Roots and when to transplant

In past years I have waited until the baby plants are overgrown to transplant and their root system is well developed and it makes it very easy to move.  This year I was attempting to transplant them before they got overgrown, but I'm running into the issue of there not being a root ball.  The dirt falls apart and I end up moving a scrawny little plant with bare roots.  I'm no expert, but I can't imagine that's too good for the plant.  Most of them seem to be alright and I think only time will tell if the plants are going to make it or not.

When I moved the lettuce for example, they had a tiny little root system.  I googled "root ball for lettuce" and it led me to this informative site. According to its diagrams, there isn't really a "root ball" for lettuce.  So that leads me to believe that it's just about being very careful when handling delicate plants.  The lettuce is particularly scrawny and again I'll just have to be careful.  I don't think there's much chance of me splitting the multiple plants into individual ones at this point, so we'll see how they grow

Cukes

I was continuing the transplant of my baby veggies into the biodegradable pots this morning when I noticed a strong smell of cucumber.  It's the first time I've smelled anything but dirt when handling baby plants and I thought it was very interesting.  Apparently I ripped a few roots when pulling them out of the seedling container and got a yummy whiff of cucumber (made me think of my wife's shampoo/conditioner).  I realized I didn't smell anything pulling out the other plants so I googled it.  I did not come across too much information on other roots smelling like their vegetable.

Transplanting

I've been transplanting some of the bigger plants to the biodegradable pots.  I remember last year I waited too long and the roots grew down through the dirt and into the water tray....they were about 6"-12" hanging below the starter tray.  When we pulled them out to transplant them, some of the roots ripped.  While it didn't appear to have an adverse effect on the plants, I believe it would be better not to destroy the foundation of my plants ;) Some of the plants are a bit small still, like the tomatoes (they have no root ball), so I'll leave them be for now.

Transplanting has been a bit of a pain this year.  The secondary problem I'm having is my younger daughter wants to help, but when it comes time to do it she's elsewhere having fun.  The main problem is the dirt that I'm using to transfer (sorry, got tired of using "transplant" over and over again) the babies is extremely dry.  Not thinking about that, I just put some in the bottom of a biodegradable pot and then filled it up after moving the plant into it.  Then I proceed to water it and figure I'm all set.  But now I notice that the water is sitting on top of the dirt, not getting absorbed and some of the dirt remains dry and floats to the top.  I need a better watering system.  The instructions on the bag say to moisten the dirt prior to planting.  I never needed instructions growing up. I was one of those people that could fix the blinking time on the vcr without having to look anything up.  But when it comes to gardening, I'm finding that I need to read and research quite a bit.  The problem is how do you look up something like that?  Searching for "dry dirt" isn't really helpful. So I'm thankful the bag of dirt had instructions on it. Now I'll know for next time.

seed shells

I'm still new at this whole gardening thing.  I pretty much toss the seeds in the dirt, water it and hope they start growing.  Since I've had some decent success with this method, I have continued doing it since I started gardening about 4 years ago.  But when things don't quite work out, like the shells clinging for dear life to my delicate little leaves, I have to do a little research.  Most search terms brought up how to remove shells for eating and various sunflower growing websites.  Perseverance paid off and I discovered this nice site suggesting that you can't just "toss those sunflower seeds into the ground...".  I've read about soaking other seeds as well and clearly I will have to research this a bit more.
8 out of 9 sunflowers are popping up. I'll have to transplant them soon, but first, how do I get those shells off without wrecking the fragile little plants.  Google isn't much help in that I haven't been able to find a method for doing so. So I will attempt a few things and post the results:

Well, I put waaaay too much concern into the shells.  I was remembering last year when I tried to take off the shells they ripped the leaves.  Fortunately my girls looooove to water the seeds and sprouts because they get to use a squirt bottle.  We use that because pouring a big bucket of water would just pop the seeds right out of the dirt.  Anyway, they apparently sprayed them so much that it was similar to soaking them because they were somewhat soft and easy to move.  It turns out that standard bathroom equipment, like a pair of tweezers, makes it very easy to grab the little shells and slide off (or pull apart).  So now they're all happy and ready for a transplant.  Although that "nice site" I mentioned before mentions that growing them indoors for too long can make them weaker.  Spring is supposed to be upon us, but as we're expecting 3-7 inches of the white stuff today I don't think it wise to throw them in the ground quite yet.

sprouts

If we were running a race to see which seed produces the first little plant, the sunflower would bring home the trophy.  Tough to see here, but you can enlarge the image. 

Since the sunflower is not a vegetable in our vegetable garden, I will not be giving it the trophy.  It will instead go to the yummy lettuce sprouting up all over the place:

I'd like to thank the broccoli for all their support. Ain't no tomato gonna make a fool of me!

The little seeds didn't take too long to sprout. Within 2 days of planting we had lettuce.  The seeds looked so small, that we figured we should throw more than one in a hole.... this has resulted in quite a few little plants all sharing for the same dirt and water...should be interesting.

We made the mistake of planting giant sunflower seeds in the same tray as the other plants.  Anyone that has planted sunflowers knows they come up pretty fast.  They're already hitting the cover of the tray and need to be transplanted because some of the other seeds haven't even shown any activity yet.  I've had a problem where the shell of the sunflower is growing up out of the dirt with plant.  It's got a death grip on my leaves and I'm not sure how to pull them off.  Searching the internet has only yielded answers about how to remove shells from seeds you want to eat.  I'm thinking I just need to change what I'm actually searching for, but we shall see.

Chris Bantz Vegetable Garden 2011 - begin

January garden in CT

Obviously it's a bit early to start on the garden, but I couldn't resist showing the snow.  It's not the greatest representation of the amount of snow we got this year (approx. 54" in January alone), but if you look at previous pictures, you can see how high up on the fence the snow has accumulated.  And while it looked like it would take the rest of the winter for the snow to melt, all it took was a moderate temperature and a boatload of rain.

We've decided to grow a wider variety of veggies this year and we're going to cut back on the cherry tomatoes and peppers. We had so many last year, we couldn't even give them away.  In previous years, I never had the heart to grow the plants from seeds and then just throw them out if they look a little weak.  Unfortunately that has led to an overcrowded garden and more food than we know how to cook.  So this year I vow to destroy the runts of the litter (mwah-ha-ha-ha).  I still haven't figured out a good balance for our garden. I should probably make it bigger, but I'll see if I can master this size before I get carried away.