Re Potting

[Grow 4 Food]

How important is it to repot your veggie plants? I am growing them now in a float bed and they seem to be doing fine. Do I really need to put them in a bigger pot? If I decide that I dont need the second plant that is growing in some of the spaces can I just cut it off instead of risking hurting the other sprouts roots?

 

[patandchickens]

It is definitely fine to just snip off seedlings you want to thin. That is really BETTER for the remaining seedling than trying to dig up and 'rescue' the surplus ones. So if you want to do it that way, snip away

Whether you need to repot is very "it depends". If you expect the plant will be able to stay in its current container til you are ready to transplant it into the ground or its final container, then I would leave it alone. If it's something that does not transplant cheerfully, I owuld leave it alone unless it is conspicuously hurtin' right now (and if it is, frankly you'd probably be better to replant another batch). But if a plant is really starting to outgrow its current home with no likely prospects of Final Transplanting on the horizon, it is wise to pot it on.

And tomatoes actually *enjoy* being potted on -- you certainly don't have to do it, and can stimulate them to put out extra roots by other means if you want instead, but they DO do well with repeated repotting.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[digitS']

I agree with Pat but what do you mean by "float bed," Grow 4 Food? Is that part of an "ebb and flow" hydroponic system?

I've said on here that I sometimes transplant tomatoes to 3" pots. Actually, I really prefer not to. The ones that often end up transplanted are the eggplants. Tender babies, unexpected cold weather keeps them indoors.

The pots I like to use are about 3" and square - 18 pots in a flat. The flat is the standard size, about 12" by 20".

Right now, things like this are in 4-cell inserts, 48 plants to the flat. Yes, it would be nice if they were given the room and living as 18 plants to the flat. But, what I'll be doing is taking 3 flats of plants and turning them into 8 flats of plants! They would appreciate it but I have to find room for those flats . (Also, that quite a lot potting soil . . .)

Steve

Edited to ask: And, what do you mean by "good ole' Prembrook For Seed beds!" I've long wanted to ask you .

 

[Grow 4 Food]

A "float" bed is a styrofoam tray that is used to grow tobacco plants. Mine have 1x1 inch squares that you fill with potting soil and place one seed in. Then you "float" them in a slightly larger tray filled with water. There in about an 1/8 inch hole in the bottom of the tray to soak up water (or water and feed). As long as you keep water in the bottom tray they drink as needed. I set them on my shelf/light stand in my hot room and just let them grow.

Just for grins last year we left some squash plants in them and kept them watered and fed and actually harvested squash off the plants in a 1x1 in soil

Pembrook is a soils type and for where I live you are lucky to have it. You usually have clay or lime stone, unlike the good soil that I am used to having in Illinois.

 

[Grow 4 Food]

I am such a freakin idiot. I re potted all the well developed plants. Better Boys, San Marzono, Sweet 100 Cherry, and peppers. They have been in the hot room with a fan a heater and a grow light. I thought this would be a good time to start hardening them a little as well. I figured I would leave them in the sun for an hour or 2 and they would be fine. So I re potted them and watered them and put them outside. AND I THINK I COOKED THEM!!!!!! Such an idiot, I know better then to water in the warmest part of the day. All my work to start from seed is now wasted. I didnt pitch them hopeing they will come back around.

 

[vfem]

Put them back in their safety area before the sun time. Give them a few days and you'll probably see new healthy leaves coming in. Give them a chance... they'll do good, don't give up.

Also, when hardening... no direct sun for the first day or 2. I've learned the hard way. I've killed plenty.

FILTERED SUN for sure. Then they can have a few hours of full sun when they've gone without it, but have become used to the suns rays shortly, some winds and breezes they have to learn to bear as well.

I hope that helps... let us know if they come back... I really hope they do. (I've seen them burn the leaves white (bleached) and black, and I've seen new growth to recovery.)

 

[Grow 4 Food]

They jus wilted down like they were dead . I put them on the covered deck next to the house hoping they will recover. I wont get rid of them until they are brown.

On an up note I did take 6-8 brussel sprout plants straight from the float tray and put them in the ground and they seem to be living (which really suprised me). I started puting a see through plastic cup (yellow) with the bottom cut out around them and the broc and cabbage (mainly to keep rabbits off until they are bigger) and I think it seems to be helping. Not sure if it is holding heat or heating faster or what but so far so good.

 

[digitS']

Thank you, Grow 4 Food, for your explanations. I am sorry you are having problems with your plant starts.

After repotting, I put plants under the table in complete shade, for a day or 2. Transplanting to the garden is tuff, most of us know after some disasters. I will often make a little half-teepee with a piece of newspaper and a couple of rocks on the south side of the plant -- for shade.

In a tiny plastic pot, disturbed roots with little soil to buffer them give limited help to the plant. In the sun, the plant's leaves will require too much from the roots. No doubt, the roots are drawing from the plant's reserves to heal and grow a little before they can turn things around and contribute to the plant's well-being.

Steve