Transplanting into the Garden

 
Moving your starts to the garden is a little more involved than digging a hole and putting them in the ground. You need to know the best time to move them, how to harden them off before planting them outside, and some other vital tips.
When Is the Best Time to Transplant?
The best time to move starts to the garden is highly dependent on how tolerant they are to cold temperatures.
To understand when you can transplant, you need to know if your veggies are classified as cool-season or warm-season vegetables.
  • Cool-season crops love the lower temperatures of spring and fall and do not like high temps. They are typically also more cold-tolerant and may be able to handle light frost so that they can go in the ground earlier in the spring, sometimes before the chance of frost is over.
  • Warm-season vegetables like the high heat of summer and typically aren’t cold-tolerant. You can’t transplant them until after the chance of spring frost is gone.
Hardening Plants Before Moving Them Outdoors
When you start your seeds indoors, the plants have become accustomed to indoor conditions. To minimize transplant shock caused by moving them outdoors, you need to begin acclimating them to the different sunlight and temperature about a week before moving the plant to the garden. This process is known as hardening off.
Set the plants outside for a few hours in a sunny spot protected from the wind, bringing them in at night. Every day put them outside a bit longer until it’s time to transplant.
Tips and Techniques for Transplanting
  • Dig a hole at least twice as wide and one and a half times as deep as the container the seedlings are in before transplanting.
  • Remove plants from their container carefully to avoid damaging their roots.
  • Water the garden soil before transplanting so it is damp but not overly wet.
  • Plant tomato transplants deeply. You can bury them past their first set of leaves to encourage roots to form along the entire part of the buried stem.
  • Plant other vegetables at the same depth they were in their containers.
  • Make sure you space plants at their recommended distance apart. Plants compete with neighboring vegetable plants when planted too closely, and no one receives the resources needed for optimal growth.
  • Work in overcast or drizzly weather if possible. If this isn’t in the forecast, plant early in the morning before the sun gets too hot.
Protecting Your Transplants from Weather and Pests
The first few weeks your starts are in the garden, you need to keep a close eye on the weather. If there is an unexpected chance of frost, cover them to protect them from cold damage. Also, watch closely for pest problems since the new plants are more susceptible to infestation.
An excellent way to protect against both is to use row cover tunnels for the first weeks until your starts get established.