On 1/31/2015 9:45 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 1/30/2015 5:58 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Well , I've got lots of tomato seedlings now ... and two in most
cells . When do y'all thin your seedlings ? I can do it now , but
then if one dies ... or I can do it when they're bigger , and the
dominant one is more apparent . That approach however uses more of
the finite amount of nutrients available , and maybe thinning now
will make one that wouldn't have been dominant actually be stronger
than ... Decisions decisions !

If there were two or more seeds planted in the same cup I just pinch
off all but the sturdiest seedling. Don't have enough space to plant
a lot of tomato plants. The plants themselves need plenty of room
around here and I keep them pruned so that sunshine gets into the
plant.
On occasion I have transplanted extra seedlings from a group and
mostly they succeeded but not as well as the primary. And, like you
said, the secondaries suck up all the energy for the primary.

And this morning I snipped all but the strongest in those that had
multiples . The saved Romas from last year germinated better than expected ,
some cells had up to 4 seedlings ! I'm seeing some action now on the peppers
, my serranos are coming up though none of the rest are yet .

I used to cross hot peppers to get more heat but, as I've aged, the heat
doesn't agree with me anymore. Only grow sweet chiles and a bunch of
those. We like Gypsy, Giant Marconi, Carmen (a poblano type that gets
huge) and the occasional Aji Limon de Peru, a hot yellow that doesn't
bother my innards as much as others. I've been growing the Aji's for
over 20 years, traded with a gentleman in Lima, Peru for the seeds back
before it was banned. Had some nice hot ones from a fellow in Bulgaria,
sort of a hot Longhorn, right tasty. I miss those days sometimes and
then I don't due to worldwide terrorism. Never could eat the really hot
habs though, did not agree with my digestive system and hurt on both
ends. G