Transplanting Zucchini

on Fri, 03/06/2015 - 23:07

Now that my zucchini is getting big, it's about time to move them up to the next sized container. This gives the plant more room to grow, more soil to pull nutrients from, etc. If you wait too long, you can kill your plants.

I wait for the first "true leaves" to show up and grow to a good size. By this point the plant is already bigger around than the little spot it's in, which means they all start crowding each other. Then I transplant.

You want to be careful when transplanting your plants, as you can give them transplant shock. If it's not too bad, the plant should recover in a few days. If it is bad, you can kill the plant. I give the bottom of the pod a little squeeze to loose up the dirt and then carefully remove the plant. I set it in its new spot, and then continue with the next one until all of them are done.

Transplanted zucchini

Once they're put in place, make sure they have enough soil to fill the container and keep the plant upright. Then give the plants some water. I pour a little right around the plant (but not on the plant) and then put some in the watering tray. Note: If you use the same tray as I have above, the watering tray is not one level surface. As such you cannot pour water in one end and it fill up the rest of the tray.

If you've been careful with them, you shouldn't see any wilt or other signs of shock.

Just be ready for this plants to take up a lot more room - it takes four of these trays to hold as many plants as one of the smaller seedling trays.