Organic Garden: Time to transplant seedlings.

 Wow! What a great day it was outside today!! Around 70 degrees and the garden soil was perfect for cold weather crops to go in. I planted spinach, beets, and kale today.  I hope to get a few more things in this week. As you an see my tomato seedlings were getting big so a few days ago I transplanted them for the first time. I will say that this is how I do it from years of practice, but by no means think that there probably aren't other ways to do it. This is just what works best for me.

First I take the potting soil out of the bag and put it into my large bin to hydrate it.

I use water I get from my outside spout so that it has no salt in it, and pour some into the bin with the soil then stir it up to get it partially hydrated.

 Next I count the first variety of seedlings to transplant and mark the small cups. I reuse as many as I can from year to year. I drill small holes in the bottoms for drainage, three in each cup. I hold 4 or five in a stack and use my trusty drill to make the holes.

I use an old baby spoon to scoop out my plants and put a tiny bit of soil in the bottom of the cup.

I place the plant in the cup and fill in soil around it. Tomatoes will grow more roots if you bury as much stem as you can so each transplanting will have this happen and then finally in the garden with only a few leaves and stem above the dirt in the garden. I won't move to the next size of cups until the plants have matured a bit more.

After as much soil as can be put into the cups fills them up,  I place the cups in a container with water to let them now soak up as much water as they can before they are put into the tray. You can tell they are ready because the top of the soil looks really dark when wet.

Once they are all transplanted and hydrated, they are put into a tray and back in front of my south facing windows. When days are not too windy and mild I will let them get some outside time for a half hour or so, and give them at least a half hour of light fan action each day.
I will do the same for the pepper plants in a few days and wait a few more weeks before the next transplanting.