How to Thin and Transplant Seedlings in a Vegetable Garden
As you sow vegetable seeds in a garden, standard practice involves planting the seeds closer together than you want the mature plants to grow. This gives you more seedlings than you need to allow for a percentage of the seeds to fail. When the seedlings reach the proper height, you must thin them to allow the strongest plants to continue to grow. Instead of wasting the thinned seedlings, thin and transplant seedlings in a vegetable garden to give the removed seedlings a chance to grow too. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Garden fork
- Trowel
- Watering can or hose with spray nozzle
- Fork
- Small tray
Instructions
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Prepare the area where you will plant the thinned seedlings before you remove them from the soil. Cultivate the soil gently with the garden fork or trowel and dig small holes for the seedlings to enable you to plant them at the same depth as they are currently growing. Make the holes the recommended distance apart for the mature plants.
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2
Water the area where the seedlings are currently growing to make it easier to remove them from the soil.
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3
Insert the tines of the fork into the soil about 1 inch away from a seedling. Loosen the soil gently around the seedling with the fork and lift it gently from the soil. Try not to damage or disrupt the root system of the seedling, taking some soil around the roots along with the seedling as you remove it from the ground. Place the seedling on the small tray to hold it.
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4
Transfer the seedling to a prepared hole immediately and fill additional soil in around the roots gently with your fingers. Pat the soil carefully to finish transplanting the seedling.
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5
Repeat the process with each seedling until you successfully transplant each thinned seedling.
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Firm the soil back down where you removed the seedlings to ensure that the seedlings that will continue to grow in this area do not experience damage. Water this soil evenly.
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Water the seedlings in their new growing area immediately, saturating the soil evenly. Keep the soil evenly moist for several days while the seedlings acclimate to their new growing location.
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Tips & Warnings
Thin and transplant seedlings when the seedlings develop the first set of true leaves -- four leaves altogether.
References
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
