Transplanting Vegetable Garden
Question from Mark:
Love your books, but have a quick question about my vegetable garden. I planted it about 30 days ago, and everything was doing really well, growing very very big (too big for the space I had it in). So I built an additional raised bed garden area and transplanted some of the plants over to it (zucchini, water mellon, cantalope, eggplant and bellpepper). I added a little more of the same planting soil and watered it real good. It will receive about the same amount of sun in the new area. Anyways, I woke up the next morning and it all looks dead (except pepper which is drooping though)??? All the branches and leaves are drooping/laying on the dirt to the point that they don’t look like they will make it.. Is all lost, or are they in some sort of shock from the transplant? WIll they recover? thanks, Mark
Answer from Pat:
I doubt that your transplanted vegetables will recover. Most vegetables do best when planted straight into the ground from seeds right where you want them to grow. They all resent transplanting. You can plant a few vegetables from little 4-inch plants, but not many. Seeds are much better and give you the opportunity to try the finest varieties which many times can only be purchased from catalogues. Most likely all the plants you transplanted will die because the roots should have reached far out into the ground and would all have broken off when you dug up the plants. If anything lives it will not bear a crop, so pull them all out and start over with crops that will grow now and give you a harvest in fall.
Here is my suggestion: Pull out everything you have transplanted. (Count it up to experience and forget about it. We all make mistakes and need to correct the problem, then go on without regret.) Clean up the ground, add fertilizer and soil amendment if necessary. Water thoroughly. Let settle overnight. The next day plant ANY OF the following: (Every plant I am suggesting below can be planted in August. It is too late to plant melons, so don’t try. It is now the last week in July and it is too late to plant all summer vegetables except summer squash and tomatoes for a fall crop.) Here below is what to plant NOW in August:
Tomato: Choose an early tomato, such as Early Girl VFF hybrid tomato. This tomato will set fruit and ripen in the shorter days and cooler night temperatures of fall.
Beet: ‘Chiogga’ is an excellent home variety. Plant from seeds. All parts of the beet are edible. Harvest when young and tender.
Carrot: Plant from seeds and choose a good variety such as ‘Red Core Chantenay’. Keep seeds damp to germinate in 3 weeks. Or try my boiling water technique of bringing the sprouts up quickly (within three days) See my book pages 332-333 and 361 for a full explanation of this method and another method as well to get members of the carrot family to come up quickly. Use no fresh manure. It causes carrots to split.
Leek: Sow seeds now. Thin plants to 2 to 4 inches apart. Rows 1 to 2 feet apart. Mound soil as they grow. Harvest in 130 days (count out and mark on calendar.) To blanch, put under upside-down pots at the end of growing season or wrap in layers of newspaper like you would with celery and pull earth up around them.
Peas: Yes, truly it’s not too early to plant them.You can plant them now. I suggest planting a tall sugar snap variety such as ‘Super Sugar Snap Peas’ my favorite and it’s disease resistant. (Territorial Seeds carry this and other catalogues as well.) It is 5 feet tall, needs a trellis and bears masses of peas over a long season.
Potato: There is nothing better than a home-grown potato and as soon as flowers show on the crop you can begin harvesting by sticking your hand down into the ground and pulling up enough for dinner.
Radish: (Beet, carrot, radish, Swiss chard, and turnip are your “year round” crops. All of these can all be planted from seeds any month of the year and grown and harvested year-round.) Radish are quick and easy to grow. You can if you want combine them with a slower crop and harvest them out first. Use no fresh manure; it makes them split.)
Summer Squash: If you really want to grow squash, this is the one summer vegetable you could still plant now and have a crop. I would suggest ‘Sunburst’. Plant from seeds and choose a good, disease-resistant variety. (The plants in nurseries are seldom disease resistant and usually have mildew before you get them in the ground.) The trouble is that one squash plant could take up your whole raised bed unless you purchase a small variety especially designed for space-saving.
Swiss Chard: Soak seeds 24 hours before planting. Then they come up quickly. Don’t over fertilize. Compost is best. Huge roots require room. Easy to grow and harvest is long since you can do cut and come again. Plain green variety is best tasting.
