Next steps with my indoor seed plants

[Workingmomof2]

i have bought a selection of seeds, planted them in little cardboard pots last week and many and starting to sprout on my kitchen window sill, yay! First time doing this and so pleased but I’m wondering what my next steps are.

when do I plant them into bigger pots? And can I combine them as I have about 20 mini pots?
when do I place them outside?

plants are a selection of sunflower, sweet William, dahlia amongst others.

What you have there is the cotyledons or “seed leaves”, a pair of fleshy leaves already largely formed in the seed, and designed to tide the plant over until it’s developed a root system and can start making its own food. So you need do nothing at the moment except keep the soil moist but not wet.

Don’t repot until you have at least one pair of true leaves, which will be a different shape. But I’d leave it until they’re outgrowing the pot, but before their roots are so entangled that you can’t separate the plants without damage. Handle them by their leaves - their stems are really fragile at this stage.

Plant outside when you have sturdy plants that can hold their own. Meanwhile keep them in a cool place rather than a warm one, so hardening them off to go outside will be quicker.

If you’re running short of pots, start saving yogurt pots etc. just make a hole in the base for drainage. Or ask on facebook for someone giving away plastic pots - re-using existing plastic pots is ecologically better than any pot which has to be manufactured.

Need to be bigger than this to repot. Wait until the roots are filling the pot but not cramped and the true leaves are much more developed.

Thank you. I’m very much learning but enjoying the process.

How many of each do you need? With that type of pot, I tend to pinch out all but one of the seedlings, and then grow on that one until it is ready to pot up. There is no need to take the plant out of the pot, just pop it into a bigger one filled with compost and firm it in a bit and water.

If you want to keep all of the seedlings then you will need to prick them out, but as pp said not until you have some true leaves.

It’s been a couple of weeks. I have some new leaves. Do I repot? Also some of the roots have came through the bottom of the cardboard pot. Is that okay to break them ?

Wait till all the seedlings have true leaves.

Better to break the pot than the roots. You can tease the roots apart, be patient, gently shake while gently pulling, carefully separate roots where you can.

You might feel it’s better to separate earlier, before the roots can tangle, but with a more developed root system they are better able to recover from the trauma of repotting.

So I repotted a week or so ago. All going well in various sized pots.

ran out of soil for some to they’re quite low but growing well.

what is my next steps and when?

ideally I want them outside in raised beds or pots. They are a selection of seeds can’t remember all but various kinds (sunflower, sweet William etc.)

And I ran out of space in the kitchen so some in my bedroom

Definitely reportable but you'll need to repot , wait a day or two, then harden them off or put into a cold greenhouse.
They'll need a week to harden off so put them outside during the day but bring in at night.

You'll still need to watch overnight temperatures for a while.

Thank you! What size pot should I be repotting to?

The size pot you have looks fine but you should really aim to have only one plant per pot at this stage. It might be hard to separate the individual plants so be prepared to lose some of them.

Personally I would leave them for now, put them outside during the day and plant out in a few weeks. You could also direct sow some of the seeds into your raised beds.

There is loads of stuff on YouTube about growing flowers from seed which you might find helpful.

ideally I want them outside in raised beds or pots.
Don't be too hasty. You have done a good job raising these plants over the last six weeks - don't now lose them to frost because you got impatient!

They could do with more light, so start putting them out by day and bringing them in at night. Keep an eye out for slugs

Good advice on here. I don't assume everyone else has a greenhouse,. Depends on where you live, I'm in the warmest part of the SE corner UK,10 minutes from the sea,last year we had frost late May, which is unusual. It's expensive to keep potting on, the cost of compost is terrible. Keep going for this year. Next year... what I do is,seeds sown in quarter size trays,I only use John Innes seed compost, cover seeds in vermiculite. They come with lids, every window sill is covered. When they get to about 4inches,I pot them on,into cell propogaters, with good quality multi purpose compost. because I sow a lot flowers,veg,and would run out of space, using individual pots. I use those cardboard pots for french beans. Nothing else is sown in individual pots.once you've bought the propogaters they last for years.