clumpy seedlingn - multiple plants?

[Cactuseed]

Here we have Dendrobium spectible seedling purchased this past october. This plant now has 4 new leaf growths & I suspect I have several seedlings clumped together ? Perhaps they were not completely separated when removed from the flask?

I am considering unpotting and trying to untangle them to find out. Any input would be appreciated from the board -
thanks !

[greengarden]

I have some that I deflasked myself and many of them have formed clumps quite quickly rather than staying as just a couple of stems. Personally I'd leave well enough alone.

[gnathaniel]

I'm with greengarden on this one--looks like one (very happy) seedling, but even if it's multiples you're likely to break roots and cause undue stress by trying to separate. Probably better to grow it on and divide later if warranted. If you can't resist the impulse to divide, now is probably a good time for it, as the new growths will re-establish quickly and help minimize shock from division/transplanting.

Welcome to the forum, BTW! Where in NC are you? I moved from Asheville fairly recently and lived in Greensboro prior to that.

[isurus79]

That's the great thing about buying very young seedlings, you often get more than one plant in the pot. Honestly, the media its looks pretty good, so I would wait until it outgrows the pot and you need to put it in a larger pot to separate the plants. Small, healthy seedlings like usually outgrow the pot pretty quickly, so I doubt you will have to wait long.

[Gage]

I agree with all of the above comments. Seedlings just do much better when they are in clumps like this, so if there are multiple plants in there, better to wait until they are large to divide. At my work we try and let the babies stay in clumps for as long as possible before separating them.

[Cactuseed]

thanks mucho for the input all -
it seems they would be easier to separate now than later, and they seem to be crowding each other. I will see what happens when they really start to grow & need a repot.
Nathaniel funny i am in winston salem (& work in gso) but i lived in Athens GA for a while and grew up in Atl .

[Cactuseed]

FOLLOWUP:
I separated these yesterday. FIVE plants in all. In hindsight I have to generally disagree with the advice to leave alone because this number of plants were constricting each other. I also unclumped my laelia crispa into 4 separate plants !

[escualida]

I love the "crazy maroon striping" in the description Congrats on all the little plants