Transplanting and troubleshooting seedlings
Friday, October 9 by Hamish Dodd
G’day green fingers,
Hamish here. Thanks for joining me again. This week I’m talking about transplanting your seedlings and overcoming any issues you may have with them.
My tomato plants are coming along strong but not much news for an update. My lettuce seeds are coming up and looking healthy. I’ve got to make sure those darn slugs and snails don’t get to them. Thank goodness for my Blitzem.
It’s really important to prepare your beds a couple of weeks before transplanting. The way to do this is by adding a complete fertiliser to the soil. The Yates Garden Guide tells us the fertiliser should have a ‘(N.P.K. 6:6:6) at one third of a cup per square metre’. This is important because we want to give the seedlings the best possible environment for transplanting and lots of yummy nutrients to grow, grow, grow.
Remember to water your seedlings a day before you plan to transplant them. Make sure you mark out the position for each seedling before transplanting. Make a hole in the soil that is 7 to 10cms deep. Then gently ease the seedlings out from the trays, making sure you get as much soil as possible with each one, so as to do minimal damage to the fragile roots.
Once you’ve placed the seedlings into its new home, press the soil around it making a small depression to allow water to directly penetrate the roots. The beauty of growing seedlings in peat pots or egg cartons is that you can place the entire thing into the ground, meaning there is no disturbance to the seedling roots, and over time the pot rots away. Make sure you water the seedlings well using a water can for a gentle soak and to help settle the soil.
As far as the time of day goes for transplanting seedlings, it is often better to be done in the late afternoon or early evening because you are out of the harsh sunlight, which may lead to them wilting. Don’t forget to scatter your Blitzem to stop pests. If you have a lot of rain make sure you remember to reapply the slug bait. For more information don’t forget to have a look at point 7 in your Give it a Grow brochure.
With everything in life, things can go wrong. The Yates Garden Guide has a check list for germination troubles, including if your seedlings haven’t popped up. We ran through some of the reasons this can occur in last week’s blog but if you want more information check out page 133.
As we come into summer there are many delectable delights you can grow in your backyard. The Yates Garden Guide on page 370 has a list of vegetables and suggested varieties that can be grown in the varying months of the year. The time is right to start sowing leeks, lettuce and cauliflower seedlings, and if you’ve got a glass house like me you can sow seeds pretty much year round.
This week, I’ve planted three zucchini seeds in a Tuscan self watering pot outside. I’ve also planted some delicious peas in the Arthurs glasshouse and outside in a Tuscan self watering pot. Remember to put a tripod-type structure in your soil before planting your pea seeds, which will need support. I used bamboo to make a tripod and an old stocking to tie it off. I’m already smacking my lips together in anticipation of mushy peas.
I also sowed silver beet, radishes and broccoli but it will take a small miracle to make my two-year-old son eat them. All he wants is pies – how kiwi is that?
Next week I’m going to have a recap on the Give it a Grow kit and I’ll clock back in and let you know how my seedlings are doing, and of course post some pictures of my award winning tomato plant.
Remember to enter the Tomato growing competition.
Catch ya next week,
Hamish
“Back to blog >”:/hamish-dodd/
Comments (4)
Add a comment
This area is for general comments from the Yates Garden Club community. Questions posted here will not receive a reply from Yates. For specific product advice Contact Us
Angela
Yates site member
06:21, 11 October 2009
Great site Hamish really enjoyed reading through this morning. This is my first year growing with a tunnel house/green house. Soo would it be possible to include to do's and not to do's on that? I have lettuces pak choy cabbage capsicum chilli and basil growing in there at the mo plus all my seedlings to go the veggie patch. Lost a few lettuces... i think from over watering and them rotting at the base. Any advise appreciated on Green house growing!
Joanne
Yates Garden Expert
06:08, 12 October 2009
Hi everyone, FYI - for those of you who are already members, where a promotional code is required for a competition you can enter by going to the 'Garden Club' tab and then to 'update my profile' - at the bottom of the list is a section to enter a promo code.
Hamish
Yates Garden Expert
08:01, 16 October 2009
Hi Angela Wow – your’e getting into it – good on you. It's all a learning curve - probably the 2 main things to be aware of is the keeping of pests and disease under control. Reason being is that a closed ecosystem such as a greenhouse or tunnel house is just the best of places for disease to spread rapidly especially between varying vegetable types. Yates Blitzem will help to keep the nasty crawlies at bay while White Fly (not uncommon particularly with tomatoes in the height of summer) are best controlled by spraying in the early morning or late afternoon with alternating sprays such as Yates Confidor or Target or Natures Way Pyrethrum. Remember to keep a clean , clear and tidy environment in the glasshouse as anything left inside such as bucket of weeds for example can lead to disease.Another important thing is that you need to monitor watering inside the glasshouse- keep you plants and seedlings moist but don’t saturate. As far as lettuce seedlings go, they need a lot of light early on – if they have rotted then perhaps they have had too much moisture or they have become too tall and lanky when they were sown out and they fall over and rot. Always remember to read the information on the packet of seeds before you sow them - some seeds like coriander for example will germinate better in the dark and a green or plastic house may not be the best environment. Let me know how things go over the next few weeks.
Maggie
Yates site member
07:55, 21 October 2009
Being a naturally impatient individual I was begining to wonder if growing from seed was the best thing for me to get involved with - that was until I discovered empty plastic milk bottles kindly donated to me by a lovely group of hairdressers who work near me! My seedlings hardly seemed to be moving, 3-4 weeks after being transplanted, and so in the absence of a glasshouse, decided to cut some milk bottles in half, punch holes in the top and use them to cover my seedlings. What an amazing transformation in 3 days, with some much warmer weather to encourage them - they have all doubled in size and am now hopeful that they will be producing within the time frame as stated on the seed packets. So maybe I will persevere for a little while longer and try and curb my impatience to throw them out and buy "ready made" seedlings!
Add your reply