Preparing seedlings for planting in the garden

preliminaries

There are 3 simple tricks that will allow seedlings to better adapt to a new place.

Seedling rejection

If there are signs of a disease on individual seedling bushes or they are underdeveloped, do not be greedy – immediately throw it away. You still won’t get a good harvest from them, but you can easily infect other plants.

Quality plants should be succulent, squat, with short internodes, a large number of well-developed roots, a clod of earth. Another important indicator is the number of leaves:

• in tomatoes – 7 – 10;
• for peppers and eggplants – 4 – 5;
• cucumbers and zucchini – 3 – 4.

Seedling hardening

Not the best option is to simply take seedlings from home and plant them in the garden: a sharp change in conditions can greatly slow down their growth. It happens that plants cannot recover from stress for a whole month, which means that the harvest will be delayed for the same period. In the conditions of the middle lane, such a delay is unacceptable – you can not wait for the fruits at all.

It is necessary to accustom seedlings to fresh air gradually (1). The easiest option is to put it on the balcony for a while. Do this when the temperature outside is above 10 ° C. First, they take it out for 2 to 3 hours, then the “walking” time is gradually increased to 9 hours. And, finally, for the last 3 days before landing in open ground, she is kept outdoors all the time. Of course, if there are no frosts.

More importantly, during hardening, the seedlings cannot be kept in the open sun – they must be shaded so that the tender sprouts do not get burned.

10 – 12 days before planting, it is useful to feed the plants with superphosphate infusion: 4 – 5 tbsp. spoons of fertilizer stir in 10 liters of water and stand for a day. Then add 2 tbsp. tablespoons of potassium sulfate, mix everything well and water the seedlings. Such top dressing will help her get used to the coolness more easily.

Soil drying

Seedlings are very fragile, and there is always a risk that they will break on the road. To prevent this from happening, it must be prepared in advance for the trip.

Stop watering completely 2-3 days before transplanting (2). By the time of the trip, the plants will lose their elasticity, and there is less chance that they will break on the way.

But already on the spot it must be watered – about 6 hours before disembarkation. But not much, so that the clod of earth can be easily removed and not spread.

Secrets of saving seedlings before planting

If there are a lot of seedlings, it will not work out quickly. And it is important in the country to provide her with the right conditions so that she survives to plant:

• do not remove all the seedlings from the box at once – dig out in small portions: no more than 1 hour should pass from the moment you exposed the roots to planting in the ground, otherwise the plants will not take root;
• do not keep seedlings in the scorching sun – if there is no shady place on the site, make a burlap canopy for it.

By the way, in order for seedlings grown in a box to take root well in open ground, it is useful to pour abundantly with potassium sulfate solution 6-8 hours before planting: 1 tbsp. spoon for 10 liters of water.

7 landing rules

In order for seedlings to quickly take root and begin to grow actively, it is important to observe simple conditions when planting.

1. Plant in cloudy weather or in the evening. Chilled stems break easily in the morning. In addition, plants grown in a room cannot quickly adapt to the bright sun and often “burn out”.
2. Make spacious holes. The roots of seedlings should be placed freely in them.
3. Apply fertilizer. Before planting seedlings in the wells, it is useful to add 1 cup of humus or 1 teaspoon of complex mineral fertilizers. After that, water the hole well.
4. Tamp the soil. There should be no voids near the roots, so after planting the ground must be thoroughly crushed.
5. Water well. Don’t be sorry for the water! Especially if the weather is hot. Moreover, you need to water not only after the seedlings are planted, but also before that – you need to pour water into the hole (3) and wait until it is completely absorbed. Water again after planting.
6. Mulch. It is necessary! The mulch will help retain moisture in the soil. For these purposes, suitable humus, peat, hay, straw or freshly cut grass.
7. Tie up plants. Until the seedlings have grown stronger, they can be broken by the wind, so a peg must be driven in near each plant and a stem tied to it.

Popular questions and answers

We talked about planting seedlings in open ground with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova.

Sources of

1. Pantielev Ya.Kh. ABC vegetable grower // M .: Kolos, 1992 – 383 p.
2. Yakubovskaya L.D., Yakubovsky V.N., Rozhkova L.N. ABC of a summer resident // Minsk, OOO “Orakul”, OOO Lazurak, IPKA “Publicity”, 1994 – 415 p.
3. Shuin K.A., Zakraevskaya N.K., Ippolitova N.Ya. Garden from spring to autumn // Minsk, Uradzhay, 1990 – 256 p.