Transplanting Methods

[897tgigvib]

There sure are different kinds of transplanting.



Uppotting...putting a plant from a small container into a bigger container

Pricking out...taking a small seedling from a flat and putting it into its own small container

Planting out...taking a plant from a container and putting it in the ground

Repotting...removing the plant from the pot, trimming roots, scraping old soil off, setting into same pot with fresh soil

Site to site...taking a plant from the ground and putting it into the ground somewhere else



I'd like to hear how each person does these. What things done create better success

 

[secuono]

Yay!


I thought repotting was putting in a slightly larger pot, or is that just for house plants?
I take the little pods from the flats and put them into the garden...where nearly all die of this or that...
So, can't wait to see how people manage this!

 

[digitS']

Umm, I slam them in the ground and then step on them . . .

That isn't the right way?

Okay, since I now start all melons, squash and cucumbers in the greenhouse --- very, very carefully. The plant is only a couple weeks old and shows no sign of hardening up. The soil is drippy wet and just plops into my hand when the container is turned upside down. Then, the plant is carefully placed in a hole and soil gathered about it.

I have more fun with other things! Lots of plants I "butterfly" the roots. If they are root-bound, anyway. And, most everything is root-bound even if just a little. Rriiiippp! Then, make sure the bed is well soaked.

Most every seed goes in communal containers, except those Cucurbits. Cookie boxes work awfully well for me. My favorite tool for moving them into packs or pots from there is a plastic spoon handle. And, don't be cheap about buying those plastic spoons - get some nice ones. And remember -- a plant has several leaves and a number of roots but it usually has only 1 stem. Bruise a root or a leaf and there's still hope. Bruise that stem and it's probably compost. I try not to even touch it.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

The main thing about transplanting is
"Be Careful"

Little seedlings when removed from where they sprouted can break the tips of their little roots very easily.
Sometimes this happens even if you don't think it looks like it.
Some plants have a tendency to get broken root tips so easily that they are considered difficult, and others are not recommended to be transplanted from flats.

Those root tips are the main place the plant gets its water and nutrients.

A thing that can make it much easier to transplant out of a flat is to put each seed farther apart. That makes it take more space, but also makes transplanting much easier. Those little roots are not as tangled.

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Another thing that can aid success is waiting a touch longer before transplanting them. Having the seeds farther apart in the flat makes this possible. Another day or 3.

But I got the feeling you were going straight from the flat to the ground. Maybe I'm mistaken. most little seedlings should first spend some time in a pot of their own. They get established, grow, and develop strength.

After a few weeks in their own pot, they should be taken outside for a few hours, and then more hours each day, until it is safe to leave them outside. That hardens them to outside conditions.

 

[secuono]

But I got the feeling you were going straight from the flat to the ground. Maybe I'm mistaken. most little seedlings should first spend some time in a pot of their own. They get established, grow, and develop strength.

After a few weeks in their own pot, they should be taken outside for a few hours, and then more hours each day, until it is safe to leave them outside. That hardens them to outside conditions.

That's something I've never read, I always see to plant them in those individual plastic trays or a flat, then put them outside and lastly put them in the garden. Seems like a huge mess of pots and unusable space to have them moved into pots...We would never end up storing them, they would get used some other way or end up missing...

 

[897tgigvib]

Digit, Secuono mentioned in another thread the low success rate of transplanting, so i made a transplanting thread.

That naming thing of uppotting and repotting does not matter much to a regular gardener. But yep, there is a difference. When I worked in the greenhouse, sometimes it'd be a morning of UPPOTTING a bunch of perennials from 4" pots to 6" pots, or a time to REPOT some older established plants like cactus, freshen their soil, clean the pot, try not to get spiked hands(!). Repotting the Fig bush in the huge pot was a job in itself for two of us, Roxi and I.

We often uppotted trees from 5 gallon to 10 gallon sized pots. At a greenhouse nursery that raised their value within weeks.

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There is a concept of the roots. Keep them moist.

There is a concept with the top part of the plant. Keep them out of the sun for a day or so after disturbing the roots.

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The sun draws water from the leaves, but they have a temporarily diminished way of getting water. Root hairs are not working perfectly after being disturbed.

 

[897tgigvib]

4" plastic pots are pretty good at being stored when they are all the same brand especially. once used and cleaned they fit into each other and make neat stacks.

In use they fit neatly into a standard flat, 24 of them. It's a matter of getting used to it.

I suppose there is a good way to go direct from flat to garden. set 24 seeds only per flat, grow the 4 to 6 weeks in the flat, then do an essentially site to site transplanting from flat to garden. I'd sure make sure it was a cloudy day, or set shade for them for a day or so.

 

[digitS']

The only plant that I sow directly into a flat, which by the way is a little awkward to handle with all that heavy soil, is those onions. A lot of gardeners don't sow onion seed indoors, at all. I take as much advantage of having a greenhouse as I can and get lots bigger bulbs and lots quicker scallions by starting and setting out.

Anyway, the onions have it kind of rough because they are spending so much time in an unheated greenhouse. Also, they go outdoors so early that it may snow on them setting out, hardening off. Finally, they arrive in the garden, still in their flats - very early. It might snow on them out there too but I don't want any of this snow thing around my baby plants. It isn't planned like that.

Cucurbit seeds have been going in 4-packs or 2 1/4 inch pots. They are not up-potted.

Everything else is started communally and then goes in something larger. Use lots of 4-packs but some 6-packs. Don't really like plug packs but I didn't work with transplanting. The greenhouses I worked in grew cut roses. Yeah. Not much sowing of seeds there. Just home gardening since . . .

Steve

 

[digitS']

I'm winding down fairly good so not thinking too clearly.

The best time to transplant is on a cloudy day. A little drizzle helps but see above about snow or otherwise nasty weather . . .

I have often gone out to the garden with a stack of newspapers and short stakes. To protect sensitive young plants against shock, and they should be hardened off with care before you ever get out there, a stake can be set in the ground beside them. Then, the paper loosely wrapped around the plant and stake. Rocks can hold the paper down and the stake will keep it from touching the plant.

Even this much will shade the plant from the direct sun & keep the wind from damaging it.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

i mentioned some plants are easier to transplant than others:

Tomatoes are considered easy. Be extra careful with the fragile stem. Pretty much only barely touch the stem just to make sure it's upright and stuff. Hold by the leaves with a light, what I call a feminine touch. I don't mean anything by that of course other than more carefully than a coarse man might, another sort of sensitivity level. If 2 of them won't untangle their roots safely, set 2 of them together. One can be snipped off in a day or 3. Another reason wider spacing of seeds in the flat is better.

Peppers, Eggplants, Cabbage type things, and some others generally also fit in this category with Tomatoes, each with its own most careful thing to worry about.

Squash, Melons of all kinds, all the Cucurbitaceae things are considered difficult to transplant. I would hardly suggest they be started in a flat until you successfully transplant a few. You discover their roots are very tender and break easily. Some of them will have started a small tender vine to rest on your palm of one hand making you learn the movements needed for doing it.

Some of these things i'm saying are normally not really taught! Writing what finger goes where...ooygh. My coworker RaeAnn had a way of "tickling" the bottom of a bound seedling to loosen the roots without hurting the roots much. Especially for pansies and some others in a small cell. A way of flicking a fingertip on the bottom.