Some of my seedlings were too big and I needed to transplant them in the garden. Firstly, I had to remove the radishes and carrots from the garden bed to make space for the new residents. After that, I started transplanting tomato seedlings and zucchinis.
Transplanting tomato seedlings
Below are the tomato seedlings that were too big to keep them in the red cups.
The tallest tomato seedling was over 18″ as shown in in the picture below.
Below is the space where I will plant my red cherry tomato seedling. On December 20th, as shown in this post, I added compost to feed the tomato plant throughout the season. All I will have to do from now on is to water it when needed.
I removed the radishes from the middle and made a hole around 6″ or 8″ deep.
Here are my starter fertilizer, epsom salt, earthworm castings and eggshell powder,I use them whenever I transplant seedlings in the garden. During the year, I save all the eggshell that we use in the kitchen and after I dry them, I grind them using an old coffee grinder.
I used 1/2 of the measure scoop of starter fertilizer, 1/2 scoop of eggshell powder 1/4 scoop of epsom salt. These are the quantities that I use for all my seedlings when I transplant them in the garden.
After I remove the plant from the pot, I spread the roots and place it inside the hole.
I fill up the hole with a mix of planting mix and soil up to 2″ from the top and I place the earthworm castings
Afterwords I covered the earthworm castings with 1″ of soil and after that I filled up the whole with water.
I fill up the hole with water 3 or 4 times after the water gets into the ground to make sure it get all the way down to the roots.
The next project was to plant 6 more tomato seedlings in one of my garden beds where currently I have companion plants for tomato.
I prepared the holes in the garden bed and started transplanting tomato seedlings.
The red circles show the hard to spot transplanted tomato seedlings.
Transplanting zucchini seedlings
Afterwards it was time to also transplant the zucchini seedlings.
I made a big hole and mixed planting mix with chicken manure and soil.
After I filled up the big hole with the new mix, I made 2 smaller holes because form 3 zucchini plants 2 of them were in the same square. Then I added the starter fertilizer, eggshell powder and epsom salt.
I placed the seedlings in holes and covered them with soil.
In the next section I will post periodic updates about the cherry tomato plant and zucchini.
Cherry tomato updates:
The picture below shows the tomato plant on March 20, which is 3 weeks later.
The picture below was taken on March 30.
On April 14, only 2 weeks later, the tomato plant has more than doubled in size.
One week later on April 22, I had to reinstall the middle row of side wood to keep the plant inside the cage.
Eight days later, on April 30, the plant is already 6 ft tall, the nice weather that we had recently helps plants thriving.
Today is May 13 and I noticed that the tomatoes are starting to ripe, so It was time for another update.
May 22 – the pant is getting a lots of fruits and the cage starts to feel small.
May 27 – Today I had a crazy idea. Because the plants is over 8 ft tall and every year when it gets to this height it’s bending over the cage and it gets very hard to harvest the tomatoes in the middle of the cage. I decided to extend my tomato cage, form 6ft to 12ft.
May 30 – Now that I increased the cage size, I really want the plant to grow up to the top of the cage. I gave the tomato plant some homemade compost.
I made space for compost Homemade compost
June 15 – the tomato is almost 10 ft tall and it’s producing a lot of tomatoes.
Zucchini updates:
The picture below is from April 20, the zucchinis are in bloom
The zucchini are growing nicely and soon will be ready to harvest. But today May 12, I notices some white spots on the leafs, powdery mildew, they get it every year. So, I prepared a copper fungicide solution and treated them, I also removed the contaminated leafs.
Thank you for your great gardening tips and photos! I live in LA and find it challenging to plant and harvest vegetables for the kitchen. Still, I have been growing a variety of vegis and herbs for 25 years with different success. Likely it is that my frugal nature and past limit of time to tend has not resulted in large harvests. Your website is very inspiring and with a little more time on my hands due to the pandemic I will make a bigger effort this year. I am especially grateful that you share the failures as well- There is always something to learn!
Hi Monique! I’m glad that you find my blog useful! You’re so right, there’s always more to learn. I like to experiment and sometimes I’m successful, and other times not so much. My intent is to show people that gardening is not that complicated and everybody can do it, with a little bit of time of course 🙂 Thank you for your kind words and good luck on your gardening adventures!