In this quick video we're going to walk through six key steps that you need to know in order to
transplant your plants that you grew inside or bought from the store out into your garden
successfully follow these tips and you'll be on your way to a beautiful and successful garden
this is tim from organic backyard gardening the first step is hardening off your plants
about 10 to 14 days ahead of transplanting out while your plants are growing indoors
they're very used to the stable temperature and they're not used to seeing the bright
sunlight so what you need to do each day is give them a little bit more exposure outdoor to get
used to this new climate for the first couple days make sure they don't receive direct sunlight
by looking at your plant out date you can figure out when to start this process
for cool weather crops you transplant out ahead of your last frost date
where warm weather crops like eggplants and tomatoes and peppers are typically transplanted
out after your last expected frost date plants that you bought at a home garden center or nursery
may already be hardened off so you might be able to skip this step you may want to ask when buying
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the bell to be notified when we post new videos the next step is to ensure that the seedlings are
thoroughly soaked before transplanting this will help minimize transplantation shock
step three space accordingly in a nutrient-rich soil you want to make
sure that you space your transplants that optimizes space and maximizes yields on my
website i have a helpful post which i put a link into the description below
this highlights all of the optimal spacing for many of the common vegetables in our
plans you'll notice that in the gardening layout we've outlined how much to plant per square foot
in this example one pepper per square foot two kale four swiss chard nine beans per square foot
make sure that you have nutrient-rich soil and you're adding compost to each garden bed yearly
now that you've fully watered your seedlings and have a nutrient-rich bed
inspect your plants roots as you take them out of the containers take a look at the roots
in this example these roots are perfect and ready for transplanting
you'll notice that they're not root bound and they're not very coiled you can plant
these directly without any intervention in contrast let's take a look at these kale plants
these were in their small pots for too long they should have either been
up potted or planted sooner you can see that the roots are all balled up you can help them out
by splitting up the roots gently before transplanting them i do this by using my
hands but you also can take scissors and cut the base of the roots in this
example
step five add mulch mulch is very important because it keeps moisture in the soil it
gives organic matter for earthworms to feast on it adds organic matter back into the soil
and it suppresses weeds in this example i'm using wood chips from a stump that was ground up
on my property you also can use straw dead leaves or unfinished compost
the last step is to water you want to make sure that you keep your plant moist to avoid
transplant shock and as an optional step you can also give the plant some liquid soluble fertilizer
i like to use the organic fish and seaweed fertilizer this liquid-soluble fertilizer makes
nitrogen easily accessible to the plant giving the plant a boost and minimizing any transplant shock
i'll put a link to this product in the description below
thanks for watching if you have any questions please post them in the comments below
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