How to Pot Up Your Seedlings
This is the third installment of starting plants indoors. If you need a bit of a refresher or are just beginning, be sure to check out How to Start Seeds Indoors before you start, and How to Care For Your Seedlings: Four Essential Elements for Healthy Growth for tips on the care of your seedlings. Both are important foundations for starting plants indoors.
Everything about this time of year gets me excited. For starters, I get to play in the dirt to my heart’s content, and while it can be back breaking, you won’t hear me complain.
If you started your seedlings with a soiless mix, the only nutrients your little seedlings receive are from the endosperm of the planted seed.Once seedling begins to develop true leaves, nutrients from the endosperm are just about used up. .
At this stage, seedlings will need to be potted up, or a supplemental fertilizer will need to be given. A balanced fertilizer high in nitrogen and potassium should be applied at quarter strength to meet the necessary requirements your seedlings will need for healthy plant and root growth. Using a diluted fertilizer also helps to prevent burning your delicate seedlings. I typically sow seeds a little more densely to begin with, therefore I prefer potting up my seedlings to give them plenty of room for their roots to grow
If you time your seed starting correctly, it will only be necessary to pot up once. I use 3″ x 3″ biodegradable pots. By the time my plants near outgrowing these pots, it will be time to plant out.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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4 of 5 comments
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Thank you for your tips, I guess in a way I'm fortunate that my husband is on the road through the week, because once the weather gets good I'm out side digging in the dirt. I have a bad back so when my back finally is hurting to the point that I have to drag myself inside I can't do anything else but take a hot shower then a hot bath and that relieves me enough to warm up my evening meal and that is it, I'm done until the next day. That is why I get up early and do what I have to do in the house and I fix my evening meal so all I have to do is warm it up. I couldn't do that if my husband came home every day. Take care of your back, you don't want to end up like me. I always enjoy your posts, keep m coming.
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I'm a retired nurse, and that is how I ruined my back. We always did to much with to little help.
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@patty Agreed!
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