You'll be fine. Yes, in an ideal world each seedling would have plenty of space to grow. But, survival of the fittest is also a perfectly successful, tried and tested method. Certainly far better than not getting them planted out at all, or not until they're completely root bound and have barely survived the stress of repeated dehydration. Not that any of MY containers have ever been subjected to such treatment!

Martha

Been there...done that. I don't bother thinning. My butterfly bush & foxglove jugs looked like Chia pets. I planted them out HOS and let the strongest survive.

Last year was my first to winter sow. I went so far over the top, I could see Russia from my porch. I counted 486 milk jugs before calling it quits in April. Thanks to the generosity of the folks on this forum, I had enough seeds to WS three times that many but thankfully ran out of both time and growers mix at about the same time. When planting out time arrived my flowerbeds were still under construction so most of my sprouts got potted up and given away to skeptical neighbors and friends. I just divided the clumps of seedlings as best I could and stuck them in gallon pots. Some I stuck the entire clump in a hole and let Mother Nature do the thinning. The fact they're all coming up again this year, lush & healthy looking, is a little bit of luck and a huge dollop of Trudi's amazing method.

You aren't doomed and you don't have to choose which sprouts grow up and which end up in that great sprout nursery bed in the sky. Keep in mind if those seeds had fallen on the dirt the parent plant was growing in, they'd have had a slim-to-none chance of even germinating.

Good luck, take lots of pictures and keep us posted on how things do in your half-baked lasagna beds.

Oh, thank you both! I feel much better now, I was afraid that somehow they'd all crowd each other out and die if I didn't break them up more. Now I feel a little less overwhelmed.

I thin nothing. Depending on my level of desperation, it does sometimes come down to full jug-sized brownie patties being planted all in one fell swoop.

Ideally, I tip out the whole jug, break it into some sensible-size hunks, and plant them in little sections of 3s of 4s (not 3 or 4 seedlings...3 or 4 HUNKS.)

Personally I don't usually use the HOS method. The only seedlings I plant HOS are plants that naturally grow well in a bushy clump, such as Sweet Alyssum or California poppies. Otherwise, I tend to separate them as it seems that the seedlings grow better when they have their own space.

However, don't worry too much about planting hunks. Wsing makes starting plants from seed so easy, that I don't feel so guilty thinning and killing (gasp) little seedlings. In the future you can sow fewer seeds, and have fewer seedlings to deal with.

Also, if your lasagne beds aren't ready, and you have some seedlings you want to take special care with, you can pot them up in cups or small nursery pots and grow them on for awhile, then plant them out later in the season.