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Transplanting plants

tommiek

tommiek

Hey guys,

I am at a loss regarding when to move my plants into bigger pots to carry on growing.
So far, they are all in little black seedling pots in this seed raising mix. they are starting to grow (all at different paces) and I want some advice from all you more experienced chili growers to get my chili's off to their best possible start in life.
I am not expecting them to need to be transplanted yet, but I'd like to know in advance so I can have time to sort it all as I am rather busy at the moment
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Star performers so far...

Thanks in advance!!
TK :)
 
In my limited experience, looking at your picture I would say not yet. If you have a further away pic to see the scale of the pot they are in would help. I just started a whole lot of seeds in tiny little pots and their roots poked out the bottom too soon. Transplanting the seedlings too many times will slow their growth as they have to spend their energy and time growing stabilising roots and not getting big above ground.
 
megamoo said:
In my limited experience, looking at your picture I would say not yet. If you have a further away pic to see the scale of the pot they are in would help. I just started a whole lot of seeds in tiny little pots and their roots poked out the bottom too soon. Transplanting the seedlings too many times will slow their growth as they have to spend their energy and time growing stabilising roots and not getting big above ground.
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Here is a picture with the pots in better view. How long do you recommend to wait until they should be transplanted?
Cheers
TK

(Edited to add photo)

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The books all say to wait until two or three real leaves are out, (not the seed leaves). With chillies you will want to transplant as little as possible, apparently they don't like their roots messed with. But for something like Basil, I have pulled the bunches of seedlings with only their seed leaves apart and left them in the sun for five minutes and stuck them in dirt and they just carry on like nothing's happenned.

I'm about to go right now and plant a whole lot of seeds in large pots so that they will be transplanted only once into their final position, either pot or garden bed.

edit: I didn't really answer your question. You should wait until they get a few sets of leaves, but you should also watch for the roots coming out the pot drain holes. If the roots don't have anywhere to grow, the size of the plant will be limited. If it gets too big it will dry out quickly.
 
I transplant up when the second set of true leaves are forming. From your pics, you may have another week before they are ready. You can also wait a bit longer, like when the second set is nearly full size.

Hope that helps!
jacob
 
Once the plants are rootbound, pot up.
If you're bottom watering it shouldn't take long before you see roots coming out the bottom of the pots. This is usually a good time to pot up since there should be a solid rootball that can be removed/repotted easily meaning little or no transplant shock
 
POTAWIE said:
Once the plants are rootbound, pot up.
If you're bottom watering it shouldn't take long before you see roots coming out the bottom of the pots. This is usually a good time to pot up since there should be a solid rootball that can be removed/repotted easily meaning little or no transplant shock
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A+ advice Potawie. That is exactly when I plant up and it works great.
 
There is no "right or wrong" answer here, everyone will have different idea on this. I personally think any time after the 2nd set of true leaves will be fine. But have waited so long that the leaves started to yellow (root bound) then transplanted. I I also agree with as few changes as possible, but don't go too big too soon. Also after the first transplant I wait until the leaves are hanging over the edges of the pot (no science in this) then pot up. All seems to work well for me.

:cheers:

Jas
 
Personally I disagree with "as few changes as possible", I usually go through 5-8 different pot sizes per season for my big chile plants and they seem to grow much better for me when potted up incremently. As long as there is a good root ball transplanting should be very easy.
 
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