(image: ©
DK Crawford
my own seedlings I started at home)
In our
Victory Garden Classes we are learning so much! The
worm composting class last week had so much vital information, my head is still spinning! I am letting it gel a bit before I put tidbits on paper but here are some great tips for buying baby veggies already in pots at the Farmers' Market or Nursery.
How to choose healthy seedlings:First look for color, no browning on the edges, yellow leaves, droopy leaves or bugs. Look under the leaves for bugs both in the nursery and in your garden because that's where they hide. You don't want to bring them home with you and if you are inspecting plants at home, the sooner you find the beginnings of an infestation, the better!
Roots:It's good if you see a few roots coming out of the bottom of a container because you want plants with well-developed root systems but if you are going for one of these, gently try to remove the plant out of the pot by lightly tapping the bottom then tilting it on its side and letting the plant rest sideways in your hand. Don't pull on the stem of the plant as you might damage it but you want to make sure that it is not root-bound which means the roots have developed so much they are now forming a hard ball inside the container and the plant has no where to go.
Root-Bound:
If you get it home and the container is absolutely
full of hard-packed roots then you'll want to do a little surgery which sometimes takes a firm hand. Grab the bottom of the root ball and use your hands to pull the roots in half about halfway through the entire ball. Don't do it too forcibly as you don't wish to destroy all the roots but you must aerate them by pulling it apart and getting some space in the root ball before you plant.
Multiple Blessings in One Pot:Often commercial Nurseries are selling more than one seedling per pot but you wouldn't know to look! Yesterday I realized the brussels sprout baby I'd bought was actually 6 entire babies! You want to look at the stems and the foliage. See if it appears to be more than one and then, as you take it out of the pot and are starting to gently tease and remove the dirt around the roots, see if the babies begin to naturally separate. I now realize I've planted several seedlings in one hole several times when I could have quadrupled my plants just by knowing to separate them!!
DO NOT DISTURB:Now that you've learned how to deal with root-bound plants and separate multiple babies in a pot, let me completely confuse you. Some plants HATE to have their roots tampered with. Among them are: cucumbers, melons, carrots, parsnips and most root vegetables. I've heard squash don't like it either but I've had luck being careful about how I transplant them. The veggies that hate being messed with are better either directly seeded into a garden or take special care to leave their roots intact when you are putting them in the ground. If there are too many plants together you can clip the weaker specimen's stems at dirt level to let the heartier plants thrive and the others die off.
We All Need a LIttle SPACE of our own, Plants are No Different:Don't put plants on top of one another. Having the same plants competing for space actually results in a lower yield -- sometimes less really is more. I learned this my first year of planting zucchinis. The four I'd squeezed into one area did far worse than the two I put in a similar sized plot. The two far out-produced the four and were healthier and produced longer! There are exceptions. If you want to sprinkle flower or herb seeds between plants, especially ones that keep bugs away, that's ok. That doesn't crowd out seedlings the way another whole veggie plant might.
Tomatoes Want to go Deeper than Most:Tomatoes need intense root systems to support their rubenesque fruit. When buying tomatoes seedlings at the nursery, try to find ones without any fruit or blossoms. You want to get them home and let them develop serious roots and lots of leaves so they can support the fruit you hope they'll bear! When home, take all the bottom leaves off the tomato plant and just leave the uppermost canopy of top, larger branches. See the little hairs all along the side of the tomato stem? They will all eventually be roots too. Dig the hole deeper and plant the entire stem, right up to that canopy.
Amend, amend, amend BEFORE you plant:Add some compost to your soil, even if you do it in small increments. I you dig a hole for your seedling, pull out some dirt and mix in some compost. The ideal ratio is about 1/2 and 1/2. Try to get the area around the plant weed and root-free and have the soil be at least somewhat soft so the plant will both hold some water and it will have soil it can push its roots out into.
All Dirt is NOT the Same:Plants are often planted in a potting mix that lets water go straight through it. Nurseries water plants
several times a day and you will not be doing this in your garden. Hopefully your garden is well amended, (see above) meaning you've mixed in compost or other organic matter to make your soil lighter and richer. You want to get as much of the potting mix used by the nursery off the roots as you possibly can, as gently as you can. If you just take a plant from a container, particularly a root-bound one, and stick it in a hole in the earth, it may die from lack of water if the soil doesn't hold it, or from the roots not being able to permeate the ground if you have not amended at least that one area in which you are planting.
A Pinch to grow on:After making my hole and amending the soil where the plant will go, I always put a couple of tablespoons of high quality, organic fertilizer in the bottom. It's sort of like leaving a care package under the roots so they'll have some food to give them energy as they acclimate and then start to grow.
Water -- Get to the Bottom of Things:Once you've unpotted, cleared the roots of other dirts, amended the soil, fertilized and separated the plants as you need, put the plant in the hole and add back some of the amended dirt. Firmly though gently push the dirt around the edges of your plants. Then give them a drink! Make sure you are watering with a gentle stream via a watering can or the shower feature on a nozzle and water below the leaves, at dirt level if you can! Many babies can't bear having wet leaves and often the stream is too powerful for them as well. Always water at soil level if you can with the most gentle method possible. If you have the option of drip lines? they are awesome too. Once the plants are deeply watered you can add a bit of hay around the base to keep them moist.
