Planting Bedding Plants Outdoors
With most of the cold weather now, hopefully, behind us, many of us are looking to get our bedding plants outside and established ready for the warm summer months.
One of the most common reasons plants don’t perform well outside initially is from poor transplanting and planting techniques so we thought we’d address this today and hopefully give you a few useful tips.
Hardening Off Plants
As the weather begins to warm you will want to start taking your plants outside. This helps acclimatise the plants to the actual weather conditions in your garden. The best practice is to take your plants outside during the day and bring them in at night when the temperatures begins to cool. If you do this for around two weeks your plants will fair very well when it comes to planting.
Planting Steps
First off make sure that you water your plants well a few hours before you plant them out. This makes sure the plants have adequate moisture before they go into the ground.
Once this is completed you can separate out the plants from their containers. If your plants are in multi-plant boxes or trays then you will need to gently separate them out. Carefully separate out the plants at the roots, being gentle to avoid damaging the root systems and shaking off to much compost.
Now you can dig your hole or begin to prepare your container. Dig a hole in your container or bed that is of equal depth to the plants root system. Any more and the plant will sink in, any less and the roots won’t take hold as well. We would recommend using a garden trowel or small border hand fork.
If you have poor soil, make sure you have some fine compost to mix-in ready before planting the plant in place.
Now simply place the plant in the hole and gently work the soil and compost around the root system. Don’t compact the soil too much but make sure the plant is firmly held in place.
Once all your plants are in place water thoroughly – again without drenching the soil. This helps the soil settle around the plant. You will need to water once a day if there hasn’t been any rain and sometimes twice a day during hot sunny periods – first thing in the morning and in the evening. Do not water plants during bright sunlight as this can cause the leaves to be damaged by scorching.
It is much better for new plants to be planted in the early morning or late afternoon to give them time to settle away from hard sunlight so try and avoid planting during the hottest part of the day.
We at Carpenters Nursery Can Help
We stock a great range of plants, composts and fertilisers and can advise you on particular plants. If you want to pop in we currently have a great range of bedding plants and you’ve still got plenty of time to get them into the ground. We look forward to seeing you!
