Transplanting your veggies successfully

Many gardeners use transplants to get earlier vegetable harvests. Transplants allow the gardener to space the plants perfectly, so you don’t have to “thin” like you would if you direct sowed vegetable seed. Germinating weed seeds are at a disadvantage when they face the more competitive transplant. However, home grown transplants receive quite a shock when they are moved into the garden. First, they have been living in a greenhouse or cold frame. Greenhouse soil and air temperatures are far warmer than the garden soil they will be going into, especially in the spring.

Transplants that you buy usually have gone through some adjustment to outdoor conditions before they get to the store. The transplants may need to be protected from wind and sun for a few days. In the greenhouse, the humidity is high, and the plant may not develop enough of a waxy cuticle. Hardening off the transplant tray outside for a couple of hours a day for several days in a semi-shady space before putting the plants out will reduce transplant shock. And I have found that transplanting in the early evening will also help transplant survival.

You can help the transplant by pre-warming the soil the transplants will go into with clear plastic for a week or so. You can also water with warm water. Transplants may need something to protect them from direct sun and cold for a little while. Loose row cover fabric can also help to get them off to a great start. Transplants also are grown in very well drained media in the greenhouse or cold frame. As they go into the garden, the soil may not be so well drained. A good-sized planting hole with plenty of well-decomposed compost mixed in with the soil will encourage rapid root establishment.

Transplants should be gently separated. The roots should be spread and the plants placed to the depth of their first true leaves. The roots should never be allowed to dry out. Water the young transplants with a good nutrient solution. You can use fish fertilizer or a high phosphorus-containing fertilizer like African violet “food.” Again, it’s best to start by mixing the fertilizer with warm water. Phosphorus is hard for new plants to get out of cold, wet soils. Finally, be alert to slugs. They love vegetable transplants. Act as needed.

Winter and summer annual garden weeds

Annual weeds are plants that germinate, grow and then go to seed in less than a year. Winter annual weeds germinate from the first fall rains to early springtime. They are now in full growth, blooming, setting seed, and dying. Classic examples are little bitter cress (also called “shot weed” due to their ability to eject their seed a considerable distance), chickweed and quite a few others. Most came originally from Europe and traveled across the continent with European settlement and don’t compete with vegetable growth unless you are starting very early. These plants can be worked into the soil or pulled out and put into the compost bin. Chickweed can be fed to poultry, as they adore it.

Summer annual weeds are the ones that compete with our emerging vegetable garden crops. Like winter annuals, they are mainly European in origin, though there are a few from Central or South America. Summer annuals germinate when the soil warms. You will soon be seeing them. These need to be pulled and/or hoed out to allow your vegetable seeds to grow. Given the right conditions (warm temps and water) they are very aggressive and will keep your vegetable seeds, especially small ones like onions and lettuce, from growing. You must mulch (which stops young weed seed growth) and/or weed equally aggressively if you want your crops to thrive.

Some of the more aggressive ones are pigweed, lambsquarter, crabgrass, and purslane. Purslane (which looks like a succulent, flattened jade plant) is slow to germinate, as it needs a roughly 60-degree soil temperature to stir its seeds to life. When it pops up, it signals that it is time to plant the basil, since basil likes the same soil temperatures. I think that young purslane and lambsquarters are good to eat. Pigweed is eaten in India.

The summer annuals go through their life quickly, and some will set seed and die within 45 days if their conditions are right. Others will, if you don’t weed, last a bit longer, but you must weed if you want your crops to thrive. You can compost these weeds especially if they haven’t yet gone to seed. But pigweed seed can last for more than 30 years in the soil.

Grow flowers amongst your vegetables

This will improve predatory insect activity and furnish pollen and nectar for pollinators of all types. The best advice is to plant groups of the same flowers (3-4 feet wide) at scattered locations within your gardening areas. The following websites are sources for information on pollinators: xerces.org/publications/plant-lists/native-plants-for-pollinators-and-beneficial-insects-maritime-northwest, pubs.extension.wsu.edu/beneficial-insects-spiders-and-mites-in-your-garden-who-they-are-and-how-to-get-them-to-stay-home-garden-series,

Thinning apples for better fruit

Even with sporadic wet weather and ailing bees, we can easily end up with more apples than the tree can carry. Fruit set should be good in most areas of lower Columbia River this year. Thin to remove the largest undamaged fruit in each cluster and spacing each fruit saved about a hand width apart. This will produce nice quality fruit and reduce the fruit load. The lower load will reduce limb breakage in years when lots of fruit are set.

Insect control sprays need to be started by mid-May. A product that contains spinosad (available in organic and conventional formulations) has been quite effective for home orchards and should be sprayed in the evening when bee activity is low.

Final notes

Take excess produce to the food bank, senior centers, or community meals programs. Cash donations to buy food for the food banks are also greatly appreciated.

Very helpful information sources are the following local Extension offices: Columbia County Extension 503-397-3462; Clatsop County Extension 503-325-8573; Wahkiakum County Extension 360-795-3278; and Cowlitz County Extension. 360-577-3014. The Extension Service offices offer their programs and materials equally to all people.

Advice on future garden topics is welcome. Email me at chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu.