19 
lest it might rot. Again there are seedlings that produce 
robust plants that are quite large (lupines, castor beans, 
etc.) These should be immediately set into two or two 
and one-half-inch pots. 
In order that minute seedlings may safely be trans- 
ferred to flats of soil a small wooden fork made from a 
plant label or any piece of thin wood is used. With this 
fork the seedling is lifted and if it clings to some of the 
others they are separated with the dibber. The dibber 
for transplanting tiny seedlings should have more of a 
point than the ordinary dibber. A collection of dibbers 
of various thicknesses for different sizes of seedlings will 
prove most convenient. Holding the wooden fork with 
the left hand, lift the seedling to the seed box, barely 
make a depression in the soil then lower the seedling and 
firm a little soil around it with the dibber. Tiny seed- 
lings must be carefully watered until they produce enough 
roots to hold them in place. A watering pot with a fine- 
spray nozzle is essential to such work. If very small 
seedlings are set in a flower pot they can be watered by 
the sub-irrigation bucket method. After the flat is filled 
with plants it should be watered and placed in the frame 
or window. If the sun is shining brightly, shade the 
plants with paper the first and second days. 
Seedlings that have been crushed or broken in han- 
dling will wilt and die. If they are transplanted to a pot 
instead of a box, and this can be done if only a few 
dozen of a kind are wanted, the surface of the soil should 
not be more than one-fourth inch below the top of the 
pot. Larger seedlings may be set deeper. Seedlings 
planted in flats will not dry out as rapidly as those in pots, 
and more can be grown in a given space if planted in 
rows in flats than if grown in pots. After the seedlings 
are in the flats for a length of time the soil becomes 
packed by repeated watering. Weed seeds will also have 
germinated and will begin to crowd the seedlings. Culti- 
vating the flats (fig. 1, pl. 12) will discourage the weeds 
and will benefit the plants. Seedlings that grow too 
rapidly and show no signs of branching should be pinched 
PUDOR’S INC., PUYALLUP, WASH. 
