Pricking out...

Tigerhair · Post: # 18673Post **Tigerhair** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:10 am

Does anyone but me end up hating pricking all those little seedlings out??? I enjoy it for the first couple of days, the after that... Grrrrr

wulf · Post: # 18679Post **wulf** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:45 am

It can be a chore but it's a worthwhile investment of time - in a couple of months, when you've got plants you'll be able to think back in amazement at just how tiny and delicate they were at the pricking out stage!

Wulf

Wombat · Post: # 18686Post **Wombat** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:55 am

'faid I gotta go with Wlf on this one - it still amazes me that with very few tools we can raise veggies and other plants from seed!

Nev

Millymollymandy · Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:59 am

The thing I'm most proud of is the wild thyme I grew from seed last year. Miniscule seeds and miniscule little plants that needed very careful pricking out. A magnifying glass might have come in handy!

Now they are lovely decent sized 6" diameter plants and I'm looking forward to them flowering.

Wombat · Post: # 18749Post **Wombat** » Mon May 01, 2006 2:39 am

Onya M3 - Well done!

alcina · Post: # 18763Post **alcina** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:24 am

I have to confess, I'm most interested in plants when they're at the seed/seedling stage, or when I'm propagating new plants. I kinda lose interest in them when they're grown up (unless they produce food that is!). I guess if I were a professional gardener type prson I'd be a nurseryman. Odd...'cos human babies annoy me!

And every now and then, as with M3, there's one you're really proud of. For me it is a Rosemary from seed. It was one of my first seed sowing experiments and I was rather disappointed at the time that only one survived and made weedy growth at that (why do we call it "weedy" - my weeds grow like wildfire!). It wasn't until a year later that I discovered that it's actually supposed to be really difficult to grow Rosemary from seed. Sometimes ignorace is bliss!

I always feel outraged at the prices of "baby" plants at garden places. I guess that yes you're paying for the time someone has taken to care for them and prick them out - I don't think there's a machine that can do this, but it does seem extortionate to charge a pound or more for a little plant when you can buy a pack of 80 seeds for 60p! So think of the money you're saving Tiger. If it's taking you 2 days to prick them out, that's a LOT of plants....and how much would it have cost you if you'd bought them ready potted?

And you get to give away your spares to friends and vice versa and that's such a nice thing to experience.
Alcina

The Chili Monster · Mon May 01, 2006 11:49 am

Alcina wrote

I always feel outraged at the prices of "baby" plants at garden places. I guess that yes you're paying for the time someone has taken to care for them and prick them out

Taken from cuttings in some cases, I suspect. Mind you, I often get a greater sense of satisfaction when a cutting takes than a seed; I think it's because there's more risk to a cutting than a seed.

Tigerhair · Post: # 18817Post **Tigerhair** » Mon May 01, 2006 6:42 pm

I love things like courgettes... big seed, fast growing, fat baby plants to transfer easily into big pots... plant and roots grow like poo of a spade...

I have just been pricking out rocket seedlings and caught a smell of that wonderful pepperiness that makes the leaves so yummy!

The most annoying ones were my delphinium seedlings - pricked out fine then most of them have been eated by the LKSJDA(*S&W()$U * FD snails...