Hello and welcome back.
At the start of the growing season, you’ll be moving plants onto bigger pots pretty often.
This short video will show you how to pot on larger seeded crops, like squash, pumpkin,
courgettes or cucumber.
These are our courgette seedlings, which have happily grown a decent pair of leaves while
sitting on our windowsill.
They are ready to move into a bigger pot and to go outside.
The first step is to grab a pot.
Something around this size will do the trick.
If you choose something too small, you’ll need to repot again as soon as the roots have
filled it.
If you pick something too large, then it will be tricky to transplant it into the ground
later.
Fill it to the top with compost.
Don’t stress or spend too much here.
An all purpose or general compost will be just fine.
Don’t press it down either, we want it nice and fluffy.
We use a compost rather than general soil because it’s lighter, which means the seedling
can grow roots easier and it’s full of nutrients in a small space, so the plant doesn’t have
to work so hard to get everything it needs.
Then, using a stick, a dibber, or just your finger, make a hole in the top of the compost
like so.
Next we need to remove the seedling from its current pot or tray.
This can be done in a few ways:
If your growing in a seed tray, use a spoon and gently scoop out each seedling, being
really careful not to damage any roots If you’ve grown the seedlings in a pot,
they’ll sometimes drop out by turning the pot over, and catching it in your hand.
Other times, you may have to cut away the sides of the pot like so.
Lay the seedlings out in a tray, like so and, if you’ve grown many together, gently ease
them apart by removing the compost and untangling the roots.
This is easier to do when the compost is wet, so give it a spray of water if it’s dry.
You’ll be left with your seedlings, with a small root ball at the bottom like so.
If you’re new to handling seedlings, hold them by the leaf rather than the stem.
The leaves are surprisingly strong and can be damaged without killing the plant.
If you snap the stem though, it will definitely die.
Adjust the size of the hole, if you need to, and then place the seedling into it.
You want the leaves at the top of the pot like so.
Bring in the compost around the stem and gently firm it down to secure the plant in place.
Note here, that if we hadn’t filled the pot to the very top earlier, then the seedling
would be shadowed a little by the sides of the pot.
We want the seedling as high up as possible to get as much light as it can, and to have
the most room to grow its roots.
Repeat this process for each seedling you have.
Even if you’re planning to only transplant one into the garden later, it’s worth potting
on more, in case any get damaged or bothered by pests.
It also means you can plant out the biggest and strongest of the group and you can give
others away to friends or family as a gift.
Lastly, this compost was quite dry and this seedling will quickly die without moisture.
The easiest way to water them is to sit them in a tray and pour water into the tray like
so.
Leave them for around 15 minutes.
If there’s still water in the tray after, and the compost is moist, tip the excess away.
We don’t want them sat in water.
If after 15 minutes, the tray is empty, add a little more until the pot has soaked up
all it can.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
I have some more on the channel showing you how to then plant out into the garden later
in the year.
I’ll tag one for you at the end of the video.
If you have any questions or advice for others, please pop them down in the comments and the
community will help if it can.
Thank you as always to my patrons for their support and here are some other videos that
you may be interested in, including how to grow courgette from seed to serving.
Take care and happy growing.