The Sprouting Has Begun

Over the weekend, I noticed that my little seeds have started sprouting.  As you can see (and I do apologize for the lousy photos), little green shoots are making their way out of the dirt.

The first leaves that appear are known as cotyledons.  Thereafter, the plant will then put forth the plant's first "true leaves."  At this point, or at a later point, I will have to thin out the pots so that only one seedling is in each pot.  

Of course, I always have such a hard time killing off a potential plant, so I try to separate the seedlings as gently as  possible (with minimal damage to the tiny roots) with the intent of preserving many of the seedlings for a repotting.  I will then repot many of these seedlings into bigger pots.  I hope to only repot my plants once before I put my plants into the ground.  Personally, I don't like to repot my plants more than once.  I notice that the repotting process stresses out my plants.  With the short growing season that I live in, I don't have a lot of time for my plants to recover and properly grow; thus, when possible, I try to time it so that I don't have to repot for a second time and just put my plants into the ground.

I wish you all a happy spring.  Hope your garden (if you have one) is coming along well.