Seedlings begins their life cycle with cotyledons, which are the first leaf to emerge from the seed. The cotyledons usually dont resemble the mature plant that will grow from the seedling; rather, the true leaves that emerge after the cotyledons will resemble the mature plant. A identification chart can help to distinguish between different types of seedlings that you planted versus the weeds that began to sprout on there own.
Such a chart can help you to identify the different types of seedlings when they are still young and difficultly to recognize. Annual flowers tend to grow through their seedling stages more quick than the perennials, and all of the different type of annual flowers tend to have specific leaf patterns while they are still growing as seedlings. For instance, marigolds has narrow, dark green cotyledons, and their true leaves emerge as marigolds.
How to Identify Seedlings and Weeds
Zinnias have broad, oval cotyledon, and their true leaves emerge as zinnias and have a rough texture. Cosmos seedlings have needle like cotyledons, and the cosmos plants will develop more delicate foliage after emergence of the cotyledons. Because of the expected difference between cotyledons and true leaves for these types of flowers, an identification chart can help you to determine which seeds you planted have germinated into each of these types of seedlings.
Thus, using such an chart will allow you to thin or transplant the seedlings with confidence. Perennial flowers tend to take longer to grow through their seedling stages than annual flowers, and their leaves tend to stay close to the ground during this time. For instance, coneflowers and black-eyed Susans has rough and hairy leaves while they are still growing as seedlings, but the two types of flowers grow different once they mature.
Lavender and yarrow also have similar types of narrow foliage while they are growing as seedlings, but lavender also emit a scent from its leaves that yarrow does not have. An identification chart can help group each of these perennials together so that you can compare them without comparing different seed packets. Weeds are often difficult to recognize due to the similarity between weed seedlings and the seedlings of flowers that you would like to grow in your garden.
For instance, hairy bittercress may appear similar to sweet alyssum, but closer inspection will reveal that the hairy bittercress have compound leaves and emits a peppery scent. Chickweed may appear similar to petunias when growing as young seedlings, but closer inspection will reveal that the chickweed has a single line of hair along its stem. Redroot pigweed can look similar to celosia, but upon closer inspection, redroot pigweed will not have purple coloring on the underside of its leaves.
Such an identification chart will help you to recognize these types of weeds so that you do not unintentionally pull the wrong type of seedling from the soil. The health of the seedling can be recognized while the seedling is still emerging from the seed. For instance, healthy seedlings will have leaves that grow in an upright fashion from the stem of the emerging seedling, and healthy seedlings will have even color to they leaves.
Seedlings that have long and thin stems is likely not receiving enough light. Seedlings that have a pinched stem at the level of the seedling’s roots likely suffered from damping off while still emerging from the seed. Finally, if the leaves of a seedling begin to yellow between the veins of the leaves, the seedling may have encountered nutrient problem.
An identification chart can display examples of these different types of unhealthy seedlings so that you can remedy the problems prior to them affect other seedlings. You use an identification chart as a habit while the seedlings are growing. You must observe the plants to determine if they have cotyledons that are narrow versus broad, if their true leaves are smooth versus hairy, and if the stems of the plants has red or purple coloring.
Through repeated use of these observation, you will be able to recognize the different types of seedlings even without reference to the identification chart. Thus, on the day that you will be transplanting your seedlings into your garden, you will be able to move the recognized seedlings to its permanent spots in the garden, and discard those that you do not recognize. Using an identification chart will save you time due to the avoidance of weeding your garden later, and will protect the flowers that you planted with intention.