When You Know What to Look For, Selecting a Healthy Plant is Easy
Posted by admin on March 30, 2010
When starting your vegetable garden, you have two choices; planting seeds, or buying entire plants. Both have their own benefits. If you plant seeds and care for them every day, you will find it is a much more rewarding experience once you have a full, healthy plant. However, this method is a lot more risky. Not all seeds grow, for one reason or another.
Choosing to buy an already growing plant from a nursery to put in your vegetable garden reduces the amount of time and effort involved in making your plant healthy. Purchasing a plant means you don’t know it’s history, which means it could have had chemicals or fertilizers used on it that may have damaged it. Learning to identify the healthiest plants can make a difference in your garden.
Inspect each plant you may want to take home carefully. A good looking plant is a good indicator of health. A well maintained plant will show no signs of pests or disease, and will look good. It you see holes in the leaves or if you see a wilted stem and leaves, you may be looking at a plant that has pests and/or has had poor soil or lack of water.
While they may be pretty, any plant that is already flowering may be traumatized by replanting. It is better to find plants that only have buds. If flowering plants is your only choice, be prepared for the sake of your plant to cut off the flowers before replanting. The future health of the plant will be better, and reduces the risk of losing the plant in the process.
It is very important to inspect the roots of a plant that has passed your other tests. A healthy root system is paramount to a healthy plant. Check for signs of softness, brownness, or rottenness. Check the root to soil ratio. You don’t want a plant that has excessive roots and little soil, nor do you want a plant with few roots and a lot of soil. You’re looking for firm roots with a well established infrastructure that holds the soil well. If you don’t see a healthy root system, don’t buy it.
It never hurts to ask the nursery employees about plants that you find abnormalities in. Irregular features in the leaves or the shape of the roots may indicate an unhealthy plant, but by asking a nursery worker you may find a satisfactory explanation for it’s appearance.
So if you decide to get a plant from a nursery, you just have to remember that the health of the plants has been left up to someone you don’t know. Usually they do a good job, but you should always check for yourself. Also take every precaution you can to avoid transplant shock in the plant as it can cause health problems in the future.
Discover how to put your healthy plant in the ground and other gardening information at the Urban Homesteading Today website.
