The care you've taken to prepare and grow the seedlings will help ensure a vibrant and beautiful garden. This project garden now contains plants that have grown for about eight to 10 weeks (figure A). Some seedlings will need more time before they are ready to be moved. FYI: - Be sure to plant enough seeds to give you one plant per square foot in the garden plot. Planting extra seeds will ensure a full garden if some seeds fail to germinate.
- Growing a garden from seed takes some time and patience, but it can also be an extremely satisfying experience. Better still, it can mean big savings: buying these plants at maturity would cost around $75, while our cost from seed for this project was ... about $10!
- Young plants grow best in containers that are proportionate to their size. Replant seedlings in larger containers every three to four weeks until they're strong enough to be planted in the garden.
- It's important to recognize the different stages of growth in your plants. These plants are five weeks old and not quite ready to be outside in the garden (figure B). They have, however, been transferred from their original growing tray to a larger six-pack tray.
Compare these with the plants in figure C, which are 10 weeks old and have started to bloom. They are individually potted and ready to make the transition to the garden. Expert tip (James Brumder, nursery manager): Plants grown from seed won't always resemble their parent plants. Only certain genes and characteristics of a parent plant are selected and represented in any resulting offspring.
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