![]() I recommend starting tomatoes indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost date. Thinning plants has always felt like a complex moral dilemma to me! Okay, maybe that comparison is a little dramatic, but still. It's like the train problem (you know, where the trolley or train is barreling down the tracks and you have to decide whether to let it continue on and kill five people on the tracks or divert it and kill one). We gardeners thin some plants so that others will have large enough imaginary pots around them and plenty of access to resources like sunlight and airflow. If your radishes or lettuces detect other plants nearby, you've essentially given them a too-small container (an imaginary pot), and they'll never grow to their full size. Plants are smart, and they know when they haven't been given enough space. Scientists for the Society for Experimental Biology did a study that used 3D MRI root scans to see how plants extend roots to the edges of their container to get a sense of how big they can grow. This is the idea that plants given smaller pots in which to grow will stay smaller than those given larger pots. Stress aside, there's also something called the “pot-size effect”. Plants that spend too long all stressed out will never produce as well as plants that grew up coddled. ![]() Overcrowded plants often grow leggy (they basically grow too tall and thin in their search for more resources) and show signs of stress. Because here's what happens if you don't: None of your plants will have the room they need to grow to their fullest potential. ![]() I know it's rough, but the answer is yes. You've gone through all that effort to plant something, you've watched it grow, and now you're just supposed to pull it up and cut off its potential? What Happens If You Don't Thin Seedlings? ![]()
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