Water Deprivation Before Transplanting

[deluxestogie]

These are excerpts from an interesting article on some recent research.

...what home gardeners and nursery professionals have often learned through hard experience: Transplants do better when water is withheld for a few days to drought harden them before the move.

[The researchers]...compared the reaction of plants that had been previously stressed by withholding water to those not previously stressed.

The pre-stressed plants bounced back more quickly the next time they were dehydrated. Specifically, the nontrained plants wilted faster than trained plants and their leaves lost water at a faster rate than trained plants.

"The plants 'remember' dehydration stress. It will condition them to survive future drought stress and transplanting," Fromm said.

Arabidopsis [the mustard-family plant that they tested] forgets this previous stress after five days of watering, though other plants may differ in that memory time.

"If I was transplanting something, I would deprive it of water for a couple of days, then water overnight, then transplant," Fromm said.
[Michael Fromm, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln plant scientist ]

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-drought-responses-survive.html

Bob

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I always let them dry so the soil contracts and the football just falls out of the container, glad to know there are other benefits too thanks

 

[wrapper]

Old thread, important topic. I agree from experience that pre stressing 6" seedlings AND topping them makes for quicker and more uniform establishment in the open ground.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Old thread, important topic. I agree from experience that pre stressing 6" seedlings AND topping them makes for quicker and more uniform establishment in the open ground.

I've read it recommended many times, rather than topping them, to cut the distal 1/3 of the larger leafs off instead, and to never cut the rising stem.

 

[wrapper]

I've read it recommended many times, rather than topping them, to cut the distal 1/3 of the larger leafs off instead, and to never cut the rising stem.

Sure ChinaV, I agree. I cut a third to a half off the leaves with scissors and never cut the stem. Some of the Burley commercial guys using float trays top with a motorised blade a bit like a lawn mower. The mower is on a gantry and the trays are dead level because of the water so they can get an even trim. But I wonder if that avoids cutting the stems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMbB5LYmsY4 is just one of many...

 

[Ben Brand]

I was tought at the Black Fordby college ( Rhodesia) years age (by I think a tobacco fundy), that before transplanting you must be able to wrap the seedling around your index finger without it breaking, then the seedling was "hard" enough for transplanting. Usually withhold water ( not 100%) two weeks before transplant, so the seedling can become "hard".

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Sure ChinaV, I agree. I cut a third to a half off the leaves with scissors and never cut the stem. Some of the Burley commercial guys using float trays top with a motorised blade a bit like a lawn mower. The mower is on a gantry and the trays are dead level because of the water so they can get an even trim. But I wonder if that avoids cutting the stems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMbB5LYmsY4 is just one of many...

I was wondering that myself. I think it doesn't really matter. I read a book on bonsai some time ago, and i believe you'll just wind up with a new branch near the top that becomes the new stem, gradually changing the angle it comes out at until y you would never know it had ever been cut. Works on trees.