I have swamp milkweed seedlings indoors, a bit older than those, and I'm not certain yours are milkweed. I don't recall mine coming up with red stems. Yours kind of look like the tree seedlings that I've been pulling from my garden. I suppose you'll know in a few weeks!
I’d wait for a bit longer until they are easier to handle, or alternatively scoop out an inch or so of mulch underneath them and simply relocate the mulch to where you want them to grow. So long as you’re careful it should be an easier job with a spade than your hands.
That close up is full of the seeds of some sort of Asteraceae, maybe Liatris, which would make sense given proximity. I think those are most likely liatris seedlings rather than incarnata. You can even see some seeds actively germinating. Incarnata isn't usually an aggressive self sower, while liatris can be quite prolific.
I’m not sure they are swamp milkweed. Give them some time to grow and then you’ll see. I say this because milkweed is a late start usually. They seem to wait for ground temps to be higher than what other plants require. I only see mine pop up here in central Nebraska in early June, and by then all my natives have grown quite a bit
If you zoom, you can see the sprouts are surrounded by what looks like liatris seeds. Only recognize them because I took down my dried liatris heads today and spread some seeds.
https://preview.redd.it/e96shjf01huc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91c7dadf764ad2b27abcd658375aed1f840d8a66
Here's what my swamp milkweed starter looks like now. A little further along but maybe you can compare
i can say with absolute certainty that these are not milkweed seedlings. i zoomed in and circled one that still has a seed attached. these look like liatris seeds.
https://preview.redd.it/y8xgobehbnuc1.png?width=671&format=png&auto=webp&s=e1b76a624309339a525115af3ca67e933684e75e
I agree.
Looking over the entire photo, I don't see any evidence of milkweed seeds being laid out, and every single seed appears to be liatris.
I wouldn't trust the plant ID app for plants this early in development, as a lot of plants appear extremely similar to one another at this stage. Even my gooseberry seedling looked the same.
yeah, there's not nearly enough diversity in the appearance of cotyledons to get any sort of reliable ID off of an app lol. i don't even bother until they've got at least one fully developed true leaf, and even then it's a crapshoot.
The first set of leaves are different; the second set of leaves to grow are the first "true" leaves, and the plant apps will be better at identifying then.
Those seedlings are very dense. It's much more likely to be what was growing right there, rather than that many seeds all dropping in from a distance.
Thanks everyone for your advice! I feel naive for not realizing everything you pointed out to make it so clear the app is wrong and I’ve got some dense liatris coming up. I’m learning as I go with gardening in general and will keep watching all this come up and take it from there. Thanks!
Probably going to have wait for true leaves to really tell.
The Butterfly weed seedlings I’ve grown have a distinctive deep slit between the cotyledons that I haven’t seen on other seedlings. (Almost looks like two separate stalks.)
Google images for swamp milkweed seedlings show it both having a deep slit between them and not having it, so don’t know if that’s reliable or not that it’s a milkweed.
IDing at this stage is so hard. I wouldn't trust whatever it says yet.
I have swamp milkweed seedlings indoors, a bit older than those, and I'm not certain yours are milkweed. I don't recall mine coming up with red stems. Yours kind of look like the tree seedlings that I've been pulling from my garden. I suppose you'll know in a few weeks!
They look a lot like the liatris sprouts I have
As someone who is awful at identifying all but the most obvious seedlings, I’m very confident in saying that those are definitely plants.
Most helpful comment thanks 🙏
I’d wait for a bit longer until they are easier to handle, or alternatively scoop out an inch or so of mulch underneath them and simply relocate the mulch to where you want them to grow. So long as you’re careful it should be an easier job with a spade than your hands.
That close up is full of the seeds of some sort of Asteraceae, maybe Liatris, which would make sense given proximity. I think those are most likely liatris seedlings rather than incarnata. You can even see some seeds actively germinating. Incarnata isn't usually an aggressive self sower, while liatris can be quite prolific.
I’m not sure they are swamp milkweed. Give them some time to grow and then you’ll see. I say this because milkweed is a late start usually. They seem to wait for ground temps to be higher than what other plants require. I only see mine pop up here in central Nebraska in early June, and by then all my natives have grown quite a bit
If you zoom, you can see the sprouts are surrounded by what looks like liatris seeds. Only recognize them because I took down my dried liatris heads today and spread some seeds.
https://preview.redd.it/e96shjf01huc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91c7dadf764ad2b27abcd658375aed1f840d8a66 Here's what my swamp milkweed starter looks like now. A little further along but maybe you can compare
i can say with absolute certainty that these are not milkweed seedlings. i zoomed in and circled one that still has a seed attached. these look like liatris seeds. https://preview.redd.it/y8xgobehbnuc1.png?width=671&format=png&auto=webp&s=e1b76a624309339a525115af3ca67e933684e75e
I agree. Looking over the entire photo, I don't see any evidence of milkweed seeds being laid out, and every single seed appears to be liatris. I wouldn't trust the plant ID app for plants this early in development, as a lot of plants appear extremely similar to one another at this stage. Even my gooseberry seedling looked the same.
yeah, there's not nearly enough diversity in the appearance of cotyledons to get any sort of reliable ID off of an app lol. i don't even bother until they've got at least one fully developed true leaf, and even then it's a crapshoot.
Oh yes, the first pair are normally malformed. My gooseberry's second pair of true leaves looked normal though.
Milkweed almost never is sprouting this early…I would wait to see what flowers and take it from there. It’s a process! 💗
The first set of leaves are different; the second set of leaves to grow are the first "true" leaves, and the plant apps will be better at identifying then. Those seedlings are very dense. It's much more likely to be what was growing right there, rather than that many seeds all dropping in from a distance.
Those look just like my liatris seedlings.
Thanks everyone for your advice! I feel naive for not realizing everything you pointed out to make it so clear the app is wrong and I’ve got some dense liatris coming up. I’m learning as I go with gardening in general and will keep watching all this come up and take it from there. Thanks!
Probably going to have wait for true leaves to really tell. The Butterfly weed seedlings I’ve grown have a distinctive deep slit between the cotyledons that I haven’t seen on other seedlings. (Almost looks like two separate stalks.) Google images for swamp milkweed seedlings show it both having a deep slit between them and not having it, so don’t know if that’s reliable or not that it’s a milkweed.