peppers up

[Petronius_II]

Another tactic that some gardeners swear by, is to separate densely planted seedlings into groups of two, and then keep each pair together and put them both in the same planting hole.

The claimed results are, earlier fruiting because of less transplant shock, and even though neither one will produce as much as they would if spaced farther apart than, well, almost touching, they still will produce more than one plant alone in one planting hole would.

...All of which sounds plausible to me. My experience with transplant shock is mostly of the negative kind, i.e. I have a pretty good idea what doesn't work. With peppers, if separating seedlings, I try to concentrate on patience, patience, and slowly deftly ease, ease, eeeeease those little roots apart, then plop them promptamundo into a well-prepared planting hole and water in immediately, preferably with a little vitamin B1 solution added. Emphasis here is on deftness, patience, and especially intuitive thinking, which helps make the deftness and patience possible. Call upon your inner George Washington Carver, and think like a plant.

If I get impatient and too rashly tear roots apart, I can see significant transplant shock. More often than not, this makes only a little difference with tomatoes. With peppers, it can set you back a week or two, easily.

[nctomatoman]

I just don't see it and I transplant hundreds of pepper seedlings each season - they recover very quickly (I can typically transplant 150 seedlings per hour) - into prolific plants with no retardation of bearing time. Peppers and eggplant are actually more forgiving than tomatoes in terms of recovery time. (you've seen my videos?)

[Petronius_II]

Actually, I haven't. The sound card on my computer doesn't work, and I still haven't figured out how to fix it, i.e. whether it's a hardware or software problem.

I'm talking about the kind of transplant shock where the little seedling curls significantly, and instead of snapping back upright within one day, it takes two, three, maybe even four days. That's serious transplant shock, and I've often been able to remember exactly which specimens it happened to, and side-by-side compare the results to plants of the same variety only a few feet away that I didn't screw up with impatience and clumsiness.

You may or may not recall reading John Dean writing about how Richard Nixon was about the least mechanically inclined person he ever met. When asked about the infamous eighteen-minute gap in the Watergate tapes and who Dean thought might have been responsible, he replied, he thought it was a certain person he once knew who left tooth marks on the cap of a fountain pen because he couldn't manage to unscrew it the way it was designed to do.

My own clumsiness has, at times in my life, approached near-Richard Nixon proportions. Gardening, however, has taught me a lot about keeping a steady rein on my inner Nixon.

[nctomatoman]

Good one! No need to hear the sound on the vids - the images will do....I demo my one handed transplanting technique (I find that tomatoes, peppers and eggplant do indeed like tough love!)

Maybe the key I've found - bury them deep, right up to the Cot leaves. No stem exposed.

[huntoften]

I agree Craig...it seems the rougher you treat them, the more vigorous they grow. I've dropped them, knocked them over, ripped all but a few roots off when separating, pulled of leaves when trying to remove a seed coat, you name it, I've done it when it comes to abusing plants. I end up with stockier, more robust seedlings.

In other words...rip them apart, shove them in the soil, give them a drink and let them grow. If they don't survive it, they were weak to begin with and can go to the compost pile.