HANDLE WITH CARE

(Page 3 of 4)

May/June 1986
By Susan Glaese 
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Transplanting

The best time to plant out is late afternoon, early evening, or on a day that is decidedly overcast. (A light misting rain is an added bonus.) Water the flats or containers well a few hours before transplanting. 'this helps the coops slip free without tear—You'll need a tool for making holes in the ground, a damp cloth to wrap the roots in, a source of water, and a sense of not being pressed for time:

Ready? First, carefully get the seedlings out of their containers. (Peat pots and the like can be planted directly in the soil.) If a plant has its own individual pot, you can tap the sides gently until the roots slide out easily. Loosen any tightly balled roots before you put the plant in the soil.

If you raised your starts in flats, use a hand garden fork to lift a small block of soil out (I call it "cutting the cake"). You don't want to let any roots dry out, so wrap that bunch in a moist cloth. Then gently separate and transplant one start at a time.

Never pick up a seedling by its stem. While it may look like a naturally tough "handle," the stem is truly a seedling's most vulnerable spot. A young plant can survive some root damage or even losing a leaf or two. (Indeed, some growers recommend deliberately pinching off a few lower leaves of lettuce, parsley, celery, and brassica transplants to reduce wilt and stimulate root growth.) But if you squeeze a stem too tightly, you'll injure the seedling's food and water transport system and make the plant more vulnerable to disease. The correct way to handle a transplant is to support its root ball in your palm while holding the tips of either cotyledon or true leaves between two fingers.

Once you've got a seedling ready, open a small pocket in the earth with a trowel, dibble, or large spoon . . . and put the plant in. (Actually, if the soil is light enough, I prefer to dig down with my fingers. Doing so allows me to feel a more direct bond between the darkness of past lives and the coming of new ones.) Don't dig too large a hole, or an air space that could harm the roots may form when you're filling in around the plant.

Bury most stems up to their first set of true leaves to provide a firm anchor for the surge of new growth to come. This is espe cially important for top-heavy crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. With tomatoes, you can produce a long, lush root system by pinching off all but the top set of leaves and burying the bare stem.

The most critical factor in successful transplanting is creating a cohesive bond between the root ball and the surrounding soil so there'll be an uninterrupted uptake of nutrients and water. To ensure this, lightly press the soil around the stem with your hands. This firm footing is particularly important for brassicas.

Some gardening authorities recommend watering the transplants after each bed or row is complete, and others swear that you should do it plant by plant. If the soil is moist and the humidity high, I'd go with the first method. If opposite conditions prevail, I'd say water as you go. Be sure to do one or the other: Watering in helps establish good root contact and provides the medium for nutrient uptake.

Try hard not to wet your transplants' leaves as you water the soil. The cold could shock the plant. What's more, the moisture could make the leaves "think" it's raining, open their stomata, and "perspire" to balance the perceived moisture. The end effect The plant could actually lose water.

You may also want to give your new transplants a dose of fertilizing tea-manure, comfrey, or stinging nettle—to help ease their transition and boost their strength. (Add a little "dessert" to their Chadwickian dinner!)

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