Thinning of sowings

Why thin the sowing ranks?

The objective of thinning young plants is twofold:

1. Spacing the plants: it can sometimes be difficult to sow the right amount of seeds, especially when they are fine like those of carrot or radish. Thinning allows for the future plants to be distanced so that they all benefit from sufficient space. This is essential, as if they are too close together, the plants would suffocate and have to share insufficient resources.
2. Selecting the best specimens: the plants resulting from sowing do not all display the same vigour. By removing the weak ones, we encourage the stronger ones that will produce resilient young plants.

How to thin a sowing?

Thinning occurs when the young plants are somewhat developed, at the 3 or 4 leaf stage. This is done by hand, in one or two steps, preferably on humid days, and watering is carried out at the end of the operation.

During thinning, you can:

• simply remove the plant by cutting it at its base,
• move it and plant it elsewhere if the young plant can tolerate transplanting (this is not the case for Apiaceae, such as celery or carrots, in general),
• consume them at the “young shoots” stage, as with salads, for example.

How to avoid or limit thinning?

Although they are useful, thinning can be tedious. To avoid or at least limit it, we recommend that you:

• mix your seeds with sand or dry coffee grounds to sow more sparsely,
• use a precision seed sower,
• use seed tapes where the seeds are pre-spaced. To learn more, how to make a seed ribbon?