Transplanting seedlings - it's like pulling teeth

The seedlings are now in their own “big plant” containers, after last night’s transplanting session. We started the night with about 140 seedlings, and ended with 60 of what I hope were the best of the group. After doing a search that yielded a terrifying instructional video on transplanting seedlings that highlighted the dangers and stress that transplanting posed to plants, I felt sufficiently worried enough to get started. Seriously, this video highlighted, at three different points, that seedlings were in imminent danger of death at multiple points in the transplant process. At least I had a dentist on hand - that counts for something, right?

We mixed up a combination of seed starting mix with a potting soil that has compost included, which according to my most trusted book, should mean that I won’t have to fertilize the plants until they get outside. Then, we had to make the decision of which seedlings got to move onto the next round of farm life. For the most part, the decisions were fairly easy. I tried to select straight plants that had thicker stems and a nice set of new leaves. Any that were either tall, skinny and leaning, or seemed to be short and stunted, didn’t make the cut. I decided that for our 60 pots, we’d take 10 marigolds, 10 zinnias, 10 peppers, 10 garden peach tomatoes, and 20 heirloom tomatoes.

Above are peppers and tomatoes (left to right)

Below are peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, and zinnias (left to right)

We experimented with the transplant process a few times on zinnias that we weren’t going to keep, which I highly recommend should any of you end up growing seedlings. The first few did not go well. The potting mix was crumbly, and we tried both attempting to push the seedling out by the bottom (did not work), and then scooping them out with a spoon. According to Mike, the seedling removal process is very similar to extracting a tooth, so I let him do most of the transplants while I filled the pots with dirt.

My book said to plant the tomato seedlings deep into the pots, up to the first set of leaves, so we tried to get as close to that as we could given the depth of the pots. The book says that this will encourage the plant to form more roots and be stronger, to prevent the dreaded transplant stress once they move outside next month.

We also have our expanded grow light setup in place, and it’s now blindingly bright in the seedling room – but it will be worth it if this prevents plants on the far sides of the table from stretching too much to the light. I’ve read that lack of light is a main cause of seedlings becoming too leggy before transplant, so I’m hoping that this will keep the little guys happy.

Lastly, stay tuned for chicken updates! I believe that the girls are arriving at Paris Farmers Union today, and are going home with Taperman either tonight or tomorrow. I’ll have my first visit with them this weekend. Lots of chick pics to follow!