Transplanting Tips

Whether you have decided to grow seeds at home in order to propagate your own plants or you have purchased transplants from a garden supply store, it is important to understand how to properly transplant young plants so that they have the best chances of survival. These vulnerable plants should be handled with extreme care so that the tender root systems are not damage during the transplant.

It is also important to keep in mind that ideally, the best time to undertake transplanting is before the weather actually begins to grow warmer. In most locales, autumn is the best time to transplant; however, you can also transplant as far as into the spring, provided that you do so before the plants begin to leaf out for the new season.

A small gardening implement or even an eating utensil can be ideal in removing the young plants from their initial containers. Be careful not to force the plants out but work with them gently and carefully until they are freed from the container.

When placing the transplants into the ground, be sure to allow sufficient space for them to grow. One of the most common mistakes of many new gardeners is to crowd transplants too closely to one another because they want their garden to look fuller. While spacing them out from one another further at first will give your garden a bare look, it will provide plenty of room for the young plants to grow and will also assist in proper air circulation. The latter is extremely important in keeping disease at bay.

Once the plants are in the ground, you should also make it a point to place some type of mulch around the young plants. This will help the soil to retain moisture and will also prevent a large portion of weeds from growing around the young transplants. Just be sure to pull back the mulching during watering, otherwise the water might not reach the root system of the plants.

With that said, it is imperative to note that transplants should not be allowed to dry out. These young plants are very susceptible to shock at this point and will continue to be susceptible until they have become established in their new homes. Follow the same watering schedule as you did when you were seeding the plants. Water every day or every other day.

When transplanting young seedlings, make sure that you add in a sufficient amount of fertilizer so that the young plants receive the nourishment they need in order to continue growing.

Finally, don’t forget to pinch off stem tips as the plants begin to mature. This will assist the plants in side branching.