Pop them out of the container or use a spoon. Gently separate with your fingers. Holding the seedling by its cotyledon, use a pencil or pointy end of a watercolor paintbrush to guide the root into a pre-made hole in soil in an individual cell or other container. Gently press soil against root. Bottom water.

Thanks susanzone5 for your input! I'll give your method a try! I'm sure I can afford to lose a few...... I've sown two flats & I won't try to estimate how many seedlings I have.... If only half of them survive, I'll still have plenty! LOL

Snipping some off with scissors rather than trying to untangle them an option too when you've sown heavily and have many more germinating than you need. Scissor thinning.

I have coleus coming up right now too. They are pretty tiny when they start. I wouldn't try to separate them until I can imagine being able to pick one up by a leaf. Right now mine are way to small for that - or my fingers are to big. Two entire flats - crowded - there must be thousands! I think I planted 50 and thought that was a lot.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to chime in! Yup morz8, I had overlooked "scissor thinning"! With this many seedlings, it might be my only option! LOL

Yeah mandolls, I don't know your age, but I'm old enough to remember my third grade reader, Henry Huggins, having a chapter titled "Gallons Of Guppies".Seems I'm the Henry Huggins of Coleus production..... ;)

CUgal, not on this thread, and I can't remember which. you asked about sowing small seeds. Well, I did a bunch of snapdragons yesterday. What I did was sprinkle the seeds on a sheet of white paper, then heavily blow on my finger (for moisture) and then touch the seeds. Then i could disperse them as I wanted, or so I think :)

All the best

SCG

Thanks SouthCountryGuy! That sounds like it would work! Let us know how well they germinate....... My arthritic hands are always looking for new methods to sow those tiny seeds!