Thinning seedlings?

[biddyofsuburbia]

I've started a veggie plot for the first time this year, sown seeds for the first time. I've sown outside. Now I've got rocket/carrot/coriander emerging but I think I've used too many seeds. The rocket looks a bit spindly - do I need to thin now or leave it for a while? How many shoots do I pull out/leave? Any advice gratefully received.

Thin out the seedlings now, you can eat the rocket and coriander seedlings (I add them to the salad bowl) of course, so no waste.

You may want to just thin out a bit, so the plants have enough space for now, then thin out more later if necessary. As a rough guideline, try not to have any plants touching each other, although the carrots will need much more space than the others.

Rocket in particular is a good cut and come again crop, so as it gets bigger you can cut the outer leaves and leave it in the ground to grow again. I've never tried growing coriander.

ooh coriander is brill I have masses coming up in the kids patch atm, forgot I had it in there last year and it self seeded oops.

I find it really hard to thin but you must with carrot otherwise the roots can't grow big enough iyswim. The prob with thinning carrot is it creates a carroty smell which attracts carrot fly so best just do it once. Also see if you can plant up some onions or chives nearby to mask the smell a bit.

As for the coriander and rocket, up to you how big you want the plant. The more you thin, potentially the bigger the plant. If however you want lots of smaller plants then don't thin too much. The advantage of having lots of smaller ones is that they don't allow weeds to develop.

thank you glacier & taffeta! I have decided to leave until the end of the week when it's supposed to get a bit warmer and then start thinning. I've pulled a few and eaten them just to see what they taste like! (yum!) It will probably be a miracle if I get any proper food out of this, but I guess you've got to start somewhere! If plants aren't supposed to touch I'm going to have to be careful as they are really crowded right now!