Transplanting Herbs
Your seedlings will have to be "hardened off" before you can plant them outside. Basically you start off by keeping your plants in a sheltered location. Then you increase the amounts of time outdoors while giving them less and less protection. This allows them to get used to the sun, wind, and rain a little at a time and gives the plant time to become strong enough to handle all of these without keeling over. Any vegetable gardening book will cover this process in depth.
As far as the others, sow the seeds for basil and cilantro in situ, meaning directly in the bed where they will be growing.
Tips to use for optimum results in transplanting -
assuming your destination soil is prepared and ready to go:
1) Prepare your destination location. Dig the destination holes. Make sure it is nutrient rich with up to 50% compost from multiple sources per square foot and ready to go.
2) Make sure the plant is hydrated. If in a container, submerge the container in a bucket or tub of water and hold it down until all air bubbles are out. Then leave it there for 20 minutes so it can take a good, long drink. Do not soak overnight. You'll smother your plant if you do that. Please do not keep roots underwater overnight. More plants die from too much water than from dehydration. Plants recover better from dehydration than from the roots being deprived of oxygen. Keep in mind that roots need equal parts water, oxygen, and nutrients.
If in the ground, water well a good 2-4 hours before moving.
Want to make it even better? Fill the bucket of water early in the day in a sunny area so it can warm up resulting in sun warmed water.
3) Move plants in the evening when the sun is less direct. Don't disturb plants until you are ready to transplant in the new location. Get them transplanted before dark and they will have one whole night to relax and adjust to their new home before dealing with light. Never let roots sit in sun or wind.
4) Move plants when it is not windy. Sun and wind are hard on roots, if even for a few minutes so avoid it if at all possible.
5) Transplant before a rain.This is the most recommended and has the highest success rate. Especially if it's going to rain the next day and you can plant the evening before. Try it... you'll see.
6) Dig around the plant at least as wide as the edges of the outer leaves and depending on the size of the plant, 6-8 inches down - less if the plant is smaller, more if the plant is larger. If the plant is a small shrub like rosemary, dig around the plant a few inches further then the outer edges of the leaves. You can quickly determine where the majority of the root system is and what is best to dig out.
7) Be Gentle. Never handle young plants only by the stem (you wouldn't want someone picking you up only by your neck), always support the base (for seedlings you may handle by the leaves). Keep as much of the soil around the root in tact as possible. In addition to the root system you can see with your eye, there is an entire system you can not see called mycorrhizas which are anatomically intimate associations between fine (feeder) roots of plants and some special soil borne fungi. If you disturb the soil around the roots, you disturb this delicate system.
If it is root-bound, then you'll have to gently loosen the roots so they don't continue to strangle themselves.
8) Once you get your plant where you want it, fill in with soil, and water it in (again, best with sun warmed water) so the surrounding area is moistened.
That's it! You're done and you can feel confident you gave your transplant the best chance of a stress free change you could possibly do. |
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