The One Important Step You Don't Want To Forget Before Bringing Seedlings Outdoors

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If you've started seeds indoors for a springtime garden, it's important to ease them into outdoor living, which involves wind, rainstorms, weeds, and other challenges. One of the most crucial steps is readying your soil for incoming seedlings. This includes loosening it to help oxygen reach developing roots, measuring its nutrient levels to see if your garden is lacking nitrogen or other essentials, and amending it with compost if its structure, texture, or nutrient profile needs enhancing.

There are other ways to make your soil welcoming for its new residents, too. Removing weeds that are growing at the planting site keeps them from usurping seedlings' water, sunshine, and nutrients. It's also essential to water your seedlings consistently. If these vulnerable young plants don't get enough hydration, they're likely to experience shock that harms their growth — or even does them in. In general, the soil your seedlings call home should stay damp as they acclimate to their new environment. Misting them once a day is a good start, but monitor them to see if the soil is moist enough later in the day. They may need an additional drink of water. You should also water your seedlings before you move them to the garden and right after planting them outside. Try not to put them in the ground when temperatures are high and sunlight is especially intense, as this can overwhelm them.

Loosening your garden's soil is one of the most important tasks to complete before transplanting seedlings. In addition to promoting airflow, it helps young plants take in water and nutrients. Compared to compacted soil, loose soil is easy for seedlings to push their roots through and good at draining excess water. Adequate drainage lowers the risk of fungal problems such as root rot. You can loosen your soil with a number of gardening tools. A gardening fork is excellent for chopping apart clods of soil. A handheld trowel is ideal for loosening compacted soil around plants that are already growing, while a larger shovel known as a spade is good for loosening large stretches of soil before planting seedlings. If you have a tiller to loosen and aerate your soil, use it sparingly. Turning soil in this way can bring more weeds to your garden. In addition to unearthing deeply buried weed seeds and prompting them to germinate, it disturbs the earthworms and microbes that help your garden stay healthy.

After working your soil, determine its nutrient content and pH levels. Knowing how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium it has can help you choose the best nutrient boosters for your garden. The pH reading tells you whether your soil is acidic, alkaline, or neutral. Armed with this information, you'll know if you should change your soil's pH level to match your plants' preferences. For example, blueberries need acidic soil whereas asparagus appreciates a slightly alkaline environment. To get started, request soil testing through a county extension office or order a product such as the MySoil test kit.