that is not a pot ...

i dont know why you cant separate them out.. at this size.. before the roots intertwine too much ...

i would have said maybe cold damage.. but they are indoors????

ken

It's a Jiffy pot, meant to be placed outside (the whole thing) after the last frost. Yep, they're on a heat mat at 80º degrees and with controlled even moisture.

You generally start 2-3 seeds per pot, then clip (with nail clippers) all but the one you want to keep. This is common practice--the roots are not disturbed. :)

These guys are in a controlled environment and there's no more room for another Jiffy pot, so I'll cut one or the other.

jai,

" Is this normal, a variant, or a disease? "

My guess is that it is a variant, probably genetic. I would keep it, out of curiosity, to see how different it might be.

If it isn't feasible to move one to another pot (you stated that it isn't), you could skip the thinning step, and let both grow together in the same pot and let them remain together in the outdoors "dirt planting".

As the two plants grow to the flowering stage, you may develop a preference for one over the other based on appearances, and then use those nail clippers (or something larger) to cull the unwanted plant.

Or, you never know, a cutworm may make the decision for you.

ZM

never had luck with jiffy pots... as the material was so divergent from my soil .. that the jiffy wicked water out of the media ... couldnt keep them watered ...

i cant believe.. two plants couldnt be planted in the same hole ...

ken

Hi Ken,

My experience with Jiffy Pots was that the roots didn't grow through the pot like they were supposed to. Even after the pots had been in the ground for an extended time, they were still acting as an impediment to the roots, and stunting my plants.

So, instead of planting the pots, I removed the pots, sometimes in pieces, and planted the root balls. Which made the pots kind of pointless. So I went to reusable plastic pots.

There may be some soil types that work with Jiffy Pots, but my sandy loam was not one of them.

ZM

Water quality and frequency also matter. If you water very frequently and evenly in small amounts from the bottom up, the pots disintegrate much more easily once in the ground.

The mistake is watering once or twice a week and from above. They're not meant to be used that way, but the directions for some reason don't tell you!

I also have very hard water. The most I have ever done is to gently tear/nick the bottom of the peat pot before I put it in the ground and that's only for very fine/delicate roots.