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Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Transplanting your vegetables to the garden is easier with the right tools: You’ll need both a foliar and a granular organic fertilizer, a hand fork, a pair of garden gloves, a trowel, a sharp pair of bypass pruners and a watering can.

Unless you’re planting your veggie seeds right into your garden soil, you’ll have to transplant some vegetable plants (or “seedlings”) into your garden. Whether you grew them from seed indoors or you bought started plants from a garden center, you need to make that move to your garden when the plants are still young – usually after they’ve formed several true leaves and, if they’re branching plants, after they’ve begun to develop their characteristic shape. Of course, you’ll need to wait for the right weather, too. The soil outdoors should be warm enough to sustain continued growth of your young vegetables, and the air temperatures at night should stay above freezing.

If your young plants were started indoors or were grown in a greenhouse or cold frame, you’ll need to “harden” them first so they can acclimatize to outdoor conditions and survive the transplant. Starting 7-10 days before the intended date of planting, move your seedlings outdoors during the day to a protected, shady area with plenty of indirect light. (Too much direct sunlight will burn their foliage, while too little will slow their growth.) For the first 2-3 days, bring the seedlings back indoors during cool evenings, or return them to the cold frame and close its top.

As the plants begin to adjust, you can leave them outside during the evening, covering them loosely with breathable fabric supported above the plants on stakes or a wooden frame. Avoid leaving plastic or other coverings in contact with the foliage of the plants because condensation that stands on the leaves can promote fungal disease. The covering should be left in place on cold days or whenever it rains, hails or sleets. Just be sure to remove it in the morning during all warm, sunny days.

After a few more days, move the plants into a sunlit spot protected from wind, and limit the period they’re covered to cold-night protection. The plants will quickly adjust to the outdoor conditions similar to those found in your garden.

As a final step during the last 2 days before planting, position your vegetable plants in the garden itself. They still may need nighttime protection, a precaution that could likely continue even several weeks after transplanting, depending on the weather.

Don’t forget to loosen the garden soil several days before transplanting so it has time to settle and the new roots can grow into it easily. Then before planting, be sure to check each plant’s root system. Remove each plant from its pot by inverting it in your palm and gently tapping the bottom of the container. The root ball should slide into your waiting hand. Root-bound plants have large, encircling roots that spiral around the edge of the root ball. Such roots should be carefully unwound or cut prior to transplanting.

When you’re ready to plant, grab your trowel, a watering can and your seedlings, and choose the transplanting method you wish to follow shown in each trio of following photographs and described in their captions. With proper care, your transplanted vegetables should provide you with a bountiful – and money-saving – harvest!