My fellow organic gardeners, I come to you today with a heavy heart. It wasn’t long ago that I wrote to you about my how well my seedlings were doing. In fact, the pride and joy of my seedlings were my zucchini plants. Both the yellow and the traditional green zucchini plants were thriving. They were so large, that I often joked that I would have zucchini blossoms blooming in my dining room. This was all true until we transplanted.
As I stated previously in the organic gardening transplanting blog, I used an organic top soil/potting soil mix for my dirt, this ensured my plants would get the nutrients they needed. The roots on the zucchini plants, while they were in the peat pellets, we’re so hearty and developed that they had grown out of the round pellet and through the messaging holding it in place. I gave them a lot of room to grow by putting them in larger containers and ensuring they were well spaced from their neighbors. I had learned my lesson about over watering with the spinach and made sure that they had ample light.
About a week after they were transplanted, I noticed they were drooping. I tried to keep them healthy with water and ample light, buy they continued to fade away before my eyes. One day I went to check on them and most had either withered or wilted. I continued altering them with the rest of the plants, but in the end they never came back. As you can see from the picture I took, continuing to water them only made mold grow on their remains. I now don’t have any zucchini and since time is of the essence, I will have to buy them to plant in the garden.
Another variety of plant that didn’t survive the transplant, despite doing well initially, was my basil. The basil plants slowly withered one by one until they were all gone. I painstakingly seperated the basil and planted them in even rows well spaced out, but it didn’t help. I will try planting the rest of the basil seeds I have in the planter after turning the soil to see what happens, but I will have to buy some basil plants in my garden.
My onions also withered as well as the spinach I spoke about in a previous blog. The only plants that survived the transplant were the cherry bomb peppers I saved from my own seeds last year, as well as my tomatoes. All of the varieties of tomatoes survived the transplant. While a few of each kind did wither away, the majority survived and it looks liked I will be able to plant them in my organic garden.
These seedlings have been more successful than last year, but I’m hoping that next year will be even better as I’ll be armed with even more knowledge. Remember if you have any tips, tricks, or stories to share please include them in our comments. Until next time, happy organic gardening.
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