[Gordonmull]

I'm sowing quite a lot of plants, 2 seeds to a pot, and culling the weakest if both come up. Question is what does everybody else think is the weakest?

I tend to go on a mixture of first to germinate, not leggy, biggest and fastest true leaves. Are there other things to look for?

[Fuchsias]

I'd always go for the stockiest  plant

[goodlife]

I go for the most perfect looking ones.

[Digeroo]

If you have a mixed packet of seeds eg sweet peas, the small plants can be the more interesting colours.

[Hi_Hoe]

I always go for the one that seems less leggy and more sturdy. Whether that equates to stronger plants - who knows?!

[laurieuk]

I fully agree my head gardener when I was a garden boy always insisted that I prick out the smaller seedlings when dealing with mixed colours. The resaeon for this is that all plant families have predominant colours and if you prick out the strongest you miss the other colours. I ofund this to be true when growing pansies when I picked the stronger plants and had a tub of almost one colour and other plantings having a wide range of colours.

If you have a mixed packet of seeds eg sweet peas, the small plants can be the more interesting colours.

[davyw1]

What plant are you referring to veg or flowers, never the less they can be parted and re potted so there is no waistage
Just because one is bigger than the other does not mean the littlest is the unhealthiest it may have been slower on germination

[Gordonmull]

It's veg davy, usually brassicas and lettuce by this method. I use modules for everything else.

Interesting on the smallest plant and colour. I'll look out for that.

[davyw1]

Its every one to their own metod but i dont see the point of setting veg seed away in a pot or modules even, i think module take uo tp much space and as pots /cups are deep so it takes longer for the compost to warm up. Also as the seeds were planted on the surface the plant the stem will gow tall
My prefference is small trays then prick them out into cups dropping them in as low as possible, no plants are waisted

[Gordonmull]

I don't grow masses of veg so individual pots is probably better suited for lettuce/brassica for me. I'm only doing 3 lettuce, a cabbage and 2 calabrese every month. Everything else is sown direct. The principal looks good, though, for larger quantities. If I ever step up production I'll bear it in mind.