Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fertilizer
As mentioned earlier, once seedlings have their first set of
true leaves, they should be bottom watered with a
half-strength solution of organic liquid fertilizer once every
two weeks in addition to regular watering. Since starting
medium is nutritionally poor, some fertilizer will be a benefit
to the seedlings, but anything too concentrated can hurt the
delicate developing root system and cause problems with
mold. The only exception to this is soil blocks, which can
contain enough nutrients that liquid fertilizer isn't needed
because of their greater soil volume.
Hardening Off
A week or two before the intended transplant date, you may
wish to start the process of “hardening off” the transplants;
that is, the process of gradually acclimating the plants to the
outdoor environment.
This generally means bringing the seedlings outside and
exposing them to sun and wind for an hour the first day,
progressing to all day on the last day of the hardening-off
period, which lasts about a week before transplanting. The
process of hardening off serves to make the transplants more
hardy.
In my experience, hardening off makes little difference with
plants that are transplanted after the last frost, but it does have
an effect on the hardiness of plants that are transplanted
before the last frost. It should be done with all transplants
anyway, because there is no way to know with absolute
certainty if an unusual weather event will occur. I've seen no
