Transplanting
 

A much needed thread on transplanting not only tomatoes but other garden plants.
Have at it on what you do I will give my success and failure later.
Worth

Tomatoes---when I was a kid, we would dig a hole 16"-18" deep with post hole diggers. Put about 1/2 cup of 13-13-13 in the hole, fill back in with dirt to planting depth. That's how my Dad did it, and we had incredible tomatoes.

I grow in 1/2 plastic 55 gallon drums. I put about 1/4-1/2 cup of a special tomato balanced fertilizer that has a chicken manure base (can't remember the name at the moment), cover that with at least 2 inches of soil, and strip off leaves to bury 2/3 of the plant.

And water, lots of water!

Oh yeah, always strip off those "biodegradable" pots. They cause root binding.

Edit: the stuff I am putting in the bottom of my container planting holes Is Jobe's Vegetable and Tomato food. It is 2-5-3, with 7% Calcium and 4 different bacterium.

Dig hole. Handful of crushed eggshell. Insert peat pot. Fill hole. Water. Empirical evidence to the contrary, I use finely crushed eggshell in the potting-up soil and in the bottom of the transplant hole, and I haven't gotten BER.

Nan

Not that it matters but my intention was to get and give information on just how much care is needed to have a successful transplant.
On various types of plants and how to be successful with said variety.
You can pull okra up by the roots and be successful.
You try that with cucumbers and you will kill them.
Worth

Do you mean transplanting, as in from one spot in the ground outside, to another spot outside?

First year of growing under plastic mulch, had blight issues last year so trying something different. This year instead of 125 tomatoe plants in one big block I'm planting 100' rows, with a 100' row of peppers in between each row of tomatoes. I cut a circle in plastic the size of a coffee can, dig down about a foot, sprinkle some Osmocoat in bottom of hole, sprinkle some on dirt from hole, then add a coffee can of Pro Mix BX (bio fungicide + mycorrhizae), mix it up, plant tomato, put coffee can around tomato, mark variety with a wooden clothes pin clipped to can, then install CRW cage staked with rebar. Transplanting is taking much longer than I anticipated... Going out to finish a 100' row of peppers I started last night, in between rain drops.

"wooden clothes pin clipped"

Oh, I see it now. A pin clipped to the string of a tomato, up high where I can see it without bending low to find a tag in pot. Excellent Idea. So simple. Thanks!

[QUOTE=GrowingCoastal;638866]"wooden clothes pin clipped"

Oh, I see it now. A pin clipped to the string of a tomato, up high where I can see it without bending low to find a tag in pot. Excellent Idea. So simple. Thanks![/QUOTE]


Yeah I mark them with a sharpie, then spray clear polyurethane over it and let dry, you can still read what variety a year later.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;638860]Do you mean transplanting, as in from one spot in the ground outside, to another spot outside?[/QUOTE]

Any transplanting any plant any way.

Worth

I transplanted 2 Early Girl that had been planted for about 3 weeks and were about 15" tall 2 weeks ago. For some reason I planted 4 of them in a 30 gallon container. I don't know what I was thinking, which apparently I wasn't. After being set for 3 weeks I transplanted 2 of them into a 30 gallon container of their own. I wondered for a couple of days if they would survive, but they have grabbed ahold nicely and are about 18" tall and looking very healthy.

I don't know if this is what you were looking for Worth, but it is transplanting, Oui?

I dug up some purslane out of the garden and transplanted into two containers. It never wilted or anything, and it came back in the containers this year.

Herbs are easy to split and transplant. Parsley, sage, chives and mint come back each spring and I have to split and move them to leave room for other annual herbs like rosemary and basil.

I pulled a kind of sicky tomato plant today.
Instead of composing I replanted it (transplanted) in the compost hill.
The plant was is wispy looking . Maybe that is its growth habit. The variety's name is FRANCHI.
I will report what will happen.

General transplanting results will vary. For example you can pull an onion and leave it there for a day or longer and then transplant it. It will grow. It is called transplant friendly. But as Worth said, you cannot do that with cucurbits. Even there is a risk in transplanting an overgrown cucumber seedling from a cell into ground right away.

Lettuce, cabbage family are also easy transplants. I just take them out of starter flat and plant them in the garden. Never have killed one.

But in general, for a good success rate, I water the transplant well. Let it drink all the water it needs then transplant it. After the transplanting I water it real good to the point of flooding.

Transplants like that need special care and need more frequent watering.

WHEN to transplant ?
Late in the day when it getting cooler and the sun is going down. Or when there is overcast skies.
I think we all have a way of doing it.

[QUOTE=pmcgrady;638872]Yeah I mark them with a sharpie, then spray clear polyurethane over it and let dry, you can still read what variety a year later.[/QUOTE]

What a great idea! I used slats from window blinds this year but I'm going to try clothes pins & poly too.

To boring.