Thinning and Transplanting Vegetables— By e. l. Fullerton 



WHICH KINDS TO LEAVE AND WHICH TO MOVE— HOW FAR APART THEY SHOULD STAND 

 —HOME-MADE AND OTHER INEXPENSIVE DEVICES FOR TRANSPLANTING VEGETABLES 



Long 

 Island 



IT HAS been said that more good vegetables 

 have been ruined for want of being 

 thinned at the proper time than by an}- other 

 cause. However, that may be, one of the 

 most puzzling things for the beginner is to 

 find out whether any particular vegetables 



210. Seedlings are grown in a bed made thor. 

 oughly fine by digging and r&King. It should be in the 

 warmest part of the garden 



should be thinned or transplanted and how 

 far apart the plants should stand afterward. 

 He will get some help from the catalogues 

 as to distances, but whether he should trans- 

 plant or thin is the kind of thing that is not 

 in the books. 



There is a still greater difficulty. Even 

 when a person knows how far apart die 

 plants should stand, or has good authority, 

 it requires a good deal of nerve to pull up 

 and destroy the unnecessary seedlings — 

 more nerve than the average amateur pos- 

 sesses. While it is possible to save some of 

 the thinnings by eating them or transplanting 

 them, most of them are simply in the way. 

 They say that a person never becomes a 

 good gardener until he steels his nerves to 

 this ruthless sacrifice. A vegetable must 

 have plenty of room to develop its best size 

 and flavor. One can take no pride in small 

 or commonplace things. It is the quickly 

 grown, finely flavored vegetables that are 

 worth working for and it is better to err on 

 the side of giving each plant too much space 

 rather than too little. For example, the 

 seedsman says that endives must be thinned 

 to eight inches. I gave mine only six inches, 

 for it did not seem possible that those delicate 

 seedlings could develop such magnificent 

 heads of salad leaves. Mine were good, but 

 I soon realized that they would have been 

 better had I given them their allotted space. 

 I would have had several heads less, but one 

 would have served the purpose of two. 



"the worst weed m corn is corn" 



It is far more important to thin vegetables 

 than to thin flowers. In the former we want 

 each plant to develop to its fullest, whereas 



Photographs by H. B. Fullerton 



in flowers the evils of overcrowding are not 

 so apparent. We usually get a sufficient 

 wealth of bloom from the given area, although 

 fewer plants would give better flowers. 



Seeds are sown very thickly with the idea 

 of having plenty of young plants so as to 

 provide against accidents or loss from in- 

 sects. The thinnings of the following crops 

 can be used in the kitchen: Celery, lettuce, 

 carrots, beets, and spinach. The home 

 gardener, therefore, had better do the thin- 

 ning of such crops by degrees, not at one 

 time, as is the rule with the gardener for 

 market. 



Thin out as necessity arises, but don't 

 hesitate to pull up and destroy the young 

 plants before the row gets too crowded and 

 the plants become spindling. When too 

 many vegetables of one kind are allowed to 

 grow in the same row the great majority 

 of them are simply weeds. True it is that 

 "The worst weed in corn is corn." 



THIN VEGETABLES TWICE 



Seedlings that are allowed to remain where 

 sown, need to be thinned as carefully as 

 possible, the first time when they are 

 about two inches high, in some cases 

 even sooner. The stockiest plants should 

 be allowed to remain, after thinning them 

 to about one-half the distance the plants 

 are to stand from one another. When these 



plantlets have a still sturdier growth, they 

 may be finally thinned to the distance apart 

 at which they are to remain. Firming the 

 soil each time in order that the roots of those 

 that remain may not be left loose. 



TRANSPLANTING 



As a rule, transplanting, which is moving 

 from the seed bed to the garden, results in 

 injury to the plants. Celery, however, makes 

 a strong tap root which is broken in trans- 

 planting, inducing a bunch of fibrous roots 

 which is easy to transplant the second time. 

 One result of transplanting is that the plants 

 are set at a proper distance, and have room 

 to develop to their very best. 



TRANSPLANT ON A DULL DAY 



Transplant on a dull day by preference or 

 at dusk, and be careful not to let the roots 

 of the young plants dry out. If they are 

 taken up from a seedbed or coldframe throw 

 a little loose soil over the roots as they lie 

 in the box or basket ready to be carried to 

 the garden — and keep them covered until 

 they are put into their new quarters. 



For taking the young plants up from the 

 seed-bed, a small hand fork is useful to loosen 

 the soil. To set in the garden mark a 

 straight fine with a hoe, rake or a stick 

 using the garden line as a guide. It is very 

 important to have the rows parallel and 



-H 



211. Old tin cans maKe good pots for starting seedlings In a hotbed. The plants are set out without any 

 checK to the roots. The solder is melted off and the can tied with string till planting time comes 



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