Dropping the leggy ones

10/05/2021, 18:14
There’s a great trick for leggy seedlings. Once they get their first true leaves you can drop them.

10/05/2021, 18:15
You sound like an evil scientist 🤣🤣🤣 I love it 🤣🤣🤣

10/05/2021, 18:15
I’ll explain cause you’re not dropping them on the floor

10/05/2021, 18:17
True leaves are the second set of leaves that appear and they are the adult leaves. All following leaves will look like them

10/05/2021, 18:17
Like adult teeth?

10/05/2021, 18:17
Baby leaves are the first leaves that appear and like baby teeth the plant can afford to lose them

10/05/2021, 18:18
Except for we only get one set sadly (she says downing a squash and eating a chocolate bar)

10/05/2021, 18:18
🦷

10/05/2021, 18:18
They are usually more simple in structure and often they are quite large. Their purpose to be very fast solar panels to kick off life

10/05/2021, 18:19
Nice

10/05/2021, 18:19
What do you mean by dropping the leggy ones

10/05/2021, 18:19
It doesn’t matter so much if they get damaged because the plant is going to lose them anyway. So that’s why you always handle the seedlings by it’s baby leaves and not it’s true leaves.

10/05/2021, 18:20
Another 🔝 tip 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

10/05/2021, 18:20
Dropping is a technique where you bury the leggy stem up past the baby leaves so that only the true leaves are showing

10/05/2021, 18:20
I use the ⭐ function on WhatsApp for the killer tips like that one 

10/05/2021, 18:20
You have to make sure that the soil is very loose around the stem so it doesn’t rot it off.

10/05/2021, 18:21
You can bury as far as the baby leaves?

10/05/2021, 18:21
Ah thanks I knew you handled them that way.... but good to know you can bury them. Top tip!

10/05/2021, 18:21
I was gonna go that with my spinach cos I thought they looked a bit weak. Now I know it’s a real thing with a real name ✌🏾

10/05/2021, 18:22
Plant cells are amazing and much more fluid than human cells. It’s an evolutionary adaption to making the most of soil. So if a stem is buried and in the dark, the cells go ‘hey we not much use as a stem any more, how about we become roots instead’

10/05/2021, 18:23
I’ve done the burying with legging tomatoes in the past but didn’t know you could bury them so deep

10/05/2021, 18:23
First timer in planting department

10/05/2021, 18:23 and they reshuffle their dna so that the fine hairs on the stem become roots. This is the principle behind taking cuttings of plants. Once the cutting realises it doesn’t have roots, it tells the bottom stem cells :’ hey we need roots, so something about it!’

10/05/2021, 18:23
🧡 we can revisit this stuff as often as we like eventually we will all get it and be able to pass on!

10/05/2021, 18:24
I’ve definitely dropped seedlings before … too deep & rotted them

10/05/2021, 18:24
The only cells that can’t rearrange themselves are flowers, once the plant decided it in for secs that’s that.

10/05/2021, 18:26
💡

10/05/2021, 18:28
You must NOT press down the compost tho. As that will rot the stem. There needs to be some air in there. Does that make sense