In fact, she and her spouse are having a bit of a "discussion" about whether to thin at all.
Much as I hate to step into the middle of a family debate, you need to thin out the vegetable seeds that have sprouted.
Usually when we sow seeds directly into the soil, we sprinkle in a lot more than needed, in the belief that this will ensure a good crop. If most of the seeds germinate, the plants crowd each other. This is not a good thing.
Let's take the example of lettuce. If a lot of small plants are growing close to each other, none will ever develop into the normal full-sized head of lettuce that we want to harvest. If you think about the size of the mature plant, a lettuce can occupy a space anywhere from 15 to 30 centimetres across.
Your seedlings should really be thinned out in two separate operations.
The first thinning would take out everything except a few of the strongest seedlings, about 7 centimetres apart. Just pinch off or cut the unwanted ones at ground level.
This seems ruthless, but in time, you'll learn to spread fewer seeds in the first place.
Allow the plants you leave behind to develop for a couple of weeks until their leaves start to touch each other. At this point, use a trowel to transplant every other seedling to another row, spacing them 15 centimetres apart. You'll be leaving behind the alternate seedlings in a similar spacing.
Now you have a bed of properly spaced lettuce seedlings that will be able to expand to their full potential.
The same thing applies for carrots, radishes and anything else that you plant from seed.
Just imagine how much space each plant will take up when it's mature, and leave at least that amount of space between the seedlings.
The only exception to this rule is if you're planting what's known as mesclun. This is a mixture of several salad leaf crops, like arugula, spinach, chard, endive, mache, radicchio and sorrel.
Take some of each of these seeds and mix them up before sowing. Plant them in a rectangular patch rather than in rows, and sow the seeds close together, about 1.5 centimetres apart. Cover the sown seeds with a light sprinkling of sifted soil, and keep the area moist at all times.
Once the seedlings start to grow, harvest them right away by clipping off one section of the patch of the small tender leaves. Clip a different section every time you harvest, in rotation. This way, you give time for the previously harvested sections to grow.
The leaves never get a chance to get very large, partly because they are crowded and partly because you're clipping them frequently. The small leaves stay tender and provide a delicious mixture of sweet and tart tastes in a salad.
-- Canwest News Service
