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.