HOW TO GROW TRANSPLANTS AT HOME

It's counterproductive to start seeds too early; this holds true whether you're planting indoors or in the garden. Young plants that are started too early will get long and stringy, and they'll do poorly when they're planted outdoors. The average date of last frost for your area is your reference point for when to plant each vegetable in the garden, and the chart at the end of the chapter will give you this date. Set your indoor planting date six to eight weeks ahead of your outdoor planting date. Follow this rule for each vegetable, and with this schedule, your plants will be sturdy enough to face the outside world when it's time to introduce them to it. Providing the right environment The purpose of growing transplants from seed is to provide them with the correct environment for the important early growth period. This requires both care and common sense on your part. Cleanliness, temperature, moisture, and light all contribute to the healthy development of your plants. The following are supplies — or conditions — you'll need in order to grow transplants at home. Planting medium. Young seedlings are subject to damping-off — a disease that can ruin your potential crop in infancy. Avoid disease problems by using a sterilized planting medium. Regular potting soil is too rich and will encourage the young plants to grow too quickly. Instead, buy a seed-starter medium from a reputable garden center.
Flats. These are low-sided plastic trays or containers used for planting seeds and are often subdivided into divisions for each half dozen or so plants. They're designed for use by nurseries and professional gardeners, and are usually sold wholesale. Make your own flats out of any shallow container that has sides a couple of inches high; an old cake pan is fine. Whatever container you use, be sure to punch a hole for drainage in the bottom.
Plantable containers. Some varieties of vegetables do not transplant well. They resent having their root systems disturbed and punish you by failing to thrive after transplanting. Among these varieties are corn, okra, beans, cucumbers, squashes, and watermelons. If you start these varieties Indoors you must use containers that can be planted along with the seedling. There are several kinds. Peat pots are simply compressed peat shaped into a plant pot, and they come in a number of shapes and sizes, so you can match them to the type of seedling you're growing, jiffy pellets are also made of compressed peat, but you buy them as little flat discs a couple of inches across. When you add water they rise to two or three Inches In height. Jiffy 7 pellets have a net wrapping holding the peat in place. This wrapping is supposed to disintegrate within a
year after being planted out in the garden; in fact, the wrapping doesn't always disintegrate that fast. Jiffy 9 pellets do not have the wrapping. They disintegrate faster in the soil, but crumble more easily with handling. You can buy trays to hold a dozen or more Jiffy pellets, or you can stand them side by side in a flat.
Labels and markers. It may seem like a bother to mark all your rows or containers, but It's worth it because it saves a lot of confusion. Cabbage family seedlings look much alike when young, as do hot and sweet peppers, or cherry and beefsteak tomatoes. The labels also tell you at a glance when you planted the seeds. This gives you a quick check on how seedlings out of the seedbed. Lift them from underneath with a knife, spatula, or stick, and hold them by their leaves to avoid permanent damage to the stems. Make a hole in the new planting medium deep enough to accept the roots without crowding, and set the seedling's roots into the hole. Press the soil gently around the roots. Water newly planted seedlings carefully to get rid of air pockets and to ensure that the roots will not dry out; then label them.
Caring for the seedlings
At this state of their development young seedlings have very definite requirements. They need temperatures that are a little on the cool side. For most vegetables a nighttime low of 55°F and a daytime high of 70°F is about right—if it's cooler, disease problems may show up; if it's warmer, the plants will get tall and spindly. It's also important that the seedlings get plenty of light—at least six hours of bright light a day. If your indoor space can't provide enough natural light for your vegetable seedlings, use artificial light as recommended earlier. The best kind are plant growth lights; they emit high levels of blue light, which encourages good stocky vegetative growth. The lights should be close to the leaves of the plants—about six to eight inches is ideal. Keep the lights on for about 12 hours a day; an automatic timer is handy if you're not going to be around.
Preparing your transplants for the garden
Clearly you cannot take these pampered young seedlings straight from their protected indoor setting into the cold, cruel garden. They'd literally die of shock. You have to prepare them for the change in environment, a process known in horticultural terms as hardening-off. You can do this by taking the plants outside during the day and bringing them back in at night for at least two weeks—keep them in, though, if there's likely to be a frost. You can also put them outside in a protected place—a cold frame or a large box—and cover them with a rug or blanket at night. This treatment will ready them for their final place in the vegetable garden.

