Small Town News

Easy steps to follow for transplanting a healthy garden

---

GARDEN JOURNAL

Our gardens are often really gardens of immigrants. Just as humans have transplanted themselves to every continent, our garden plants often began life far away. Tomatoes from central and South America, melons and okra from Africa and Asia, eggplants from southern Asia.

For a successful immigrant or a successful garden you gotta have heart. Or just transplant one into your garden While the first human tissue transplant from one person to another took place in 1951, it wasn't until 1967, when Dr. Christiaan Barnard transplanted one heart to another human, that things took off. Transplanting in the garden sense is recorded as a word from about 1440, and literally means to "plant again in a different place." Most gardeners buy tomatoes, peppers and flowers as started plants.

Unfortunately these seedlings have been grown in warm humid greenhouses often hundreds of miles from where they are sold.

Moving a plant from a warm, humid greenhouse to a windy, dry and cool garden can cause trauma or even kill the plant.

So you will need to toughen the plants up or "harden off' the plants before setting them out.

For tender plants keep them on a porch or unheated garage out of direct sun

You can also set them in dappled shade out of the wind, and bring them back indoors at night

Keep your plants well watered, but not soggy.

Choose an overcast day or early morning to set out your transplants.

To see if your soil is ready for planting there are a few old farm tricks. Take a handful of your garden soil and form it into a ball in your hands. If it stays in a ball shape it means it's too wet for planting. Wet soil will rot seeds.

Or you can make a ball of soil and drop it from your waist to the ground. If the ball of dirt crumbles, your garden is ready for seeding. If the ball of dirt holds its shape or breaks into two clumps, the soil is too wet for planting.

Or you can just step into the garden and then step back quickly. If your footprint in the soil is shiny, then there's probably too much water to begin planting.

Anything that warms soil temperature will help plants adjust to the shock of cold ground. Black plastic mulch will really increase soil temperature as well as keep out weeds, and it is great for melons and tomatoes and any other heat-loving plants. Raised beds will heat up before the surrounding ground. Many gardeners still plant crops in clusters of raised dirt known as "hills." Even slightly mounded hills a few inches higher than the rest of the garden will heat up sooner and drain better. This will speed up germination

Plants grown in hills are allowed to sprawl as they mature. Mature plants, particularly winter squashes and pumpkins, require considerable space. Or you can just wait and when the weeds start to grow in your garden, it's time to plant.

Prepare the garden bed so that the soil is well worked and loose. This will allow water to reach the roots but still drain well.

If your soil is very dry pour about a cup of water into the hole before setting the plant in. Tamp down the soil all around the plant so that the roots connect with the dirt and there are no air pockets. Water well immediately after planting.

To hold in moisture and cut down on weeds, put down mulch Phosphorus will promote strong root development, so feed your transplants with a very weak solution of liquid organic fertilizer.

Set out your transplants, keep them well watered and fed and your garden will be a truly American one of immigrants and natives growing together. A lesson there for us all.

Paul Barbano writes about gardening from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Contact him by writing to P.O. Box 213, Lewes, de 19958.





© 2010 Cape Gazette Lewes, Delaware. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from Cape Gazette