A Room With A View
Standing at my kitchen sink, I look out through a window onto my back porch.
Bob
Standing at my kitchen sink, I look out through a window onto my back porch.
Bob
deluxestogie Grow Log 2017
- Thread starter deluxestogie
- Start date
- Status
mwaller
Well-Known Member
Hi Bob -
Do you have any pictures, videos etc to show how you move and transplant such delicate little plants with forceps? I'm having a hard time imagining how to move mine without crushing them!
Do you have any pictures, videos etc to show how you move and transplant such delicate little plants with forceps? I'm having a hard time imagining how to move mine without crushing them!
Moving Day
With a fingertip, I create a dimple (~3/4" deep) in the center of each cell that will be populated. This makes it much easier to free the damp seedling/soil clumpette from the forceps. Later, after the seedling has grown a bit, the surrounding soil can be closed against it.
After setting out the required wooden labels, I used a forceps to lift one individual seedling at a time from its germination jar, and placed it into the dimple of a cell. Once all of the seedlings for one variety have been set into individual cells, I use a spray bottle to gently mist the soil that surrounds each seedling--until I can see the newly placed seedling settle into place.
Bob
I'm not Bob but I use tweezers. Just stab in on either side of the sprout, close slightly pick up and move and stab down in the cell at a slight angle. Relax your grip and raise your hand.
You'll get plenty practice. A cup of water handy helps keep the tweezers from gunking up.
You'll get plenty practice. A cup of water handy helps keep the tweezers from gunking up.
Brown Thumb
Well-Known Member
I can't find the View?Great view?
Nice looking starts tho.
greenmonster714
Well-Known Member
I've only done this once since this is my first grow. Having all these seasoned growers to learn from is a great help. I tried tweezers but couldn't get the hang of it. I seem to be to shaky for that. So, I just pulled out a chunk of the small plants and put them on the table so I could separate them gently with my fingers. Once I did this I could easily grab a small leaf of the sprout and place it in the soil. Just keep experimenting and you'll find a system that works for you.
greenmonster714
Well-Known Member
Bob, they look healthy and happy. I hope by next year I'll have a better system to get started with. What I'm doing is working but it has been a struggle.
Sorry, no pics or videos.
Everybody has a different way. Some folks use a toothpick, wielding it like a tiny spoon. When I use forceps, I'm inserting the pointed forceps into the dirt, to either side of a seedling, and grabbing a tiny wad of dirt that contains the seedling. If I'm transferring a sprouted seed that hasn't even rooted itself yet, I use the forceps just like a toothpick.
There's really no magic. Sometimes, the major function of my forceps is to tease the soil apart, when several seedlings are clumped together.
Squeezing the seedling with forceps will kill it. Otherwise those tiny seedlings are surprisingly sturdy.
Bob
I used toothpick the way Bob described, mostly because I have no forceps. I watered the seedling first, as wet soil made it easier to pull the root out of the soil.
BTW nice grow Bob. Mine are picking up the paces after several unfortunate event.
BTW nice grow Bob. Mine are picking up the paces after several unfortunate event.
I wait until is a little bigger...
Bex
Well-Known Member
I basically do the same thing as Rainmax - when the first set of true leaves show up and are somewhat established, as in Rainmax' photo above, with my fingers, I softly pinch the leaves and pull up gently. The root system is not tremendously well established in the flat, and the little seedling comes up easily with a bit of soil around it. I then transplant it, burying it pretty much up to the first set of leaves. The little hairs on the stem will become new roots.
Gavroche
Well-Known Member
I sow(scatter) widely, I take a knife, I cut in the heap, I plunge the clod into the water, I shake until roots are naked and the disentangled(solved) plants, I put back(hand) in the new jar
je sème largement, je prends un couteau, je coupe dans le tas, je plonge la motte dans l'eau, je secoue jusqu'à ce que les racines soient nues et les plants démêlés, je remets dans le nouveau pot
je sème largement, je prends un couteau, je coupe dans le tas, je plonge la motte dans l'eau, je secoue jusqu'à ce que les racines soient nues et les plants démêlés, je remets dans le nouveau pot
Each day in April, when it's not raining, I take my handy hand tool out to the yard and weed one of my garden beds, for their annual initial weed removal. This requires me to actually dig up each weed, shake the dirt from the roots, then toss the weed out onto the grass (where it will be killed by the sun, then sent to oblivion by the mower). If I just till the beds with the weeds still there, I simply end up with a thousand viable weed cuttings embedded into the soil. So I don't do it that way.
The hardest part of this ordeal is standing up again. My back and knees feel just fine while I'm digging in a crouch, but they seem to forget their normal function, once I stand. So, I do just one bed per day. By starting in early April, all the beds will be ready by time the weather is suitable for planting or transplanting.
