Too many seedlings!!

[honey.lavender]

I'm excited to say, I started my seeds indoors this past week for my container herb garden. I planted lemon balm, chamomile, rosemary, sage, lavender, and thyme in one 36 cell seedling flat that has a greenhouse cover. Well yesterday (day 3) my chamomile and thyme seeds have already begun to sprout, and although I'm super excited about this I'm concerned about how many seedlings there are in one tiny starting space. But it also pains me to think I'd have to pull every single one until there's only one..(they're just babies lol) I'm rather new to herb and container growing so forgive me if i sound silly lol
This is my thyme sprouts as of a few hours ago (day4)

I planted wayyyyyyyy too many seeds! They were so small I naively just sprinkled them on the soil and lightly covered..
this is my chamomile... I did the same thing

my question is where do I go from here as far as transplanting or thinning out? Do I just pull em up?

 

[alp]

I'm no expert, but you could wait till the seedlings become bigger and then take your pick. We have all been there before. In fact, your photos make me giggle! I remember I spilt a lot of tiny petunia seeds (collected from my own flowers and I had to sow them. Of course, they all germinated and I had the good job of sitting there for 3 hours to transplant them.

I have now come to the conclusion that I sow 5 to 10 and keep the rest for the following year. In fact, I had seeds which germinated after 8 years! All you need to do is to push out the air from the seed packet and fold the the opening tight and they keep for quite a while.

Now you know that you are very good at seed germination, the world is your oyster! (now why do they say that? )

 

[alp]

Welcome to the forum, @honey.lavender !​

 

[marlingardener]

AAh yes the seedling dilemma! I use tweezers to remove about half of the seedlings when they get their real leaves. Judging from the size of your flats, you can easily leave two or three herbs per cell.
Right now I have way too many parsley, basil, and marjoram starts even though I have thinned. Now I'm looking for nooks and crannies in the vegetable beds to tuck a few herbs into. I'm also looking for friends who are willing to adopt a few herbs.
As Alp said, when thinning "take your pick." I leave the largest and strongest and remove the weak. Kind of Charles Darwin-ish.
Welcome to the forum, and please let us know how your herb container garden thrives!

 

[honey.lavender]

I'm no expert, but you could wait till the seedlings become bigger and then take your pick. We have all been there before. In fact, your photos make me giggle! I remember I spilt a lot of tiny petunia seeds (collected from my own flowers and I had to sow them. Of course, they all germinated and I had the good job of sitting there for 3 hours to transplant them.

I have now come to the conclusion that I sow 5 to 10 and keep the rest for the following year. In fact, I had seeds which germinated after 8 years! All you need to do is to push out the air from the seed packet and fold the the opening tight and they keep for quite a while.

Now you know that you are very good at seed germination, the world is your oyster! (now why do they say that? )

Firstly, thank you for your reply! I have a buncha of seeds left and I was wondering if I could save them for next year(and so on) as well so thanks for the info!

I have some marigold seedlings that are sproutingup as well, planted 6 seeds and wouldn't ya know thry all 6 sprouted.
I think I'm gonna have a fun time transplanting myself it seems.

 

[honey.lavender]

Firstly, thank you for your reply! I have a buncha of seeds left and I was wondering if I could save them for next year(and so on) as well so thanks for the info!

I have some marigold seedlings that are sproutingup as well, planted 6 seeds and wouldn't ya know thry all 6 sprouted.
I think I'm gonna have a fun time transplanting myself it seems.

That is

Welcome to the forum, @honey.lavender !​

THANK YOU!! I'm happy to be here!

 

[honey.lavender]

AAh yes the seedling dilemma! I use tweezers to remove about half of the seedlings when they get their real leaves. Judging from the size of your flats, you can easily leave two or three herbs per cell.
Right now I have way too many parsley, basil, and marjoram starts even though I have thinned. Now I'm looking for nooks and crannies in the vegetable beds to tuck a few herbs into. I'm also looking for friends who are willing to adopt a few herbs.
As Alp said, when thinning "take your pick." I leave the largest and strongest and remove the weak. Kind of Charles Darwin-ish.
Welcome to the forum, and please let us know how your herb container garden thrives!

Thank you! I definitely want to utilize as many plants as possible, gifting some has come to mind as well. I was just worried that too many seedlings would stunt the plants even this early on so the information is appreciated.
I had some lemon balm seedlings sprout up this morning as well and I did a happy dance! I will definitely keep y'all updated on how things are going!

 

[alp]

Don't worry too much or you will miss enjoying yourself. These little grains want to live. As long as you give them warm when needed and not too much moisture, they will be happy to oblige. Get some strongest ones and when they have 2 to 4 pairs of true leaves, you can transplant them. Don't do anything now as they are too young. When they have more than 4 leaves, you can pot them up - perhaps 2 to 3 in a pot or you will be overwhelmed by the huge number of pots. When they have a bit more leaves, you pinch the top tips to encourage the plants to bush out. I reckon you already know this. Well, I like to boss people about! LOL! Ignore me when it gets too much! Hope you introduce your precious seedling (the ultimate gold one in the avatar) to gardening.

Have fun!