Turnip: Needs rich humus-filled soil for rapid growth. Use no fresh manure. Harvest when young and tender.
From now on into the future: Always plant with the seasons! (Follow the schedule for planting month by month as given, chapter by chapter in my book, “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month by Month”.) You began too late this year. Next spring pull out the winter veggies in late February and begin planting summer vegetables in March. Continue planting the warm-weather lovers in April and May. My book will tell you when to plant what. June is too late for planting most summer crops. We are getting close now to August and soon it will be September—which is time to plant the fall and winter garden which will give you a great harvest of nutritious vegetables all winter into spring. You could even plant some winter vegetables, such as special varieties of cole crops (cabbage, collards, cauliflower, and brocolli) from seeds in August. Plant in flats or 4-inch containers and feed with fish emulsion for strong little transplants to put in the ground in October. When planting from seeds, pay attention to spacing and thinning plants. When you planted in June of this year you tried to crowd in too many vegetables in too small a space. That won’t work! Just one watermelon variety, for example, could have taken up the whole bed and then some.
Thank you Pat! – Based on your response, it sounds like I blew it ;( I wished I had asked your advice first…. rather than after the fact.
It was very good of you to write back with great detail on how to proceed – so I will follow your advice! I do have your Organic Gardening month by month book, and LOVE it. The reason I started so late, was that we just bought our house and moved in on June 1st and I didn’t want to miss planting my favorite veggies – so I did get a late start this year, but thought I could pull it off…. But as you said, I will chalk this one up to experience!
Follow up Question:
Also, I have been busy planting young fruit trees, and have been watering them a lot (3x-4x per week) to get them going (plus its pretty hot now). How often do you think I should be watering? I read in your book that mature deciduous fruit trees only need 2 or 3 deep soaks a month (page 290), but these are young 5 gallon trees. By the way, I live in Mission Viejo on border of Laguna Niguel (zone 23). Is there a good website or book that concentrates on Southern California fruit trees that you could recommend????
I have planted:
Anna Apple, Turkey Fig, Moro Blood Orange, Santa Rosa Plum, 2 dwarf peaches, bears lime, Wonderful Pomegranite, 2 southern highbush blueberries, 2 boysenberries (not sure of variety), haas avocado. I am not sure how often I should be watering all these trees ?
We have a half acre, and are looking to plant some berries. In your book, you recommend some low chill raspberries / blackberries (pg 373), where would I get these from seed? Do I plant from seed, or do I need to buy an actual plant? Where is the best place to find these varieties you recommend in your book?
Thank you again for all the wonderful advice. I would love to email you a few pics of my vegetable garden once I have corrected my mistakes!
Thanks for update. I realized that you undoubtedly had some reason for late start with veggies. Sorry if I didn’t sound understanding on that score. I’m so glad you love my book! Thanks for telling me.
Re: Follow up question: It sounds as though you are watering your young trees correctly. As you doubtless know summer is not the usual time for planting decidous fruit trees since they will not be well established prior to dormancy, but no reason you can’t have success.
Here is the time-honored watering schedule:
Young fruit trees or any tree when first planted requires the following irrigation schedule to get it established:
First day: Water hole deeply before planting. Plant tree, and then fill watering basin again twice or three times after planting, depending on drainage. (Fast draining soils require more water.)
First week: Water deeply again the day after planting. Skip a day between next two irrigations.
Second week: Water 3X per week.
First month: Water deeply 2 X per week. (Or in hot weather and fast-draining soils could continue 3 X per week for first month, if conditions warrant.)
Second month: Water deeply 1 X per week.
From then on: In warm months, depending on soil conditions and temperature, water once a week or less. Along the coast once every ten days or two weeks might be sufficient. Inland and in fast-draining soils 1 X per week in warm months may be the way to go. In mid-September temper off with irrigation to encourage dormancy. In winter, rains are usually sufficient to keep ground sufficiently moist. No watering needed.
I would follow the above schedule for watering all those trees you mention unless the water puddles and soil appears to be saturated. Then modulate accordingly. Your instincts as a gardener will help. When a tree, or any plant, gets an all-over lackluster look and leaf tips point down slightly this is called “primary wilt”. This is a message to the gardener that is saying, “Water me, please!”
