Transplanting

The time had come.
I thought the time had come.
I decided that the time had come for moving some of my seedlings into the ground.

I put the pumpkins in first, then the zucchini, then the cucumber, then some yellow squash, followed by the onions. And for good measure I planted a few onion seeds directly in the bed.

My biggest misstep in this whole process was definitely planting some of the seedlings too close to one another. If I had it to do again I would be sure to put just one seed in each little planting compartment, regardless of what the seed packages recommend.

The bottom portion of the egg crates were perfect for planting. The top portion- not so much. I realize now that the drainage holes I made in the cartons weren't very effective. Next time I'll make them much wider than the width of a pen tip.

I was surprised by how complex the root systems were of the pumpkins and cucumbers. If any of my transplants fail, I predict it will be the cucumbers. The seeds were sewn too close together to begin with and separating the roots for transplanting was very difficult.

I was out there early and it looks like it's going to be a hot sunny day. If I have time this evening I'd like to go out and put a couple tomato and cabbage seedlings in the ground. The tomatoes aren't that big yet, but they seem sturdy and I'm curious to see what will happen.

The photo above shows two of the zucchini seedlings that were growing in one planter compartment. I had to gently tease them apart. I'm glad I thinned them out last week. Originally there were four plants growing in each compartment. Below is the pumpkin going in. Those seeds were planted April 12th.