How to Prick Out and Transplant Seedlings

Once grown, seedlings will need to be transplanted into pots when large enough to handle. Seedlings will need to be handled only by their leaves, as direct contact with their stems under the pressure of your finger tips will result in crushing of the phloem and xylem of the plant’s veins. Plants at this stage of their development can be transplanted into general purpose multi-purpose which will suffice their nutritional needs for around 6- weeks.

Many specimens of plants will need to be transplanted into pots, usually around 8cm in diameter as a useful starting size of pot. You will need a common kitchen eating fork as one of the most useful means of digging the plants out of the seed compost without damaging the delicate root systems (Just don’t try to eat with it afterwards!). Once you have loosened the soil around the roots and extracted the seedling you will need to prepare the pot. Fill with soil almost to the rim of the plant pot and firm it down, then, using a small length of bamboo (commonly known as a “dibber” in the trade) round out a small hole in the soil large enough to accommodate the root system of the extracted plant. Do not remove the spoil from the pot as this will be used to backfill onto the root system.

Placing the roots gently into the hole, handling only by the leaves, replace the soil around the seedling and firm gently around the root system, taking care not to damage the tender base of the plant. Tap the edge of the pot slightly to settle the soil and even out the top coat of compost. The seedling should be able to support itself without toppling over. The task of potting on and pricking out should not be conducted in the heat of the day as seedlings will wilt very quickly and will not recover from this at such an early stage in their development. Ideally it should be conducted in the early evening, once the heat of the day has gone and the seedlings are out of direct sunlight. Watering can be conducted in one of two ways. Some prefer to directly water the seedlings, using a miniature watering can directly onto the top of the soil. I, however, place my potted plants into shallow hole-less trays and fill these with approximately 1.5cm of water, allowing the pots to soak up the water over a period of an hour or so. You will be able to tell when they are sufficiently watered as the surface of the soil will appear damp.

Seedlings should be kept frost free and inside a greenhouse until they are fully developed plants ready to be hardened off (by moving them outside in the day, then back into the greenhouse at night for around 1 week) in the spring when they are large enough to be planted out into the garden.

Kindly written by Kevin Thorns