Monday, April 5, 2010

How to handle young seedlings

I get a monthly newsletter from GrowVeg.com who has a fabulous garden planning tool. You can try it for 30 days for free.  Check it out here.

This article excerpt is from Barbara Pleasant their American horticultural expert and an award-winning garden writer. Since I start a lot of my seeds in the ground or in small pots outside I have seen some of the conditions she menitons.  These seedlings are so delicate that it is important you handle them correctly if you want them to flourish.

Pricking Out Seedlings
About half of the seedlings I start indoors grow exactly as they should, with one sturdy plant near the middle of each seedling container, so that the root ball forms a plug plant type mass. The others come up crowded, and need to be 'pricked out' – gardening lingo for separating the little seedlings and transplanting them to individual containers. Gardeners who buy seedlings also do a fair amount of pricking out, because it’s not usual to find several lettuce, basil or even tomato seedlings growing in the same pot. Transplanting the young seedlings to individual containers can double or triple your supply of plants.

You can read the rest of her article here.

Happy Digging,

The Garden Goddess
http://www.down2earthgardens.com/

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