Part III: Getting Down to Earth in VS .NET

Maker EAN-13 Supplement 5 in VS .NET Part III: Getting Down to Earth

If you ve sown seeds in a sterile seed-starting mix, you must fertilize your seedlings shortly after their first true leaves appear Feed them every week to 10 days with a diluted solution of equal parts of fish and seaweed emulsion (use 1 tablespoon of each per gallon of water); compost tea (see 7 for our recipe); or other liquid organic fertilizer

Seedlings need room to grow below, as well as above, the soil surface As soon as your plants start to develop their second set of true leaves which look different from their original seed leaves, or cotyledons they re ready to be on their own If they re growing in cell packs, choose the biggest, healthiest seedling in each cell and remove the rest This process is called thinning You can thin by transplanting the extra seedlings to their own pots, but in most cases, it s better to simply snip off the extras with a pair of scissors If you re tempted to try to transplant the extra seedlings to new containers, consider two things: Do you really need all those seedlings If you planted basil seeds in 2 cell packs, each with 6 cells, you probably intended to grow 12 basil plants (enough for all but the most ambitious pesto makers) If you sowed 3 seeds per cell and they all came up, you re looking at 36 basil plants Unless you re planning to give some away or start selling pesto, that s too many for one garden Are you willing to sacrifice the best seedling Prying up and transplanting the extra seedlings invariably disturbs the roots of the remaining seedling, which can slow its growth or, even kill it So, as painful as it is, in most cases, it s better to snip off the extra plants at the soil line and discard them

Depending on the type of plant and the size of the pot, you may need to transplant young seedlings from their cell packs into larger pots Gardeners call this task potting up, or potting on When you pot up, use containers that are only a little larger than the ones your seedlings were growing in Fill each with lightly moistened soil-less mix, and then use your finger or a pencil to make a planting hole

Be gentle when removing the seedlings from their cell packs Be sure to hold seedlings by the leaves, not the stems, and never pull them from the soil seedling roots are small and easily damaged Either prick seedlings out with the tip of a knife or turn the container upside down to dislodge the root ball (the roots and the soil that surrounds them) Inspect each seedling before you move it to larger quarters If it s pale or sickly, toss it Set each seedling slightly deeper than it was growing before and gently firm the soil around the roots Water, set the containers away from bright light for 24 hours to let the seedlings recover from being transplanted, and then move them back into bright light

Purchasing young herb plants is a great idea if you don t have the space, energy, or patience to start from seed You also may not have the time to take care of seedlings Perennial herbs, such as bee balm and scented geranium, take a year or more before they re good-sized, so many gardeners purchase plants rather than grow them from seed You can find herb plants in a range of pot sizes, from cell packs (with four or six plants to a pack) to gallon pots Usually, the smaller the plant, the less expensive it is, but that doesn t mean small plants are necessarily a better value than larger ones Annual herbs usually grow quickly, so buying small plants makes sense, as long as the plants haven t outgrown their pots Perennial herbs, on the other hand, tend to grow more slowly, so if you re in a hurry to start harvesting or to fill in a gap in the garden, larger plants may be a better bet, even if they re more expensive Just as important as size is the overall health of the plant Small, healthy plants will often catch up to and surpass bigger, older plants that have received poor care at the nursery Here are some signs that plants haven t been properly tended: Plants have yellowed or wilted leaves Both signal that bad things have happened to a good plant, probably over- or underwatering and/or lack of fertilizer Plants are tall and spindly You re not picking players for an NBA franchise Tall and spindly means a plant has received too little light and/or has been growing too long in a too-small container Plants have lots of roots coming out the bottom of the container, or the root ball looks like a solid mass of roots with little or no soil This condition means the plant is pot-bound it s been in cramped quarters longer than was good for it and it s unlikely to flourish, even after you plant it in your garden