Kill seedlings? would you?

[canadian gardener]

I would. But I admit it's hard.

I remember one garden author that I read said if you weren't losing a few seedlings to the first frosts, you weren't planting early enough (or starting enough seedlings for a second go round).

He was making money selling produce out of his garden so earlier was better.

But it's got me thinking. I know it's hard to thin seedlings and most of us hate to even do that.

BUT in the pursuit of a better more productive and dare I say it, EARLIER garden (which in short climate zones is an important thought)

Maybe we should be training ourselves to be tough and mean with the little green babies.

What do you think? Have you got the inner resolve, the power to thin seedlings?????

GASP the power to set out a first test round to GAMBLE on the weather????????

How far can you go in the pursuit of a good garden and more zucchini than all your friends and neighbors can possibly imagine!

[canadian gardener]

I'll be honest. I can thin em

but I can't bring myself to plant a week or two early.

[homesteadmamma]

Heck yes, if they die they die. I've been known to put them out too early and lose them. I thin them with no problems. If they look like they will die, I pull them. Don't have a problem at all.

[Kimberlina]

I don't thin too much because I follow the SFG method of only direct-sowing what you need. I also don't don't direct sow a whole lots- most of my stuff starts as seedlings that get put out fairly early. If they don't make it, I always have at least a few extra seedlings held back to go in as the second-string. If I don't end up needing them, I give them to friends.

I don't like thinning so I try to plant so I don't have to.

[Valerie in WA]

I also plant in such a way as to eliminate thinning - although I will cull out a plant that is failing. This is the first year that I've realized that you can plant before the last frost. I'm going for it!