Small Space Gardening

Lesson 3: Plants

Transplanting

What is a “transplant”? It is simply a plant that has been grown from seed in one container and replanted into another container or into the garden. There are two reasons for using transplants. First, it gives plants a longer time to grow before placing them in the garden. This is important for plants that take a long growing period before they reach maturity and begin producing a crop. Second, using transplants saves space in the garden. You only put plants ready to be grown to full maturity into your square foot garden. This requires you to maintain flats of transplants ready to put into your garden as one crop is harvested and you are ready to replant the individual square to its next crop for the season. It is rarely important for you to maintain flats of transplants for flowering crops or herbs. I have found it less expensive and aggravating to simply purchase young plants from a local nursery. This saves me the effort of growing the seed indoors, hardening off the plants (getting them used to the outdoors in stages before being planted), and the frustration of losing plants I wanted to use.

There are some plants that grow so rapidly that planting seed into the garden is really the best way. This includes crops such as beans, squash, pumpkins, or cucumbers. These seeds are large, which is often an indication that they will sprout and grow quickly too. They also require warm soil before planting which allows you to grow a “cool season” crop prior to using the same space for these “warm season” crops.

How Do You Plant a “Transplant”?

Prepare your soil beforehand. If you are moving young seedlings to pots, be sure to purchase a high quality transplant soil. The Square Foot Gardening text gives a recipe for a homemade mix on page 175. If you wish to make your own transplant soil, please refer to the text.

You can use any containers available for starting transplants. Just be sure to provide lots of drainage holes so the soil doesn’t accidentally get too soggy from watering and rot the seeds. There are many containers available in the marketplace today for use in seed growing. One of the most recent innovations is a styrofoam tray with an open bottom. This tray has to be set on something to keep the soil from falling through. They can be set on screening until the roots have bound the soil together a bit. After that, the roots are encouraged, by the shape of the container, to grow downward instead of circling the pot like they often do in plastic containers. When the root reaches the air, it stops growing and begins producing branches off the main roots. If you would like to try this type of container, visit the Gardener’s Supply website since they carry these trays.

Bartholomew strongly discourages people from using the peat pots sold in garden centers. If you do select these, be sure to remove the pot before placing the plant in the garden. If you leave the pots on, the rim will wick moisture away from the plant. Contrary to statements about these pots by the manufacturers, roots all too often fail to penetrate the peat sides.

My personal preference is for flats holding the standard 6-packs or 4-packs. The individual trays have holes in the bottom for drainage. The plants can be easily pushed out of these trays by pressing gently on the bottom of each individual section.

Transplanting to the Garden. Most garden soil is not of the quality of the transplant soil. Carry a bucket of seed starting or transplant soil with you to put in the planting hole before planting. Since you’re already determined the spacing, all you need to do is poke a planting hole in the appropriate location and the proper distance from other planting holes. Gently remove the plant from its container; be sure to keep the roots cool and moist. Support the plant so the soil doesn’t fall off the roots and so the plant isn’t injured in the process of removing it from the tray. If the roots are circling, or too long for the planting hole, cut them off. This is better than crowding the roots into a hole. It is important that the crown of the plant (where the stem and leaves meet the ground) not be covered with soil. Firm some soil over the roots. Leave a saucer-shaped depression around each plant to help direct water directly to the root system.

Protect your transplants from the hot sun by doing this task in the evening. Also, spread some kind of shade cloth or even a piece of cardboard on some supports over the newly transplanted plants to shade them from the sun for a few days.

If you grew your own transplants, you need to acclimate them to the outdoors by “hardening” them off. This means that you take the plants outside in the shade for a few hours the first day or two. Then return them to their indoor growing area. Gradually lengthen the time the plant is spending outside over several days. If the weather will be exceptionally hot or cold, it may be better to skip a day. Frankly, the time it takes to properly harden off plants is one disadvantage to growing your own transplants.

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