purpose of "up-potting?

[Smithyard Farm]

curious on why do we keep moving the seedlings, or sprouts into bigger and bigger cups... is there a reason we do not jut put them in the bigger pot (cup) to begin with?

 

[NwMtGardener]

Haha, i have wondered about this as well. It will be interesting to see what others think. I dont know why I do it!

 

[digitS']

You are expecting logic maybe??!

Okay, I've only got so much room in this south window for me, the desktop and a table full of plant starts. If they are all growing, cheek to jowl, in community containers, I can get a few thousands right here at my elbow for a week or 2. Then, they can go out to the bigger world of the greenhouse, where they are allowed more room.

Tomatoes can be up-potted and the stem buried more deeply.

Potting soil is kind of expensive . . . what if your tiny seed does nothing? What if it lives a week or 2 and dies? Should you even reuse the soil?

Steve

 

[dick]

When I plant seeds indoors I plant way more to a container than it will support. I could just thin out the weak sprouts and leave one to each container cell, or just plant a couple of seeds per cell.
I don't, I take and "broadcast" the seeds as I always have a bunch of out dated ones to use up an I'm not sure of what kind of grow percentage I'll get.
Peppers are a good example, they take some time to break the soil and I don't get nearly as many of them as tomatos or eggplant.
I sell a lot of plants and they will be quite large by planting time.
Right now my problem is the weather, if it stays as cold as it is now, through Feb and I can't use my greenhouse I don't know where I'll find places to keep these seedlings.

So the answer is, no you don't have to up pot if you wait until the proper time to plant indoors.
right now is way too early for us in the midwest!!!!but I still do it.

THANX RICH

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do a lot of things wrong. I don’t “up-pot” but I plant tomatoes on a way I can add dirt and bury part of the stem. It’s a space thing. I take a plastic bin, put in a false bottom so it can drain, and ad maybe 2-1/2” of dirt. I cut the bottom out of a small yogurt cup, write information on the side of that, and push that down in the top. I plant the seeds and, as they grow, just move the cup up and add dirt. One of my sins is that I may grow 2 or 3 plants inside one of those yogurt cups and gently tear them apart when I plant them in the garden. I don't sell them like Dick. I probably don't plant nearly as many as many people on here either.


Another of my sins with tomatoes is if the plants get too big, I prune the top out of them, cut them back to size. Since mine are crowded they can get long and lanky, even with light coming in from the sides. I only grow indeterminates so I’m not concerned with cutting them back. I wouldn’t do this with determinates. I normally wind up with plants maybe a foot long with fairly thick stems.


When I cleaned my garden this fall, I dug some tomatoes and peppers. I always bury them as deep as I can when I plant them. The tomatoes had a root cluster at every buried stem joint, the peppers not nearly as much.


I think with tomatoes, up-potting is good for them. You bury them deeper each time so they create more roots at each buried joint. You certainly could up-pot to the largest pot to start with, but they might lose some benefit of being reburied, unless maybe you re-pot in a way you can add more dirt as they grow. I’m not sure the other plants benefit as much as tomatoes, but about the only things I start from

 

[digitS']

. . . seed indoors.

I am learning some things! First, peppers have always been the most stifled plants in the growing environment that I can provide for them. Putting heat into the greenhouse made a difference but I'm pretty sure they'd still like to have it about 10· warmer than the tomatoes would. I used to set out the tiniest peppers. They looked like child survivors of a 10th century Icelandic famine!

Anyway, I can't imagine ripping them out of a community container or pinching them back as RidgeRunner gets away with in his tomato-growing. I think we can trust RidgeRunner to do that with a surgeon's skill.

The common container with the yogurt cup collars sounds like a good idea! I can also imagine that as double. One cup inside the other, lifted and more soil added as needed. It might work best if that collar was split so that it would be less likely to lift any soil as it's pulled up.

I grow lettuce right thru to transplanting in common containers. I don't know what to call them - not 6-packs or 4-packs . . . 1-packs?

Steve

 

[canesisters]

And here I was thinking that up-potting was just busy work for those of us who can't control ourselves and start seeds WAY too early.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Cane (I guess we're back on first name basis) when you clean things out of your garden you normally transplant and start from your seeds indoors like tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, whatever, you might dig them up and see how the roots grow. That might give you an idea about what might benefit from up-potting.

 

[ducks4you]

Up potting is necessary for tomatoes. I've put on young plants without nice deep roots and they didn't make it. When you keep repotting tomatoes all of the leaves and many hairs create lots of roots. When your tomato plant has many roots before you plant, AND if you dig a nice deep hole with loose soil, your plant can get it's own water pretty quickly.
I think the reason we up pot is the same reason we don't start houseplants in way oversized containers. The water sinks past the shallow roots, and the tiny seedling dies of drought.

 

[catjac1975]

I do not do too much up potting more for space than anything else. I grow my seedlings in 6 packs for the most part. I will plant a few plants in larger pots to give them a head start over the others. I have read that, especially with house plants, that they prefer a slow increase in pot size. I have used large pots for small seedlings and the plants do not seem to like it.

 

[NwMtGardener]

I think the reason we up pot is the same reason we don't start houseplants in way oversized containers. The water sinks past the shallow roots, and the tiny seedling dies of drought.

Ahhh, that makes a lot of sense to me Ducks!