Transplanting Sinningia Seedlings, Sinningia bullata x douglasii x self

Obviously, these seedlings are opening the box for themselves and desperately trying to crawl out. Time to pot them up into a little larger space.

These are from the Gesneriad Society Seed Fund. It's the top label, the natural hybrid of Sinningia bullata x leopoldii x self.

 This is what they look like with the cover off. They are quite crowded but healthy and ready for transplanting.

 Just the usual reminder, always label your work with the plant's name, and any other information you wish to remember. It can't be said enough times that you will (after a couple of months) NOT remember just which of the little pots had the "special" plant you wanted to check on.

 Gently lift the mass of seedlings out of the original pot. Trying to extract them one at a time still in the container seems to damage many and not be very useful.

I like to use a "recycled" party tray for a work space. The bright white plastic makes finding what you're looking for much easier. Before you start ripping and tearing, take a second to really LOOK at what you're about to do. There's usually a better side to start out with than the others.

 A little magnification doesn't hurt and some tools with delicate ends don't hurt either. You don't need tweezers but a nice slim skewer with a pointed end, or a thin object pointed like a pencil helps loosen tangled roots a bit more delicately than a huge set of fingers.

 I was so EXCITED to find that the seedlings had already produced tiny tubers! This is pretty cool if you ask me! It also says that I probably was leaving the seedlings in the seedling-box too long. You can see the little ball and some roots in the center of the photo.

 This was another seedling with a tuber already forming. Some of the seedlings didn't have such handsome tubers yet, but you get the idea.... Sinningias are great! They try to protect themselves from infant-hood onwards with a tuber that will start growing again if something terrible happens to the top, such as being eaten off by livestock.

Here is a shot of the three RED community pots I put the seedlings in so they can continue to grow larger. (The orange are S. douglasii). I got the community pot idea from Patty K!!!! She makes the excellent point that the seedlings need to have some roots growing before they need individual pots. Why waste 20 or 30 two inch pots and all the soil that goes into each of them when a few community pots will allow plenty of space for each of the babies for now and take up much less room under the lights when they are first establishing themselves. After the plants get slightly crowded in these pots and have a healthy root system they can go into an individual pot.

After the community pots have their precious seedlings in them, they need to be modestly watered so that the soil is MOIST but not soaking, soggy and drippy.... then put the seedlings in a tray with a dome on it so that it mimics the closed environment that they just came from in their little closed deli container. You will slowly transition them to open air later.

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