How Tall Do You Let Seedlings Get Before X-plant To Pots From Tray Cells ?

I've never had more than a few seeds at a time. Mostly I have ordered three to five seeds at a time. I start them in a small pot and watch them like a hawk. This spring, I got a male plant and decided that I could stop buying seeds. I put the pollen in a bag and put the bud branch in the bag and shook it around. I must have made a couple hundred seeds. The male plant was from a Northern Ninja. I tried to just pollenate one bud from each of my plants, but nature finds a way and every bud had some seeds.
Anyhow, I have a tray and out of fifty I planted last week, I have thirtynine that popped. Is there a certain height I should transplant them? I have so many that are already over two inches. I planted them Monday night. Should I just transplant the ones that are already tall and cull the short ones and the ones that seem to take longer to pop? I'm really just trying to get some new genetics for mothers to clone next month.

Transplanting these is going to be a challenge. There are not enough roots at this stage to hold the soil together.......meanwhile they're stretching to a dangerous height without some support. Lower your light to stop some of the stretch. If and when you transplant, bury most of the stem. Next time consider either rapid rooters or starting in soil in a solo cup.
Good luck.

Thank you for the reply. I'll repot them tomorrow. I've never had problems transplanting. I sprinkle some rooting agent on the roots and put them in the new pots. I cannot remember ever having any shock from transplanting. I will definitely bury them up close to the leaves.

MickFoster said:

Transplanting these is going to be a challenge. There are not enough roots at this stage to hold the soil together.......meanwhile they're stretching to a dangerous height without some support. Lower your light to stop some of the stretch. If and when you transplant, bury most of the stem. Next time consider either rapid rooters or starting in soil in a solo cup.
Good luck.

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Yeah, you were right about difficulty getting those seedlings out. I killed one, by breaking a part of the root. I was able to salvage the rest. They really stretched out some more.

Why didn't you bury the stems?

A fork is helpful when transplanting from seed cells

warble said:

Should I just transplant the ones that are already tall and cull the short ones and the ones that seem to take longer to pop?

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The tall ones and the plants that sprout first are obviously more vigorous, vigor is a desirable trait in a pot plant but not necessarily the most important trait. For example, hemp and more wild strains of cannabis are very vigorous, but not what most of us want to smoke. Conversely, I wouldn't cull plants because they are tall either.
By selecting based on height and early germination you may be inadvertently selecting away from other desirable traits.

WoodStockLarry said:

A fork is helpful when transplanting from seed cells

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Will do that next time. Thank you for the heads up.
One of the seedlings fell over and was limp so I watered Ph 5.8 with some superthrive. I did bury them up, but they just keep stretching. Like I said, these are just going to be some moms to clone for my fall and winter flowers. I can already see some growth spurting. I just watered early this morning. I had one that was growing two plants out of one seed and it is very stunted. I think that one will not make it. I have a couple that are super dark green, like a nitrogen excessive media. Those two are very short, but I think they will make it. I have one that is very light green and mutated leaves. I don't think that one will make it. The rest are very stretched out.
The one that fell over from dehydration looks like she's (hopefully) is going to make it. I propped her up against a chopstick. My girlfriend was throwing away all of our chopsticks that don't have a match, so I picked them out of the trash and washed them. I'm going to use them to prop up any of the plants that fall over after I pinch the bases. Sometimes they get pinched too hard and don't stand so well, but they do bulk up around the pinch point.

Out of fifty, I have had thirty-six actually sprout. I have one runt, that is questionable weather it makes it or not. Plenty of stretch going on here. Had to prop some up because they were leaning over. Only watered once. After next watering, I'm going to give them some nutes.

They're not only stretched but way behind on growth for 2 weeks old.
Why didn't you lower your light 2 weeks ago?