seeds Seedling transplanting?

Hello people.

One of my douglahs barley came up today, and i have a question.

I've planted two seeds per jiffy pellet but i want to try to save and grow both plants. Can i seperate the one by digging the other seedling out, and stick him into a new fresh jiffy pellet?

Ideas?..
Thanks in advance,
Joseph Stalin

Hi Joseph!
I'm REALLY new to all of this too, so don't take my advice as gospel!
But i sowed 3 seeds in my Jiffy's, as i really expected nothing to happen due to the fact that my fingers haven't been green up until now...lol
When i started getting 2 or even 3 growing in the Jiffy's i managed to seperate them without any problems.

The way i did it was to get one of those mini screwdrivers (or anything pointy would work i guess?) and create a nice gap right around the seedling you want to move, and then use the same tool to make a nice sized hole in the new Jiffy and carefully pull it out and replace. Once in there, i then gently squeezed the peat around it's new tenant!

I had one that i thought was a goner, as i sort of heard a little "snap" as i pulled it out, and i thought i'd deffo broken the roots.....and it had a real mad 'droop' going on after i repotted it...but within a few hours it was standing upright again and growing away!

Like i say, i'm real new and almost feel embarrassed to advise you, but that's what happened when i did the same thing! I'm sure some of the more seasoned members will advise you if need be

Many opinions on the subject concerning when and how:

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/28834-butch-t-germination/page__fromsearch__1

You can seperate them easily.... gently squeeze the jiffy pellet(wetter is better here)around its circumference until the peat
is fairly well broken up, decide where you will seperate the two seedlings...cut the netting accordingly to accomodate the split .
Then use a fork and lightly work it between the 2 until seperated ...if your peat pellets disintegrate ...you can plant each seedling in its destination pot by holding the stem and allowing the roots to hang and gently push the growing medium in on
roots trying not to pack them together.Do not pack the hole after filled in, just a very light tamp to hold the seedling erect will do.If you end up with 2 halves of peat pellet -then just drop that into the grow medium pot. I wait til the first set of true leaves come out to seperate.

If you go poking around in the plug you might end up damaging the root of one and the seed hull of the other. I'd wait until both seedlings are srouuted with at least their 1st true leaf sets well developed. Then you can soak the plugs until saturated with water, snip the mesh away and carefully pry the plug apart exposing the two individual roots.
Repot into small containers (3 or 4") with a potting medium. One step further would be giving them a drink with a highly diluted root stimulator (I always do when transplanting). Going back two steps would be only planting 1 seed per pellet.
I don't favor jif pellets for the reason that when the roots grow through the peat they can be damaged by the air if the plug is to become completely dry. I've used them in the past and have transplanted them right into a larger container before the roots have grown through. But I like to free up the rootball of any plants when transplanting and the peat plugs make it difficult unless you break them up a bit.........ouch

Just be patient, it might take another week before the other seed pops.
Good luck.....from Chicago

Greg