Regarding your choices of fruit tree varieties: These are all good for Zone 23. I suggest you read my discussion on the pollination of avocado trees. You may need a pollinator unless there is another tree of the opposite flower type in your neighborhood. Additionally summer planting is optimum for citrus and avocado. Warm weather gets them growing faster. Blackberries are not planted from seeds but from canes which you can purchase from several catalogues. First, study the lists of varieties in Sunset Western Garden Book and choose according to your personal preferences and adaptation to Zone 23. (Regarding varieties of berries, please refer to my answers to questions from other readers who have asked that question.) Once you have chosen a variety then look it up on the Internet to find a nursery that will ship or better yet, wait for bare-root season and purchase at a good local nursery. Winter is a better time to plant berries while the plants are dormant. In the meanwhile you can be preparing a row for planting them by installing irrigation and digging a trench and amending the soil with aged manure. You could also install wires on posts for holding up your cane berries. Arrange rows north and south. In winter you will be able to go to good-quality local nurseries and order or purchase bare-root plants of all the berry varieties I have mentioned in my book. I have tried to stick to commonly available and easy-to-grow varieties that are very successful for Southern California.
I do not know of a book on fruit tree care specifically for Southern California. However, a paperback book that works well and that I like is now long out of print but available as a used book. It is HP Books: Western Fruit, Berries, and Nuts: How to Select, Grow, and Enjoy, by Lance Alheim and Robert L. Stebbins. My copy is falling apart I have used it so much. Here is a link to where I found a copy at Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Western-Fruit-Berries-and-Nuts/Robert-L-Stebbins/e/9780895860781 The only drawback to the book is that it won’t have the latest on varieties. There are many new pluots, plumquats, and apriums some of which are low chill varieties. I notice you have not yet planted an apricot. My eldest daughter grew magnficent Blenheim apricots in Zone 23. She also had a Panamint nectarine, one of my favorites among home-grown fruit. Far better than low chill peaches in my opinion.
In addition to the book above, refer to the lists and instructions in Sunset Western Garden Book. Always purchase the new edition when it comes out since the editors of Sunset revise those lists every time they put out a revised edition. This is one of the best ways to keep abreast of the newer advances and new varieties. Another is to attend the meetings of the Rare Fruit Growers in your area. The members make a hobby of knowing the latest news in regard to low-chill fruit trees and rare fruits of all types.
How about planting grapes bare-root also next winter? Kiwi’s are another idea as well. Perhaps you would like to consider building a free-standing pergola with a long trestle table beneath it for outdoor meals with family and friends. There is nothing more charming than a grape arbor. One does have drippy fruit to be concerned with which is why I chose Lady Banks Rose for my pergola, but with your energy and strength you could manage grapes, and they are so romantic and grow better in your climate zone than in mine. To have a lower pergola than mine overhead and grapes growing on it, is really the essence of the Tuscan lifestyle we can import and live here. Add the checkered table cloth, good food and tumblers of red wine and you’ve got it made.
I would be delighted to get the photographs of your garden eventually. So yes, please do send them. Thank you for the suggestion.
Wow, Pat! You have gone far beyond the call of duty in your very detailed response. I love your ideas and read your email to my wife, and she loves them too! We both thank you so much. You are a true gem!
Your idea on a nectarine tree and a grape w/ arbor hit the bullseye. We will be implementing these too.
Its interesting that the gentleman at the nursery where I purchased the deciduous fruit trees said they could be planted in any season -I guess he just wanted to sell his left over stock. I will take great care to follow the rules of success that you have laid out, as becoming a great gardener is important to me, though I know I have a long long way to go… 🙂
And thanks for the link to the fruit tree book you recommend. I look forward to updating you in the future with more successful gardening ventures thanks to your advice and wisdom. Again, we really do appreciate all your help – it is a testament to why your books are so highly regarded and recommended – I certainly will recommend them to everyone who sees my garden and tastes the fruits of our labor!
Lovely reply. Thanks!