Seedling care before planting

  • Keep your seedlings watered. Check daily. Water when the soil is dry when you stick your finger in it or if the seedling starts to droop.
  • Cool weather seedlings like lettuce or mustard greens can be transplanted in April.
  • If you have a tomato or pepper seedling, wait until mid-May to plant. Keep it indoors in a sunny protected spot.
  • Plan to transplant seedlings to an outdoor garden or container between May 11-15. A week before, start to “harden off” your seedling, that is, gradually adjust them to the outdoors by slowly acclimating them to direct sunlight, wind, rain, and temperature fluctuations. Hardening off is very important to avoid damaging your tender seedlings.
  • How to harden off: Start around May 4-7. Put your seedling outdoors in an area where they will be protected from the direct sunlight and wind (and animals). Leave them out for a few hours and bring them back inside. Repeat this each day, gradually increasing the amount of time they’re outside and the degree of exposure to sun and wind. After a week or so, leave the seedlings out overnight. If frost threatens, bring them indoors.
  • Your seedlings will now be hardened off and ready to be transplanted into grow bags, containers, or prepared soil in your garden.

Planting your seedlings

  • Whether planting in grow bags, containers or your prepared garden plot, the technique is the same. With your hands or a trowel, scoop out soil to make room for the seedling. Put the scooped soil to the side. Make sure that you’ve scooped out enough soil so that the entire root of the plant and up to the bottom set of leaves can be covered once it has been planted. Insert the root ball into the place where the soil has been scooped out.
  • Cover the top of the root ball with some of the soil that you’ve dug out. The bottom set of leaves should be just above the soil line.
  • Water immediately after transplanting and check soil moisture daily.

Tip: Sink a tall strong stake next to your young tomato plant. After sinking your stake, tie the plant stem to it as it grows with twine, plant ties, nylon or strips of cotton cloth. Add more ties as the plant grows, taking care not to restrict the plant and cut off the stem. Be very careful as they are delicate and can snap off. The goal is to provide support for your growing tomato plant.

Check the Framingham Garden Club website frequently as we add additional resources and information  https://framinghamgardenclub.org/resources-information/