STEP BY STEP

How to thin out seedlings to increase the quality of your crop

Dos and don’ts

✔DO keep a couple of buckets handy as you thin seedlings, one for any you plan to put in a salad and one for the compost heap. Eat thinned seedlings quickly as they wilt fast. ✔DO use a ruler or measuring tape to work out how much space to leave between plants along a row ✔DO push the soil back firmly around the base of any seedlings that have come loose but that you want to keep

DON’T thin seedlings of crops such as rocket and loose-leaved lettuce that you want to treat as a cut-and-come-again-crop. Just snip them when you want to harvest.

Key points

Thinning may seem like removing a lot of potential crops but it will increase the quality and size of your harvest later on

Root crops such as radish, turnips and parsnips that aren’t thinned are likely to produce a lot of tiny mature roots that fail to develop into a worthwhile plant