At this point, I have 6-1/2 beds left to go. Once they're all weeded, then I will make the rounds with fertilizer, followed by a pickax, usually all in one day. Mercifully, I already have one bed in onions and garlic, another half-bed in garlic, and yet another half-bed in sugar snap peas.
Most of the seedlings in this first view (again taken through my kitchen window) have been clipped at least once.
This 4th 1020 tray holds the laggards. Some of them are still just tiny little things.
And here is my kiln doing double-duty as a source of warmth for a pot of mums, a few veggie starts, and my neglected germination jars. The weedy, tall ones--all three of them--are Besuki. The temperature on top of the kiln is remarkably close to what I usually get from a germination heat mat.
Bob
Bex
Well-Known Member
You had mentioned clipping the leaves before, but I thought it was in the context of my question regarding too much growth in my propagator. Do you clip the leaves normally? I know you were advising that the stem strengthened due to this procedure....is this the point of this? What does clipping do to further leaf formation, if anything??
Once leaves from one cell begin to shade an adjacent cell, I clip the leaves. I usually leave at least 1/3 of the leaf. I use a scissor, one leaf at a time.
In a commercial operation, by contrast, when the plants in the float trays require clipping, a power lawn mower, moved on a track with adjustable height, is passed over them. The clipping height must be adjusted to avoid damaging the tallest plants. Vacuum from the mower lifts the leaves, clips them, then sends the clipped debris to a collection container.
Clipping by hand is easily manageable with a grow of ~200 plants. Like JBD, I end up clipping about once a week, until they go into the ground.
Leaf loss signals the plant to produce more leaf surface and more nicotine (to scare away those pesky scissors). It results in sturdier stalks and more robust root formation.
More to my purpose, clipping greedy neighbors allows the runts to have a better chance.
Bob
In a commercial operation, by contrast, when the plants in the float trays require clipping, a power lawn mower, moved on a track with adjustable height, is passed over them. The clipping height must be adjusted to avoid damaging the tallest plants. Vacuum from the mower lifts the leaves, clips them, then sends the clipped debris to a collection container.
Clipping by hand is easily manageable with a grow of ~200 plants. Like JBD, I end up clipping about once a week, until they go into the ground.
Leaf loss signals the plant to produce more leaf surface and more nicotine (to scare away those pesky scissors). It results in sturdier stalks and more robust root formation.
More to my purpose, clipping greedy neighbors allows the runts to have a better chance.
Bob
I've never clipped before, but I've never done a 300 plant grow before either, so this year I clip
greenmonster714
Well-Known Member
Wow Smokes, that's a lot of plants. Do ya have them in different stages of growth or are they all about the same size?
Across the Mustard Sea
View from my porch.
An entire corner of the 2 acre pasture has been taken over by wild mustard. (Does it give cows gas?) It will all end up in giant, round bales of hay, when the time comes.
My old farm house, floating in mustard.
Wild mustard is in the same family as cabbage, kale, broccoli, turnips, etc. The entire plant is edible, including the stem and root.
Bob
View from my porch.
An entire corner of the 2 acre pasture has been taken over by wild mustard. (Does it give cows gas?) It will all end up in giant, round bales of hay, when the time comes.
My old farm house, floating in mustard.
Wild mustard is in the same family as cabbage, kale, broccoli, turnips, etc. The entire plant is edible, including the stem and root.
Bob
greenmonster714
Well-Known Member
Easy on the eyes and useful. Nice.
Gavroche
Well-Known Member
Sinapis arvensis ?
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moutarde_des_champs
Uses and toxicity [to modify ¦ Modify the code]
The young plants can be consumed. Seeds once ground can give a kind of mustard.
The mustard of fields was indicated as person in charge of poisonings of the cattle in Canada, due to the consumption of hay by containing a big quantité1.
[h=2]Utilisations et toxicité[modifier | modifier le code][/h]Les jeunes plantes peuvent être consommées. Les graines une fois moulues peuvent donner une sorte de moutarde.
La moutarde des champs a été signalée comme responsable d'empoisonnements du bétail au Canada, dus à la consommation de foin en contenant une grande quantité1.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moutarde_des_champs
Uses and toxicity [to modify ¦ Modify the code]
The young plants can be consumed. Seeds once ground can give a kind of mustard.
The mustard of fields was indicated as person in charge of poisonings of the cattle in Canada, due to the consumption of hay by containing a big quantité1.
[h=2]Utilisations et toxicité[modifier | modifier le code][/h]Les jeunes plantes peuvent être consommées. Les graines une fois moulues peuvent donner une sorte de moutarde.
La moutarde des champs a été signalée comme responsable d'empoisonnements du bétail au Canada, dus à la consommation de foin en contenant une grande quantité1.
- Status
