REPOTTING DAY

While watering my seedlings this morning I noticed that several of the sprouts were showing a LOT of leg, so I decided to repot them:

NASTURTIUMS, ZINNIAS, and COSMOS are getting leggy

CABBAGES & SQUASHES are reaching for the sky!

Time to repot everything atop the Baker's rack ... sorry the pics are tilted: on a ladder and I hate ladders!

I know gardening {experts} will tell you not to repot legging starts – tomato plants being the exception, but I repot everything if they aren’t going outside soon; and here, right now, it is raining cats and dogs, so my transplants won’t be outside until the end of the month. ALL the leggy upstarts need news homes until their moving day …

I slightly dampened potting soil for repotting – this way I know the plants will be getting a good start in their new pot.

After the sprouts are moved into their new temporary home, I gently encircle repotted plant with finger & thumb – not squeezing, just giving support – and gently backfill with dampened potting soil to about half an inch from leaves

Already looking much better and stronger. Now they have room to grow a bit more before going outdoors ;-)

Oh boy! Look at that Yellow Straight-neck Squash! It is showing some serious leg …

I ran outside and grabbed this larger pot; it looks deep enough to hold the squash for another week.

The Yellow Straight-neck Squash already has a good root system going on, so I think it will not suffer too much transplant shock.

And the Yellow Straight-neck Squash is showing its 2nd set of leaves too ...

The ZUCCHINI was also repotted. Don’t they both look a lot happier?

Everything that went back atop the Baker's Rack was repotted.

After the veggie sprouts were repotted, I slipped them back atop the Baker’s Rack, under the skylight in the kitchen. The transplants should hold for about a week – then it is outside for them in the garden.

Then it was time to repot the leggy flower seedlings:

This lively Nasturtium has outgrown its seedling paper planting pot; definitely time to repot it ...

Now the rambunctious Nasturtium rambler should be able to spread its roots happily in this new pot until it can get outside in its permanent home.

There were several more cheeky sprouts showing leg, and I realized I had no more pots – anywhere! And I did not want to drive into town just to buy a pack of Styrofoam cups. Now what? Well, desperation is the mother of all invention, so I figured I could improvise on the smaller paper pot concept … so I did:-D

I did not have any more plastic potting pots, so I improvised-on-the-spot a larger paper pot with newspaper and a spool of cotton crochet thread: a gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do ;-)

I folded the newspaper to a guesstimate size – with the lower edge enforced with a small overlap, and started rolling the newspaper around the thread spool.

I didn’t roll the paper around the spool too snug though, because I still have to remove the spool ... but not yet!

I then folded the bottom edges in on themselves and snugly tucked them under to make a firm bottom for the paper pot.

Satisfied with MOD DIY paper pot, I removed the thread spool and filled my pot with soil and transplants. Easy-peasy!

Transplanting done for today, I started watering the rest of my sprouts …

SCALLIONS & LEEKS coming up.

KALONCHOE (KAL-uhn-cho) shedding blossoms and sending out new growth. New flower buds near trunk. Pronunciation for Kalanchoe link: http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-do-you-pronounce-kalanchoe.html

MARIGOLDS are showing good and holding steady

FENNEL breaking soil

Eleven repotted flowers in MOD DIY PAPER POTS and a repurposed fried chicken container; LOL - NASTURTIUMS, ZINNIAS & COSMOS. And I switched window layouts around to accommodate repots.

All flower seedlings are showing green growth. And window placement layouts have been switched around to accommodate repots.

CANTALOUPE & WATERMELON breaking soil.

I can’t wait for the sun to show itself so I can get outside and get these babies into the planter boxes Bob built for me!