Hi Korina,

That sounds like a wonderful idea. I was having trouble with some teeny tiny gesneriad seedlings just sitting there doing nothing. I had heard about "root tickling" by sticking a needle down beside the plant and just wiggling it around. I tried this with half of a population and there was a noticeable change in the half that were " tickled".

Larry

I suspect that what is happening is that you are creating little air pockets, which the roots seem to like. It increases drainage and puts oxygen down there. I haven't tried this but I think I will now. A needle, a tooth pick, a bamboo skewer, a little condiment fork--they all sound like useful tools for this.

When I have seedlings that are just languishing, I usually give them a light feeding. That usually works, since my seed-starting mix has no nutrients. At times I have failed to feed seedlings, and have seen an entire crop of tiny two leaved babies turn white--it usually takes months for this to happen (the seedlings would be enclosed in little ziplocks, so they never dried out, thus were never disturbed, watered, or fed). When they turned white, I thought they had all died, because I couldn't see them--they looked too much like little bits of perlite. But, they were all healthy; and, after a light feeding, they slowly turned green and took off.

Jon

Jon, the article involved an experiment. Some strep babies were left as is and others were repotted regularly; otherwise they were treated exactly the same. After two months the first group was still tiny, and the second group was about three times the size of the first.

Korina

'It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.' -Arthur Dent

Well, all three Streps are doing very well; the first leaf on each is at least 21/2" long, and two to three leaves each. They're green and healthy and growing like gangbusters! I like my technique!

Korina, happy and somewhat pleased with myself