Personally, I'd separate them as soon as they're big enough to handle without crushing them. This would give them time to recover. However, if you have extras you might consider simply snipping off one of the two, so as not to disturb the other one. I believe tomatoes would be more forgiving than peppers.

George

You ought to be able to separate tomato seedling when they are small. They replant very well when small. If left together very long, it will hurt their growth from being sturdy. Peppers may be a bit more fragile though they likely can be separated while small. If the extra plants are not needed, one seedling can be snipped off with scissors at soil level.

separate when young, after they have their first set of true leaves. both will do fine.

keith

I think you would be better off transplanting them when they are smaller then waiting till they get bigger. I would suggest not to transplant them when they are too small. Wait till they get two sets of their true leaves. The first set of leaves are not the true leaves. You can tell the difference between the true leaves and the baby leaves because the true leaves are the ones that look like the tomato and pepper leaves that you see on the full size adult plants.

So basically you want to count six leaves before you transplant them. They will them have a good enough root system to handle transplanting just fine. Just gently wiggle them apart and you shouldn't have a problem.

I start all my plants in flats and them transplant them after they get their second set of true leaves. I very rarely have one that does not make it after transplanting. Here is a picture of some of my flats of vegetables including tomatoes and peppers.

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Remember with tomatoes you can bury the stem for a stronger plant.

I use a tiny knife to "wiggle" the transplants apart. It is about the size of a small penknife, and isn't sharp. I find that inserting it between the plants causes less damage to the roots than trying to pull them apart. Like you, I put two seeds per cell, and when both germinate, I move one of them when there are at least 6 leaves. Also, I only handle the plants by the leaves (first leaves, not true leaves if possible). Plants can grow more leaves, but have only one stem!

A gentle way of separating seedlings is to do it in water. After getting the seedlings out of the trays/pots, I gently let the loose soil fall off on it's own. Then, I put the entire rootball in water and let more fall off. Lastly, I gently grasp a seedling or two by the leaves and swish up and down 'til the soil is gone. By that time, it's easy to pull them apart ~ do that also under the water as the roots kind of float apart, but if you bring them out of the water they'll clump together.

If you're short on seed starting medium and want to keep as much as you can, you can strain it out of the water when you're done.

I agree with all the advice given. If I have plenty of seedlings, I'll snip off the extras. If I don't, I'll do the above.

I’m new at gardening and planted 2-4 seeds in a started. And they all germinated. I didn’t read anything before planting and I planted all the seedlings together thinking for a better chance at a good harvest. They are growing so well and now I’m reading that I should have snipped them.

My question is, if I provide good food and compost to the plants can I continue to have all of the seedlings together?

Most people would advise pruning down to one, because the root space that is being used by them can only optimally support one plant. BUT, I often plant out two together. Why? Because if one croaks, the other will fill the space. No, you won't have two plants growing optimally, but you'll have two plants growing half-optimally, and the net effect nutritionally and productively will be as one plant with two branches. Seems to work well for me.

May I suggest that if you have a question, don't glom onto an ancient one. Take ownership of your question and post a fresh one. This isn't really even exactly the same question.

I’d want to know what the seeds were. If cheap you can lose some. If valuable I’d keep them all. You can transplant thinnings. You don’t have to destroy the excess.

Thank you responding thank you dani the dirt for the advice on the question I googled something and this website came up and Inposyed the question from there I didn’t know so thank you very much.

The seeds are from Amazon. So basically, I just threw some seeds in a cup to germinate and they all did. I thought it wise not to get rid of them in case one died etc.

For example, tomatillo germinated and was planted there is 5 stems. Tomato 3 stems/plants. Poblanos 4 stems/plants.

My question is: instead of snipping them, can the soil be kept rich/ the plant well fed and just let them continue to grow or... should I really snip them to have a better crop. Oh by the way they are planted in a 18x18 crate.

I appreciate advice from the experts Thank you for your time.