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Growing from Seed

I did something stupid when potting up yesterday =(

15 years ago

You know how when you're gardening you can get into that zone where you're doing things you do all the time but don't really think about what you're doing? I was enjoying the start of potting up the seedlings yesterday. When I transplant plants into the garden, I remove from the pot, tear the roots apart and plunk in the ground. I wasn't even thinking about these guys having delicate roots and just did my standard pull out, tear roots and plunk in pot. Now I'm worried that I was too rough. Fortunately, I only did 1/4 of the plants. They look OK this am, but I'm still sweating it.

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Comments (6)

tn_veggie_gardner
15 years ago
Toss them a little "help" in the form of whatever watered down fertilizer you prefer and maybe pack the soil a bit around the roots. That's your best hope of keeping things alive in the already transplanted 1/4.
mehearty
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks! =)
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Did you ever do something so stupid..............
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all: Electrical physics 101 for GFCI purposes by a geek. Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter means literally a fault in the electrical circuit resulting in current flow to ground (the fault) causing an inetrrupt. In a standard 120VAC circuit, the black wire supplies current (outbound) and the white wire is intended to receive it back (inbound). The green third wire is a 'safety ground' connection - typically attached to the metal frame of an appliance. Electrical physics are such that a magnetic field is generated when electrical current flows. So if the black wire generates a magnetic flux in say 'plus' direction, and the white wire generates an equal but opposite 'minus' magnetic field, they both have the same current flow but in opposite directions (no ground fault), so magnetic fields cancel and everything is fine. The GFCI basically uses a coil wrapped around the black and white wires together to sense the difference in magnetic fields. the trip level is 0.005 amps - pretty low - but enough to get a good tickle before the trip. In the case of cutting through the wires - IF there was no ground fault (the flow was between only black and white wires), the GFCI will NOT trip. However - the circuit breaker SHOULD trip in this case. Ok, anybody lost?
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so I did something stupid lol
Q
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ARMAGEDDON!!!! Tell me you did not do that for real?!?!?! Homefry YOU are just as BAD!!! Thank God I am a woman!! I already did the suncreen to the face after picking superhots... I am 1/4 Swedish, the rest is Scottish, Irish Euro... anything that is TOTALLY fair skinned...I had the shower nozzle 1/4" away from my face on ice cold for over 15 minutes...I thought I was having a reaction on top of it and was going to have to go to the hospital!!
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I did something stupid
Q
Comments (10)
Us old people remember the company that has been making ink pens for many years, PILOT. Well, they still do and also, they make a paint pen. When you shake the pen you can hear the little marble or, whatever it is rattling around in there. UV light destroys "Sharpie" ink in several weeks when exposed to UV. These paint pens mark on just about anything and it does NOT wear off. There are many "paint" pens out there and, just about all of them work well. If they have a rubber plunger on top to pump-up the paint pen and, if you can hear the little doohickey rattling in the pen, you should be somewhat sure you have real "paint" in the pen. One paint pen I've used did not have the plunger on top. The tip retracted back into the pen letting the paint flow out. It was just as good as any other paint pen I've used. I never before heard of the "coke can strips" method. That's gotta be about as foolproof as can be! With these old eyes though, I like to be able to look into the garden and read what's there. But, if I had to use the "Braille" method to find out what the correct name was, I'd be over-joyed that I had taken the time to tag it! It makes me nuts to lose the name of a plant!
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I'm stupid stupid stupid
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Comments (24)
My parents got sick from my eating half cooked chicken that an elderly relative "sort of cooked". Both ended up in the hospital. The relative's response was "oh I thought the chicken smelled a little funny".... we all just slapped ourselves on the forehead. We all still eat this relative's cooking, but the preparation is watched more closely and she is lovingly picked on occasionally. Things like this happen to be best cooks.... let your sisters know just so everyone knows what is going on. Your sister with the health issues may want to let her MD know. Depending on what was wrong with her, the MD might want to see here or might just tell her to call if she noticed a problem. I would eat your dessert (but then I still lick brownie and cake batter from the bowl and both have raw eggs!)
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jessicavanderhoff
15 years ago
My vote is they'll be fine. As long as they had a bit of root still attached to the base, they should just put out new roots. When I kill a seedling during potting up, it's usually clearly dead by the next day. If they were root bound, you probably did them a favor. Let us know what happens, though!
mehearty
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks! They showed no signs of stress at all, so for that I am relieved. Not sure if they stopped growing, but I made sure to take lotsa pics so I can track progress in a way only an obsessed plant mama would. lol I potted up a bunch more today being real careful not to disturb the roots and marked those pots. I think I should know in a few weeks by comparison if tearing the roots stunted the first batch.

Thanks again!
jessicavanderhoff
15 years ago
Glad to hear that :-)
tn_veggie_gardner
15 years ago
Some plants tend to "stall" their growth above soil somewhat for varied times after being transplanted. It's the period I hate the most cuz it often makes me think they're gonna die, but I just wait it out & treat them like normal and they start back growing again. After a transplant, the seedling will tend to get it's hold on the soil again & grow some more roots before it takes back off above soil.

Peace - Steve

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