Which is better - small or large transplant?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by outsiders71

Carolyn:

I'm trying to understand your method. I've never transplanted from small cells to bigger cells, rather 16oz cups. So keeping the transplants in a smaller growing container prevents a fibrous root structure from forming? Is this only beneficial to tomatoes or peppers/eggplants as well? Thanks.

I'm don't transplant from small cells to larger ones.

I sow my seeds in Permanest pans with artificial mix or sometimes use a 20 row professional seed insert in a standard nursery tray and it's from the seed pans/rows in the trays that I transplant to the 2 inch cells and that's that.

Initially there would be a fibrous root structure that forms in the 2 inch cells but they would form roots that became rootbound. But if you continullay pot up from there you'd get a larger and larger fibrous root structure which is what I don't want.

Again, as I just shared with Joe, try different methods and use controls and those controls should be with the same tomato variety.

Some of the best research on the basics of growing tomatoes were done back in the 30's when that's all there was to be done b'c there was no molecular anything back then. Here's a link to an excellent article on root growth and structure that I think is very helpful. And note that tomato seeds direct planted, which few do, give rise to tap root structures, no fibrous root structures, and that's why we transplant young seedlings at least once, so that we get that fibrous root structure which is better for the plant in terms of increased surface root structures re uptake of water and nutrients.

I just prefer to grow to 6-9 inches in the small cells and plant out at that stage so that the new fibrous root structure forms in the soil where I want it, not in a pot, as I said above.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglib...010137toc.html

Just scroll down to find the veggie/fruit you want to read about, tomatoes are near the end.

And yes, I transplant peppers and eggplant the same way I do tomatoes and for about the same reasons.

And I say I do this and I do that but to be clear, I don't raise anything myself any more after falling in Dec of 2004 b/c of two bad hips and severing all four quads in my right leg, which is rare. And despite two new hips one of the quads didn't return to function, which is why I have to use a walker now and all my gardening is done by Freda, who also does all the cleaning here as well. She's as stubborn as I am and many times wants to do things her way, not mine, but then I softly remind her that I'm the one paying her, which sometimes doesn't work either.

So I'm saying what I used to do and if I weren't in the walker would be doing the same every year.