Replying quite a long time after the fact, but I just had to thin some radishes and dangit I was thinking of this post. I find it difficult in particular because of wildlife predation- I never know which of the remaining sprouts will even survive!
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Exactly! What if I'm removing the ones that would otherwise have the best chances‽
I struggle with that too. It makes me feel a little better that they're going straight into the compost pile to become nutrients though.
Using the compost does make it a little better. I also try to think of the clump as a single plant that I'm pruning, which to be fair I also do very hesitantly.
Never use diseased plants for compost. You only help propagate the disease.
isn't the compost pile supposed to be hot enough to kill any disease?
It needs to get very hot to kill the pathogens. It’s possible, yes, but maybe not in a small bin at home
It’s wild, I’m still relatively new to gardening, and when I watch an elder do their thing they are just expertly brutal. Meanwhile their gardens are gorgeous and happy, and mine are crowded and overwhelming.
I hate the idea of splitting so much! Like slicing through their lifelines shouldn’t be good for them. And having read about how plants actually communicate distress hasn’t helped my bleeding heart, haha
I had to thin a clump of tomato plants this morning and actually yelped "so sorry!" as I did it. It's ridiculous. And I'm currently procrastinating on separating the paprika plants because I have to recover first.