grow and throw

we where watching Monty last night did you see part when he told us how he grows his brassicas well a lovely row of brassicas can't remember if they where cabbage


so what did he do to this lovely roe of brassicas well he thinned them out to the desired width throwing the rest away I could have cried what a waste of good plants I told myself something I would never think of doing because I buy F1 seed that as you all know is not cheep so I try to use as many as I can growing the seed in a pot transplanting the seedlings into individual pots waste not want not


I know the old gardeners grew rows of brassicas years ago and then composting the left overs but I think the  method of sowing seed in pots pricking out into pots or modules saves wasting good plants

Maybe he wasn't using F1 seed? For brassica I generally don't want uniformity so they're all ready at the same time. Plenty of good ordinary seeds.

Im with the OP here, hate throwing out seedlings. I sow thinly to avoid having to thin out seedlings once they've grown but that often results in some gaps / failed cell sown seeds but there you go. I console myself with the fact that some flowers produces masses of seed only to serve the prospect that a few will germinate and that some waste is 'factored in' naturally.

Some seed packets, especially containing the F1s mentioned above, don't contain huge quantities of seed, plus some  companies do supply in smaller packets, if you look around.