Beginner Gardening: Hardening veggies outdoors - question about low temps, 1 by obsidian468

obsidian468 wrote:
Honey,

Today I tried the separation of both plants. One went back into the space that was left in the original planter, and the other went into a 4" windowsill pot.

Brief summary below, with photos to follow in the next two posts:

As seen above, two strong plants stemming from the same jiffy planter pod. How to separate them?

Today, I dug them up... the 3"Wx4"D area that I dug up was apparently not big enough for the roots. The roots from both had apparently spread well over 3" wide and over 4" deep. The snaps that issued forth from my transplant shovel were hard to hear.

Ultimately, I was able to separate both plants, but with considerable root loss to both (the gauze on the outside of jiffy pellets is hell for roots, should it need to be stripped off. They have both been replanted (one in the original planter, and one in a new 4" pot). Finally, trauma to each plant was significant. Within minutes of the transplant, both started to wilt (likely due to once having a 4"wide root span, and after transplanting, only having a 1/2" root span). I refused to give up on these little guys... they've been so tough so far.

2.5-3 hours after the (horribly traumatic) transplants, they're doing well. Photos - post transplant - to follow.

The first photo is the transplant back into the original seat in the primary planter. This one came back stronger.