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Plant Out 3/5

caroltlw

caroltlw

The weather's looking up for the next week or so and the last batch I put on the ground has survived several frosy nights and 2 hard rains without difficulty.


Here's a group pic of some 4" potted seedlings that deperately wanted a more spacious home:
cartBottle.jpg



This is what a rootball on some of the oldest plants (jalapeno) looked like. I was tempted to trim them a little to encourage new growth but I was too scared I'd screw them up instead of helping them.
rootball.jpg



All planted! The bottom patch of dirt isn't ready yet so it will be for the ones that are still small now. The 7 plants on the far right are the ones I planted before.
plantOut.jpg



Spot the lizard!
One advantage of my planting area is the huge number of lizards who like to sun themselves on the logs. Built in bug control. Let's hope the cat doesn't go berserker on them some day.
lizard.jpg



More going into 1 gal containers today.
c.
 
Jealous!!

Nice looking.

If plants are badly root bound, not trimming the roots will be worse than overtrimming.

I have seen plants that were planted while rootbound that came out of the ground at the end of the season with the same container shape to the roots. Not good!;)
 
cheezydemon said:
If plants are badly root bound, not trimming the roots will be worse than overtrimming.

I have seen plants that were planted while rootbound that came out of the ground at the end of the season with the same container shape to the roots. Not good!;)
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Haven't had that problem before but I'm pushing it this year. Would you have trimmed some off the bottom of that ^ one?
 
Wah! I wanna be doing what you're doing!



One advantage of my planting area is the huge number of lizards who like to sun themselves on the logs. Built in bug control. Let's hope the cat doesn't go berserker on them some day.
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I have tons of lizards, too. Mostly anolis, but a surprising number of broadhead skinks. Alas, I too have a cat who likes to hunt lizards, only she brings hers inside and turns them loose. I'm forever having to catch lizards and take them back outside.
 
I have seen a mate shake the dirt off the roots quite violently before planting his plants are very healthy, probably because i gave them to him but anyway when i saw him do it i was like WTF you are gunna kill em!
 
Beautiful pepper garden with the log border looks great. Nursery quality starts on your cart. I have also seen plants come out of the ground with the same root ball as planted. Yours look fine.
 
Novacastrian said:
I have seen a mate shake the dirt off the roots quite violently before planting his plants ...
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I would faint if I saw that! I'm having warm, sunny weather for a week and I don't want to have to shade them if I can help it. I figured root pruning might give them a hard time getting water right away. Maybe just a trim though ... ?

Here's an example.
2deArbols.jpg


These 2 are both deArbols but the one on the right is really old and the other not so old. I think I will trim the old one's roots before I repot it today. I can move it to shade if need be.
 
caroltlw said:
Haven't had that problem before but I'm pushing it this year. Would you have trimmed some off the bottom of that ^ one?
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I wouldn't have trimmed any off, I would just pull it apart a bit. It will be fine, I was just commenting in case you have any that are more root bound than those.
 
Ha! I was looking so hard at the plants that I just now noticed the bottle in front of them.
 
I wouldn't touch the roots on either of those two plants. I can see just dirt in the drain hole of both plants, no roots. Those pots are big enough for that size plant.
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
I wouldn't touch the roots on either of those two plants. I can see just dirt in the drain hole of both plants, no roots. Those pots are big enough for that size plant.
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OK thanks. That deArbol is the oldest one I have left to pot up. It started as a germination test for the dried peppers I bought and I didn't have the heart to kill all of them off. It has been subjected to ungodly cold and lost a lot of younger leaves to frostbite before I got my greenhouse routine down. Needless to say it's a bit stunted.
 
Put me down in the crowd that would not trim roots. Bury the plants up to their bottom leaves, add a generous amount to water to the roots, cover with dirt and add a little more water.

Beautiful plants, Carol, but aren't they going to be a little crowded when fully grown? It's hard to gauge from the picture but they do not look very far apart.

Mike
 
Pam said:
Ha! I was looking so hard at the plants that I just now noticed the bottle in front of them.
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Heh. I really like the beer bottle measuring-up tool.
Here's another - cayenne from first plant out trying real hard to set fruit bless his wittle heart. I figure let nature take its course on that issue rather than nip the buds. Flowers attract BEES!

cayenneBottle.jpg
 
wordwiz said:
Beautiful plants, Carol, but aren't they going to be a little crowded when fully grown? It's hard to gauge from the picture but they do not look very far apart.

Mike
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Yeah, I don't have room to do rows so I went with around 18+" spacing in a staggered pattern with a little more room for some than others. This is a raised bed I made last fall since the soil here is almost pure sand and I can't really till anything because of all the (living) tree roots. I can walk around the raised bed and down the center path so don't really need to get in between the rows. They should make a nice canopy. I figure it's better than the 3 gal pots I used last year... which is where my Plan B plants are destined.
 
I definitely wouldn't cut any roots or do anything to cause any transplant shock. Most of my plants get rootbound like yours and I never have a problem just potting up normally, or planting in the ground.
 
POTAWIE said:
I definitely wouldn't cut any roots or do anything to cause any transplant shock. Most of my plants get rootbound like yours and I never have a problem just potting up normally, or planting in the ground.
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I took a chance on a few more jalapenos and pulled the roots a bit where they were bunched up in the corner. Tore off some of the excess that unwrapped and watered them in as usual. Showing no signs of shock so far but I won't know for a while if it helped or not.
 
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