Preparing the Field: Planting and Transplanting Vegetables
Planting and Transplanting Vegetables
Preparing the field means to begin to grow the crop in a fast, healthy and uniform way in the field. It also means that when planting, the plants are distributed according to a design that provides adequate space for the plants to grow and develop and also facilitates easy management of the crop throughout the season. How plants are grown from the start will influence weed control, pest control, fertilizer applications, irrigation, timing for harvest, and yield.
Sowing and transplanting
Your goal for the first days in the field for each vegetable plant, whether you are sowing seeds directly in the field or transplanting seedlings, is to create excellent conditions for each plant. The goal is that the seeds germinate quickly and that the seedlings do not suffer much stress when they are removed from the cells of the trays to put them in the field.
The seeds
Once planted, the seeds must have firm contact with the soil moisture for the germination process to begin immediately. To do this, adjust the sowing depth to ensure that the seeds are placed in an area of the soil with sufficient moisture. In order for them to emerge from the ground, the seeds must not be planted too shallow or too deep.
If the soil is light or fluffy (very loose), gently flatten the soil around the planted seeds so that the seeds come into direct contact with moisture. Also, make sure the soil temperature is in the optimal (excellent) range for the type of crop. Some vegetable seeds such as beans and corn germinate very slowly in cold soils; slow germination and soil emergence gives soil pests a greater chance of damaging the plant.
The sowing equipment should be adjusted so that the seeds are deposited evenly in the furrow according to the optimum planting distance for the crop. When there are many failures in the furrow, the crop yield will be low. Also, if too many seeds are planted there will be a need to thin the seedlings when they have emerged to prevent them from piling up.
Transplants
When the seedlings are transplanted in the field they will suffer a degree of stress as a result of the transplant. Therefore, the goal is to minimize that stress and get the plants to start growing as soon as possible. The key to avoiding transplant stress is to start with seedlings that have been very well watered and then provide more water immediately after transplanting. Avoid transplanting into dry soils.
Even if planted in moist soil, the seedlings will always need additional water. This can be achieved by putting water in the hole where the seedling will be placed or by watering immediately after transplanting in the field. Make sure that when the plants are placed in the transplant hole the top of the plant's root ball is well covered by the field soil. If the root mass is exposed, the roots will dry out very quickly and the seedlings will not thrive. At this stage, sprinkler irrigation is more effective than drip irrigation since the root ball will be very far from the drip irrigation line. A light rain is also welcome after transplanting.
Tubers, crowns, nails and bunches
Some vegetables do not reproduce by seeds or by transplants but from pieces of another plant. Thus, to produce potatoes we plant pieces of tubers, to produce garlic we plant garlic cloves, rhubarb and asparagus are produced from plant crowns. Onions are produced by planting small bunches of chives. There are specific recommendations on how and when to plant these vegetables but in general these crops can be treated as seeds or transplants.
Equipment selection
Small farms with a low budget
Most small farms start out using a push "plate" seeder for direct seeding. Compared to manual sowing, a seeder can save time and seeds. The seeders of the manual type "push plate" are very cheap and easy to buy. Manual planters have interchangeable plates with slots that turn inside the planter. The dishes collect seeds individually and drop them into a hole next to the seed container. Seeders vary in their degree of precision and the number of seed plates they can use, and prices vary accordingly. Some desirable features of single-row manual seeders include: easy to push in a straight line, precision, and uniform seed placement.
Manual transplantation can be very fast and efficient for small diversified farms. Simple hand tools can be used for this to make transplantation fast and efficient. National Agro Stanhay 820 Hand Push is a popular tool.
Medium and large farms
The limit for using a tractor-mounted planter or transplanter appears to be 4 acres. Tractor-mounted planters control seed spacing with a saucer, hole belt, seed cups, or with a vacuum system. Tractor-mounted planters save time when planting large areas. However, it takes time to make adjustments before planting.
Tractor-mounted mechanical transplanters are a higher level of manual transplanting. But for small areas, mechanical transplanters are not necessarily faster than manual ones. However, workers can go about the mechanical transplanter feeding it plants for much longer hours than they can transplant by hand.
Transplanters of the type that have a water wheel ("wáter-wheel") are very common because they are capable of depositing water and fertilizer directly in the transplant hole, which reduces the stress of the plants when transplanting.
Good practices for planting
The preparation of the high beds
Before planting the seeds in the field, it is important to prepare a good bed for them. Preparing a good bed makes planting much easier and provides a better environment for seed germination and emergence. This is especially important for small seeds such as carrots or lettuce. A proper seedbed should be level and even, free of clods and without excessive amounts of plant residue on its surface. The soil should be light and soft with a good incline (slope).
Right grooves
Planting in straight rows is more than a source of pride for the producer. Regardless of whether it is planted by hand, with a manual seeder, or with a tractor mounted planter it is essential that the rows are straight. Straight furrows are easier to weed than crooked furrows. It is very difficult and in some cases almost impossible to use cultivation equipment to weed a field with crooked furrows, even hoeing is faster when the furrows are straight.
Groove markers
The grooves should be evenly spaced and very straight. There are many ways to mark the grooves to keep them evenly spaced. Most manual seeders have an adjustable row marker. For small-scale transplants, a row marker rake or a manual seedless seeder can be used to mark the rows. Some growers use a homemade marker that consists of a marked roller pushed by hand or by a tractor.
Spacing for good weed management
Establish the spacing between plants or transplants in a way that makes weed management easy into the season. Match the width of the weeding tool to be used with the distance between furrows (for example, 8-inch cutter disc or 5-inch hoe, or power tiller). Pick a few plant spacings that work well for you and your team and don't change them. This will save you time on equipment adjustments or finding the correct size hoe.
Inspect the planter
Regardless of the type of planter you use, it is time well spent making sure the equipment works properly. For example, the tubes through which the seed passes can be blocked, the dishes stop taking the seeds, or the spacing can be what it should not be. Raise the planter and give the control wheel a few turns to make sure the seeds go down unimpeded. Also, it is a good idea to dig up a few seeds from a furrow that has been planted to make sure they have been placed at the correct distance and depth.
