![]() ![]() This is only logical if more growing space will open up later. Photo: Of course, maybe you purposely started your seedlings in small pots to save space. And who doesn’t make that mistake every now and then? You may want to sow seeds in small pots if space is at a premium early in the season, potting them up into more appropriate containers when more space becomes available. Or if too many seedlings are growing in a tray and you want to recuperate all of them. So, in my opinion, you only need transplant seedlings started indoors into larger pots if you have grown them in a pot that’s too small. I suspect none of them have ever tried doing things differently. You’ll see plenty of websites still offering the old information and insisting the potting up is essential. For some really large seedlings, such as castor beans, an initial pot size of 15 cm (6 in) may be necessary.ĭo note, though, that not everyone agrees with me. Small pots of 5 cm (2 in) in diameter or less are fine for plants that are naturally small or will only be growing indoors for a short time, such as lettuces, leeks and sweet alyssum, but 7.6 cm (3 in) pots may be necessary for tomatoes and peppers, even 10 cm (4 in) pots if you prefer to sow them early so the seedlings are larger at planting-out time. Six-pack for larger seedlings, like tomatoes and peppers (left) and for smaller seedlings, like lettuce and leeks (right). Ideally, you should ensure that your plants keep growing smoothly and without stress until you can get them into the garden. *You can tell a seedling is becoming rootbound when it dries out almost overnight and there are roots growing out of the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot.Īfter all, slowing the development of a young plant by keeping it in a pot that is too tight can seriously affect the results it will give once planted outdoors. Perfect! At least, that’s what I do unless planting-out time is delayed and I can see the seeds becoming rootbound* (never a good thing), in which case I confess to reluctantly potting up a few seedlings. ![]() I sow 3 seeds per pot, then, if they all come up, thin to one plant per pot. I now try to sow my seedlings directly into a large enough pot to hold them comfortably until it’s time to plant them out. The Right Pot Check your seedlings to make sure they aren’t becoming root bound. Logically, therefore, it’s better to avoid transplanting indoor seedlings into larger pots if possible. In general, the plants eventually recover from the transplanting and go on to produce normally, but sometimes the shock of this first transplanting reduces the productivity of the plant throughout the entire summer! Transplanting inevitably slows the progress of young seedlings, most likely because it damages their roots. Later, when the Internet came out and I was able to look at the results of actual scientific experiments, this confirmed I had been discovering. And guess what? The plants planted directly into the right-sized pots did at least well as the up-potted ones and generally quite a bit better, producing larger plants with stronger stems. So, I sowed some seeds into individual pots right away and others in trays like my dad did, moving them into the same size individual pots when the tray filled in. ![]() I’ve always been a lazy kind of guy and planting seedlings into larger pots before transplanting them into the garden seemed like a doubtful extra step to me. Years later, I began to test out this idea myself. ![]() It was believed at that time (that would have been about 50 years ago) that potting up stimulated better root growth and gave plants greater vigor. Certainly, my father believed in it and I can remember us sitting around his workbench and carefully transplanting dozens of little seedlings from trays into individual pots. Question: Do you have to transplant seedlings started indoors into larger pots or can you keep them in their original pot until it’s time to transplant them directly into the ground?Īnswer: Moving a seedling from a small pot or a tray into a larger one is called potting up and it used to be considered a necessary step in starting seedlings indoors. Popular belief to the contrary, potting seedlings up is not always necessary. ![]()
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