Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1879-09-10
FAM AND FIREsIDE.
$500 :
TrsnspIanting Tender Plants.

Very many persons make complete
failures year after year with everything
they transplant, and yet with perse'
vsrsnce worthy of better rssnlts.go on
year by year buying and setting out
plants, many of which, if they do not
die outright, linger along for days and
sometimes for weeks before they make
q feeble attempt to grow. The trouble
is partly in the plants kept for sale in
country places, but generally. in the
mistreatment Of the plants by the
purchaser. One great mistake is in
trsnsplaniing too early. No person
expects corn to grow until both days
and nights are warm. Why then
should tender garden fruits that must
be started under glass? Yet the farm
er seems anxious to get everything,
lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, egg plant
peppers, sweet potatoes and other ten
der things planted at one anO the
same time and about the time he
would plant corn. Yet corn will some
times lie in the ground ten days or
two weeks before coming up, when
planted early, and yet grow all right.
Cabbage and lettuce transPlan,ed as
soou as danger Of severe freezing is
over will make growth, because such
plsntsgrow with the Thermometer at a
lowtemperature.P Peppers and tomatoes
are killed dead by white frost, and
sach classes of plants as sweet potatoes
and egg plant will be SO chilled by a
cutting wind ten degrees above frGezs
ing, as never thereafter to be good
for much.
RADything that may be transplanted,
and that requires to be grown at inter
walls Of from one to three feet or more
apart, may be cheaper raised in q
cold frame and transplanted at the
proper season, than if grown directly
from the seed where they are to stand.
Many plants require so long a season
of heat to perfect their growth, that
unless so started they cannot be
successfully cultivated north Of forty
degrees, yet they are now considered
indispensable. Other seeds, again,
that make small and delicate plants al
FIRST as to growth. although perfectly
hardy, would be swamped by weeds.
Hence the province of the plant grow
er who raises garden plants for sale, is
q mast legitimate one. The wonder
is that every farmer does not take adj
vantage of their almost universal sale
to supply his kitchen garden. They
are probably deferred for the very rea-
SOD we have mentioned They are
ia too great hurry to transplant ard
thus often lose their labor and outlay,
or else, being ignorant Of the proper
manner Of transplanting, they lose
their plants from an entirely different
cause than that Of frOst-they cannot
take up moisture at the root.
So far as transplanting is concerned,
all that is necessary for success with
any plant that will bear transplanting
at all, is to press the earth pretty firm
ly about the root, leaving little de-
preston thereabout; give sufficient wa
ter to reach the lower roots, and when
the water has entirely sunk in the
earth, draw the dry soil over all. AS
10 how well or how i'll the planting
NAV be done or whether the work
be done fast or slow, this can only be
learned by practice. A man or boy
who can learn to be a really good
Rlowman, should have no difficulty in
becoming both speady and accurate in
trsnsplanting'
This, however, is not all. He mus
know something of the nature of the
plants he cultivates. The tomato il
strictly tropical plant. 1t is also es
~ntially dry weather plant. do MOI
therefore transplant, north Of LATITUDE
As, before June J., and let the space
where they are to be set be drawn "
into pretty high and broad hills Have
the roots Of the proper depth, and i
the plant is pretty long, and perhaps
spindlsng, lay it along the ground
covering with about two inches o
earth, leaving but little more than th'
head or crown of leaves to the air
Thus yon will have what will eventu-
uslly make a good plant. If you en-
desyor to make it stand straight. yol
viii fail unless the plants have beef
well hardened in the beds, and ar
short and ssocky. Then if you Civ
water az before directed, you are Ger
tain OF a success. The same rule vii
apply to eli plants having straigh
shoots, a. cabbage, sweet potatoes
egg plant. pepper. etc. In planting
set them deeper than they stood il
the seed bed, or well up to the frs
leaves. Plants with spreading leave
Ike lettuce can not, ofcourse, be plant
cd much, If any deeper than they orig