Transplanting Seedlings

As many of us begin to wrap up the process of starting our seeds this year, germination will be taking place and very soon we will begin to transplant our seedlings to bigger homes. This necessary step in cultivating strong resilient plants will give you an exceptional harvest at the end of the growing season. Transplanting, also called repotting, unfortunately becomes the step that makes even the most eager gardeners give up their green thumbs and resort to getting plants a month or two later at their local garden centers. Most people are able to successfully start seeds and get seedlings to germinate and emerge, but most people neglect to understand that once seedlings emerge, they need to be transplanted so they can continue to thrive and grow. You will need to purchase a few things to be ready for the seedling transplant and those things include larger pots, potting mix, and seed starter. Lights are still crucial during this time for development, and a greenhouse is ideal. Like I’ve mentioned in prior podcast videos, we have a very inexpensive plastic indoor greenhouse, that we start our seeds in every single year and it has served us so well. You can see all of the items that we use for seed starting in our Amazon store which can be found below. The question arising often is why we need to re-pot or transplant seedlings once they emerge from their small germination cells? Well, simply put, seedlings that grow are going to naturally compete for space, nutrition, and sunlight. Because of this, it is essential to upgrade the housing of seedlings so they can continue to thrive in their environment. I typically transplant my seeds into 3-inch pots, and later 6-inch pots. Normally I will assign two seedlings to one 3-inch pot. They will live in that pot for as long as possible and then they will each be upgraded to their own 6-inch pot. Because I sell many of the plants I grow, I wait to put my plants into the ground until they are large and strong and that’s how I sell them as well. in the past, I have used biodegradable pots, but because I grow in such a large quantity, I now use plastic pots, reusing year after year until I exhaust their use, they are then recycled. It is also very important to understand that you will not be saving all of the seeds that you plant. For example, I started about 150 tomato plants from seed this year, and when I upgraded my seedlings to 3-inch pots last weekend, about 50 to 60 of those tomato seedlings were discarded and fed to my chickens. Even though a seed may germinate, it does not mean that seed will be strong, or have adequate nutrition and sunlight to become a quality plant. Normally, if you want to grow a certain number of healthy fully grown vegetable plants, you will double the number of seeds that you start with. You can, in fact, save and grow all seeds that germinate, but you have to understand, you may not get a quality harvest from them all. In my garden, real estate is prioritized for the strongest plants.

It is important to keep artificial light on your plants until they become hardened off, at which point natural sunlight will take it’s place. I do understand that for some people space will become problematic as you transplant because once you transplant your seedlings, they upgrade to larger pots, hence reducing available space. Because of this reality, it is really important to plan your garden and to know exactly what you need. Thankfully, by the time your plants are ready to be transplanted into 6-inch pots, they will likely begin the hardening off process. Hardening off is the act of taking your established plants outside for a few hours a day to get them exposed to the elements, such as colder temperatures, wind, and other variables. You will do this process daily for a week or so until your plants are used to the elements, each day increasing the amount of time that they are outside. Depending on your zone and last frost date, after about a week they will be able to stay outside in a covered greenhouse. If you do not have the availability of a greenhouse, hardening off should continue for multiple weeks until your daily average temperature does not go below 40 to 45 degrees. Once your low daily temperature stays above 40 degrees and your plants have been conditioned, you are ready to leave your plants outside until you are ready to work the ground and plant them. You can locate your hardiness zones by visiting the Farmer’s Almanac website here: What's Your Planting Zone? | USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map | The Old Farmer's Almanac

If you would like to see the process of transplanting seedlings, you can watch our latest video podcast on YouTube which is linked at the top of this page. You can view the seedling transplanting process at minute 9:00. As always if you have any questions, you can email us at info@faithhomestead.com and we will be happy to answer your questions! We make it our absolute priority to respond to every email we receive, and you can guarantee that you will get a response from us.