Thin Plants for a Healthy Crop

To get the best crop, most vegetables sown directly into the soil wil need thinning, and the methods vary with the plant.

Launch Gallery

by Cass PetersonApril 1999from issue # 20

Some people hate to see a plant go to waste matter , as I discovered one day while thinning the leaf beet in the company of an 8 - twelvemonth - honest-to-goodness booster . Intent on my task , I did n’t notice until later on that every plant I had pulled and toss out away had been beak up , carried to the far side of the garden and cautiously replanted .

What seemed heavily - hearted to my gardening companion was necessary . Most veg sown straightaway in the soil , rather than transplanted , will require cutting . Beets and chard , which grow from compound seed that produce several plant , are peculiarly prostrate to overcrowding .

In the case of beet , if you do n’t thin , you will get all tops and no root . They must have way to expatiate underground . With chard , you will get many modest , lank leaf and no big single with those scrumptious crunchy ribs . Chard that has n’t been thinned also has a tendency to bolt .

It ’s far better to have one - one-tenth of the craw flourishing than the whole lot malnourished and spindly . Some gardeners go to extremes in seeding , taking care to place the bantam germ just so in the ground to avoid thinning later . But thinning motive n’t be a backbreaking labor . Many crops , such as radishes , carrot , and beets , can be thin while stand and using a garden pitch .

When the plants are an column inch tall , drag the garden rake lightly through the row or bottom on the slanted , first one direction , then the other . The rake ’s tooth will uproot just enough of the works , leaving the rest period nicely space .

Harvest and thin in one strokeThe blood technique works well on lettuce , spinach , arugula , and other salad greenness , too , but I like to thin those by hand when the leaves are gravid enough to use in the kitchen . Several light cutting , rather than one leaden one , will provide salad constituent for several weeks .

The tender young leaves of green are so unspoiled I often sow salad crop more heavily than necessary to ensure slew of thinnings . Some root crop also can be thinned by harvest . Tiny radishes , hardly a half - inch in diam , can be used whole in salad . Baby turnips the size of a dime steam up in just a few minutes , and the foliage can be left on .

If you want sister turnips , however , be sure to grow a variety intended for that purpose , such as ‘ Hakurei ’ fromJohnny ’s Selected Seeds . stock turnips , such as ‘ American Purple Top ’ , do n’t size up until the plants are quite large . They will need to be thinned early , before the etymon have formed . The immature cat valium can still be eaten .

No matter how pleasant-tasting those young greens may be , you need to experience when the craw has been sufficiently thinned . Think about the ripe size of the flora or theme . If you want a 2 - inch beet , leave that much space between seedlings . If you need a lettuce with a wing span of 12 inches , give it 6 inch on each side . carrot , which are delicious even if boney , can be leave behind at 1⁄2 to 1 column inch . But a few will scent around each other at that spatial arrangement , which is amusing and still tasty . All bets are off with rutabagas . Given enough spread outer space and fertility , they will get really , really giving . Joy to the rutabaga lover .

method acting diverge with the plantNot all crop should be thinned by yanking excess flora out of the ground , even with a rakehell . pea , bean , and all member of the cucurbit family — cucumber vine , melon , and squash — have fragile root . rend up one works is probable to damage the neighbour on both side , because their roots will be intertwined .

If it appear that the peas and beans will be overcrowded , thin them immediately after they shoot , before the roots have distribute too far . If you dillydally until they are a span of inches tall , slight with a pair of scissors , snipping supernumerary plants off at soil spirit level , rather than pulling them root and all .

The same advice break down for weed . If the wild spinach got beforehand of you , cut it off . extract bombastic weeds from the pea plant or bean patch might do the plants more impairment than well .

Root and salad crop are not so sensitive to root disturbance . But it is a ripe melodic theme to slim when the soil is damp rather than dry . works will slip out more easily then , and the ones you leave behind will stand less risk of exposure of have their solution exposed to air pocket in the soil . If it ’s teetotal when you thin , irrigate the garden as before long as you ’re done to resettle the soil around the root of the subsister .

A special note about carrots : It ’s true that the carrot rainfly is attracted to the scent of carrots , and thinning will release carroty perfume throughout the garden . The cultivated carrot fly , also call the carrot rust fungus tent flap , put egg near the crown of the industrial plant ; these hatch into maggot , which tunnel through the roots . I ’m always careful to take the thinnings out of the garden , rather than throw them on the ground . I also cover the Daucus carota sativa dapple with a polyester row concealment , such as Reemay , for several day after thinning to thwart the fly until the scent dissipates .

you may , of line , accord clemency to many of the plants you lean by replant them elsewhere . beetroot are among the few root vegetables that will tolerate transplant , and chard conduct to it very nicely . But be realistic . Thanks to my untried friend , I had more chard than I knew what to do with that year .

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Carrots can be thinned by snipping the tops.Photo/Illustration: John Bray

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