A friend of mine told me a funny story. For years, she had struggled to grow spinach, planting lots of seed in rich soil every spring, but failing to get a single plant. When I expressed surprise over this, we explored her techniques, and discovered that she had been mistaking her spinach seedlings for Manitoba maple seedlings, and ruthlessly destroying all of them. We both laughed, and it struck me how different some plants look in the seedling stage, before they develop their first true leaves. So here are some babies you may be planting this spring:
As you can see, these seedlings’ leaves don’t look like what you’d expect. These are newly germinated tomatoes, and they haven’t developed their true leaves yet.
Tomato seedling, showing seed leaves and first true leaves.
New Squash seedling
New onion family seedling: note the seed on top? (This one is garlic chives)
Thyme seedlings
Cucumber seedling
Sui Choi seedling: see how all cruciferous vegetables are nearly identical? Label carefully.
Broccoli Seedling: nearly identical to cauliflower and cabbage seedlings
My tips: Label carefully when you are starting seedlings, and if in doubt, let it grow before you decide to weed it out.
What seedlings surprised you?