Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Planting
Now that you have your location, all of your supplies and you choices of fruits and veget-
ables you wish to grow, it is time to put it all together and start the planting process.
1. Start with the containers.
Make a final check to ensure that the insides of each container
are clean and free of debris. Also, closely inspect them for cracks. You want to find them
now before you put them into use. Once you place your soil and plant in them, the increased
weight and pressure will find these discrepancies for you.
2. Next, check your soil.
This might sound simple, but make sure that you have more than
enough for your containers. Leaving plants lying around, even in the shade, while you make
a last-minute trip to the store puts them under stress.
3. Check for moisture.
Soil needs to have the right consistency of moisture before you use
it. While it does not require you to saturate it with water, it does mean is that it needs to con-
tain more moisture than the bone-dry consistency that it presents when it is brought home
in the bag. Using soil that is too dry when you plant will be hard to balance after planting.
The roots will be feverishly searching the soil for any signs of moisture. Waiting until after
it is planted to water it will stress the plant. It will also be much more difficult to balance the
moisture level throughout the soil after planting has occurred.
The best approach to moisturizing soil is to place the amount of soil that you need in a buck-
et. Add a small amount of water to the soil and mix it until it is sufficiently damp. This
means that it contains enough moisture that it is wet, but there should not be any patches
where the soil is densely packed together because of a high concentration of water. Continue
adding a small amount of water to the container until all of the soil is saturated.
4. Prep the plant.
If you went with a seedling, your plant will already have a formed ball
of soil packed around its root system. It is imperative that you do not try to pull this off.
Attempting to do so could easily damage the roots and jeopardize the health of the plant.
Your plant's root ball will also probably contain small round pellets. These pellets are fertil-
izer the grower has used and are not a reason for concern.
In order to transplant the seedling, you first need to inspect it. Take a good look at the soil
surrounding the root ball. If it is rather dry, you will want to add some moisture to it before
planting- even if you have moistened your soil in the container.
