Garden seedlings can be grown in nurseries or for those short on time (or just a bit lazy) they can be purchased from nurseries. Once we have the seedlings ready, it’s time to transplant them.
Transplantation is a simple but not trivial operation: it is a delicate moment for the young plant, which suddenly finds itself in a new environment, exposed to atmospheric agents and climatic changes never experienced before. For this reason, it is necessary to take adequate precautions, in order not to damage the root system and to minimize the impact on the plant. It is worth knowing that if the plant suffers trauma during the transplant or during the first period of stay in the garden, it may suffer damage that will affect its future development. For this reason, it may be useful to give some advice on the best way to perform the transplant.
Transplanting garden seedlings is usually done with sowing in earthen bread , grown in honeycomb containers. Transplanting with bare roots is not suitable for vegetables, as they are transplanted very young and have very delicate roots, while fruit plants can be transplanted with bare roots, as they are more resistant.
Contents [Ocultar]
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Transplant at the right time
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soil preparation
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the royal plantation
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Post-transplant care
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Transplant shock and how to avoid it
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Contents
Transplant at the right time
plant age . The first necessary precaution is to understand the right time for transplanting: the plant should not stay too long in the pot, otherwise it suffers from a lack of space and nutrients: it develops its roots poorly, tangles them and it will have yellowing of the leaves due to lack of nutrients. However, it should not be planted too young either: if it did not have roots of a certain consistency, it would be difficult for it to pull bread from the ground and take root in it properly.
Choosing plants in the nursery . When you buy the plants, you have to know how to choose them: they must be beautiful and resistant and with some leaves but not excessively developed, so that the roots are ready to be planted in the ground. You can read the criteria of Orto Da Coltivaretre to choose the plants to buy.
grafting period. The outdoor climate must be adequate, with temperatures in which the plant can be healthy. If a seedling is transplanted too early, the night cold can affect its health. For this reason, it is essential to carry out the transplant in the indicated period, each vegetable has its own planting time. To do this, you can consult the transplant calendar, taking into account, however, that each zone has its own climatic peculiarities.
Hello . To transplant the soil, it must be “tempered”, it is necessary to avoid doing the work in correspondence with the rains, which cause the soil to fill with mud. The soil should not be completely dry, in case it gets a little wet.
Avoid overheating. Transplanting should not be done on too hot days with strong sun exposure, so that the seedling is not subjected to arid conditions and excessive heat as soon as it is planted. For this reason, it is usually best to transplant into the garden at night or at least in cool weather.
soil preparation
Work the land . The soil to be transplanted must be chosen and prepared first, perhaps fertilizing according to the needs of our culture, but be careful to use mature and ready manure. It is better to do this work a little in advance, a week or two before planting. Good shoveling guarantees good drainage of the bed and our seedlings will find loose, loose soil, so it is important to work deep, breaking up the clods. It is also necessary to remove roots and stones and refine the seedbed by leveling it with a rake.
Spread the sheet of mulch . If you want to mulch with a tarp, a good time to do so is after tillage, spreading the film over the bed. Once the seedlings are transplanted, it will no longer be possible to cover them with canvas, but the ground can be covered with straw.
the royal plantation
Take the seedling out of the tray. When removing the seedling from the pot, care must be taken not to damage the tiny roots of the young plant. It is better to water the plant so that it is easier to extract, if the classic black plastic honeycomb containers are used, it is useful to crush them a little by pressing on the bottom to detach the soil bread and try to pull it out completely with the plant’s seedbed. At this stage, you should still handle the seedling for breadcrumbs, avoiding holding it by the stem.
Choose distances. Seedlings must be placed in the garden at the right distance from each other, it is very important to prevent them from competing for light and nutrients during their growth (read more in the article on the right distances between plants). Each vegetable has a recommended planting ratio: the larger the plants developed, the further apart they should be when planting or transplanting. Let’s make the holes where we will insert the seedlings.
Plant the plant. At this stage we can finally plant: we gently place the plant in its hole, which must contain the bread of earth. In doing so, we keep the bread of earth intact so as not to damage the roots. The plant must be crushed at the level of the neck, it is covered, keeping it straight on the stem .
Compact the soil and water. After planting, pack the soil around the seedling to keep it airtight so that the roots are immediately in contact with their new environment. Then we proceed to moisten the soil by dropping a moderate stream from above so that the water can also help compact the soil.
Post-transplant treatment
After the transplant, there is a delicate moment when the plant must acclimatize to the new conditions and understand that the world is much bigger than the small plateau it has known so far.
Irrigation of seedlings. Seedlings need abundant watering after transplanting and a constant supply in the following days, because their roots are not yet well developed and therefore cannot get water going deep. Therefore, it is necessary to water often, although it is useful not to overdo it with the frequency and quantity of watering: if the plant always has water available, it will not develop roots, while that a short shortage can “educate” the plant to develop. of your earthen bread.
Watch out for snails. Snails are hungry for tender young leaves and if they eat the leaves of newly transplanted young plants, they can suffer irreversible damage. For this reason it is good to be careful, a good precaution is to put a few days before planting a trap such as a lime or a beer trap.
Transplant shock and how to avoid it
After transplanting, it is normal for the transplanted seedling to suffer a little shock and need a few days to recover and grow with renewed vigor. If you find the seedlings a little misshapen the day after planting and with low leaves, you don’t have to worry. If we have done it right, the plants will recover in two or three days and then grow into healthy and robust crops. However, certain precautions can reduce this state of suffering.
acclimatize seedlings . To reduce transplant shock, it can be corrected by hardening off the seedlings for a day or two before transplanting. This way they can acclimatize before leaving the potty.
Use humus. Worm humus is ideal for reducing the stress of transplants. The use of humus is strongly recommended both in the soil of the seedbed and in the hole where the new plant is inserted. A handful of humus in the hole provides nutrients at the root level and helps keep the soil moist around the young root system. Unlike other fertilizers, you don’t have to worry about excessive amounts or direct contact with plant parts.