When growing seedlings of tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, cabbage and other garden crops, after the appearance of the 1-2nd real leaf, the seedlings dive, that is, transplanted into separate containers. Do you need a picking of seedlings? What is a pick? What is the purpose of a dive? The fact is that in seedlings obtained in this way, when planting, a lump of earth is completely preserved, the root system is not injured. When transplanted, the plants take root quickly, grow well, do not get sick.
Until now, gardeners relate to picking in different ways. Some believe that this is a mandatory and necessary procedure for growing seedlings of good quality. Others, on the contrary, consider picking an extra stressful moment and sow the seeds immediately in large containers.
Here, of course, the choice is yours.
What is a pick and when is it needed
Dive or dive is a transplant of seedlings or young plants into separate containers.
First, a pick is needed if you sowed the seeds immediately in a common bowl. A picking done on time will protect the plants from interweaving of roots, making the process of planting plants to a permanent place easy.
Secondly, you cannot avoid a dive if there are a lot of seedlings. In addition, they still have to be separated from each other. So it is better to do this when the seedlings are still small, and their roots have not grown.
Thirdly, picking allows you to select the best, healthy seedlings for planting in a permanent place.
Fourthly, it may happen that you sowed untreated seeds or the soil you got infected (alas, this also happens). Thus, the plants already at an early stage showed signs of a disease. So picking will help save uninfected plants from fungal diseases, pathogens of which can be in the soil.
Fifth, picking contributes to the development of lateral roots, which means that your seedlings will have a powerful root system after transplantation.
And lastly, picking will slow down the growth of seedlings when there is a danger of overgrowing. That is, a transplant will help delay the development of plants.
I think that I convinced you that picking is very important and you need to treat it with all responsibility. The further growth and development of seedlings depends on its quality.
Ways of diving seedlings
There are two ways to dive.
Transplanting seedlings
The first way is a transplant. To extract plants from the pot was easy, hassle-free, water them 2 hours before the pick. A well-soaked lump of land can be freely removed from any container.
Those pots, cups, boxes in which you will transplant the seedlings are filled with 3/4 of the prepared soil mixture, compacted. With a stick, pencil or simply with your index finger make a depression in the soil. The root, the stem of a seedling is omitted here.
There are some picking rules for different cultures.
Tomato seedlings can be deepened to almost cotyledonate leaves, and peppers or eggplant should be planted to the same depth that they grew before the pick. At the same time, hold the seedlings by the cotyledonous leaves, and not by the stem, which can be easily damaged during a dive.
If desired, you can pinch the main longest root of the plant 1/3 of the length to stimulate the formation of lateral roots.
Then gently compact the soil around the seedling. You can even check whether you have done a good pick: gently pull the seedling up by the seven-leaf leaves. In case of unsuccessful picking, the plant is pulled out without difficulty, that is, the soil does not adhere tightly to the main root and stem. And if it’s good, you can even cut off the seven-leaf leaf, but the seedling will hold tight in its new place.
After picking, seedlings are watered. If these are very small plants, for example, celery, then the pots are put in a pan, and the plants are sprayed. After a dive, plants can even be removed in the shade, away from bright light - this way they will better tolerate a stressful situation.
Transshipment of seedlings
The second way to dive seedlings is transshipment. This technique is good because the roots of dive plants are not damaged at all. The seedling will not need time for adaptation at all and their development will not slow down at all.
When transshipment a couple of days before the procedure, the seedlings cease to water, so that the earthen lump freely leaves the cup. As in the first method, fill in 3/4 of those containers in which you will transship seedlings with soil mix.
Small cups with seedlings are turned upside down, while passing the ground parts of plants between the fingers. Then they gently press on the bottom of the glass - the plant, together with a lump of earth, remains in the hand. Then the plant is placed in a large container, and the empty space is filled with soil mixture.
I advise you to use transshipment when picking seedlings of peppers and eggplant, as their delicate root system is very painful for transplantation with exposure of roots.
That's all wisdom. I am sure that your seedlings will tolerate the picking procedure perfectly and will please you with a good harvest in the future.
And one more thing in conclusion. Spied on one of the forums. After diving seedlings, put a piece of foil over the soil - the light intensity will increase. This will help the seedlings not to stretch.