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Is separating cucumber seedlings while potting up a fool's errand? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/gardening@lemmy.world
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I saw some tips around sowing multiple seeds per cell so at least one seed germinates in each cell, and then one either thins the weaker seedlings or carefully separates them while potting them up. I'm still very early in my gardening education, so I thought that's cool, I'll take this approach for my cucumber starts b/c hey why not, and since the thought of thinning seedlings kinda kills my soul, I'll just carefully separate them when I pot them up; however, everything I'm now reading about cucumbers is that they don't transplant well and they're more sensitive to root shock than other crops like tomatoes and peppers. Is thinning each cell down to one the way to go for these cucumber starts or is there hope for my soul? Not that I even have enough pots to move them all into anyway, but where there's a will there's a way...

Further reading/watching:

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[–] 1 point 6 months ago

I do container gardening in fabric pots mostly, so I group my seeds pretty close. I'll cull extras carefully with all of my seedlings because it's easier than trying to separate them, whether I'm starting in cells or direct sow. This way, their little roots are unaffected and can continue to grow shock-free. The remaining roots of the culled will quickly wither and be reabsorbed.

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