BUYING TRANSPLANTS FOR YOUR GARDEN
A lot of people find that buying transplants from a reputable nursery or garden center is the easiest way to start their vegetable garden, providing high-quality transplants and few problems. Growing your own transplants from seed is a challenge to your growing skills; it requires a lot of time and planning.
and it can be messy. It's more expensive to buy transplants than to grow your own, and you have fewer varieties to choose from. But buying transplants is a lot less work, and if you buy wisely you can get high-quality plants.
Choose the vegetables you buy as transplants on the same principles that you'd use if you were going to grow your own from seed at home; base your decision on the length of your growing season and the flexibility of the plant variety. Plants that adjust without much difficulty to transplanting are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, and tomatoes. Celery, eggplant, onions, and peppers are slightly less tolerant and require more careful handling. Plants that do not transplant easily are beans, corn, cucumbers, okra, peas, summer and winter squash, and watermelons. Don't buy these vegetables as transplants unless your growing season is too short to let you grow from seed. If you do buy them as transplants, make sure they're in individual containers that can be planted with them.
Choosing healthy transplants
Always buy your transplants from a reputable source—a good nursery or garden center, or through the mail from an established supplier. The supermarket is not the place to look for vegetable plants. If you buy from an established source you know that the plants have been grown with care, and you know who to go to with questions or problems. If you're buying from a mail order seed company, the company will usually ship your plants at the right time for planting. If you're buying from a garden center or nursery, buy the transplants just before you
plan to set them in the garden, and take time to choose healthy young plants that are free of pests or diseases. Before you go to the nursery or garden center, make a written list of disease-resistant varieties, and stick to it. Check plants carefully before you buy, remembering that they're fragile and not made for manhandling. Check stems and leaves for any signs of pest or disease problems. Just before you buy them, slip a seedling out of its container to make sure that the roots are white and healthy. And , don't forget to find out if they've already been
hardened-off.
If you buy your transplants and find you can't put them into your garden right away, leave them outside in a sunny area. If they're tender varieties, bring them inside at night before the temperature drops. Remember, too, that your transplants are in very small containers and will use up the available supply of moisture quickly. Check them often and water them as necessary.

MOVING YOUR TRANSPLANTS OUTDOORS
When you move your own transplants or bought plants into the vegetable garden depends on the variety and your average date of last frost. Refer to the chart at the end of this chapter to find out when you can transplant each type of vegetable. Arrange them on the prepared soil bed so that you can judge the correct spacing. The spacing chart at the end of this chapter gives you detailed information on how much space each variety needs. If the vegetable will
need a support later — stakes for tomatoes, for instance, or trellises for beans — set the support at the time of planting. If you wait to stake or set up a support you risk damaging the plant's developing root system.
Dig a hole under each plant as you're ready to set it in the ground, then slip each plant gently out of its container—unless the seedling is in a plantable pot, in which case you plant the whole thing. If you're planting seedlings in peat pots, break off any part of the lip of the pot that might stick up out of the garden soil. If you leave the lip above the soil level it will act like a wick to dry out the soil inside the container, and this could kill the young plant. If the plant is in a clay
or plastic container and doesn't pop out easily, slide a knife carefully around the inside of the container.
Remember that bruising the stem can cause permanent damage to the young plant. If you have to handle the plant, hold it by the leaves, not the stem.
Set each transplant in the soil, and tamp the soil around it firmly with your hands.
Don't plant transplants too deep; set them at the same depth they were in the container. If they are tall and leggy, make a small trench and set the plant at an angle so that some of the stem is also under the soil and the remainder stands straight — the illustration on the next page shows how. This will mean that only as much stem as the plant can support comfortably is left above the ground so that the plant won't get top heavy as it develops.
When you've planted each seedling and firmed the soil with your hands, give it a good send-off with an application of a starter fertilizer. Starter fertilizers are high in phosphorus (the middle number on the fertilizer package), which stimulates root growth; if the roots are growing strongly, the rest of the plant will also grow sturdy and healthy. An ideal fertilizer is a 5-52-10 product—52 percent phosphorus in relation to other nutrients. Buy one that matches this formula as closely as possible. Mix the fertilizer with water according to the package directions, and carefully water each transplanted seedling with this solution.
Then relax—for the time being, you've done your best for your young plants. Refer to the following section, in which direct-seeding is discussed, for information on how to protect the plants from unforeseen threats like extreme temperatures, pests, and the like. Whether vegetables are grown from seed or transplants, they require the same care once they're in the garden. Follow the protective procedures indicated to keep your plants healthy until harvest time.