Vegetables
and
Annual Flowers |
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But youre not out of the woods yet! You'll still need to check your seedlings every day and that they arent growing up into the lights. Remember, you want to keep the lights an inch or two above the tips of the plants. Seedlings grow at different rates, so it can be a challenge to adjust the lights to suit all your plants. One way to tackle this is to have a number of small pieces of 1" thick wood to prop up shorter seedlings to the appropriate heights. Watering Thin,
Thin, Thin Once
you see the first set of "true leaves" -- not counting the seed
leaves -- you need to check on the crowding situation. You want only one
plant growing in each cell of a six-pack, each peat pot, or any other
small container. You have two choices. You can transplant the extra seedlings
to different containers, or simply snip off the extras at the soil line. |
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Snipping them off is the best option, because it doesn't disturb the roots of the one you are saving. It hurts, but you have to do it! Otherwise, instead of one vigorous plant you'll have 2 or 3 weak, spindly plants in each container. Think carefully before you decide to transplant the extras. Do you really need a dozen extra tomato plants? Is it worth risking damaging the roots of the six you really want? Fertilizing
your Seedlings Don't overdo it -- more is definitely NOT better! Never apply a more concentrated solution than is recommended on the label, or you can damage plant roots. Youve sown your seeds, and theyre up and growing! In the next class well talk about planting and transplanting outdoors. Transplanting Class 3, Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Copyright 2002,
National Gardening Association. All Rights Reserved. |