Inspect Your Transplants!

Now is the time when many gardeners purchase transplants for their home vegetable gardens. This is perfect timing to go over 3 important tips for selecting the best transplants. Remember the following:

1) A young transplant is much better than an old transplant. A common error made by transplant growers is to start plants too early in the season. When held, transplants become too old and woody and are slow to resume growth after transplanting.

2) Transplants should never have fruits, flowers, or flower buds before transplanting. An ideal transplant is young, growing fairly rapidly, but slightly hardened at transplanting time. It should never be over-hardened or too ‘soft’ when transplanted. Rapid growth after transplanting assures a well established plant before fruit develops.

3) Only purchase disease-free transplants. In the past few years, there have been a number of disease issues on transplants sold at home garden centers, including late blight on tomatoes last year which started a very severe epidemic in the Northeast and Southeast. Although we did not find any late blight on tomatoes at home garden centers in North Carolina, it was confirmed in several other states. Starting your gardening season with infected plants will often involve more plant maintenance, yield loss, and possibly even plant death. Do not purchase any plants that have brown or black spots (lesions) on stems or foliage, or plants that look wilted, have distorted leaves or ones that are off-color (i.e. too yellow). It's not worth your time or effort to start off the growing season with diseased plants. In addition, some pathogens may be able to persist for more than a year in your garden after you introduce them (not all diseases, but some).

From: Kelly Ivors, Extension Plant Pathologist