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.