These seedlings have grown about as big as they will in their little seed starting containers. And have started to look stressed, so figured this was the perfect time to get them out of their tiny containers and into something they can stretch out their roots in.
Hopefully I did not wait too long to move them, but I barely see any roots coming out the bottom beyond what I saw in my last blog post about them. Which is usually the sign I need to to transplant them, but with them starting to yellow it seems something is not right and I think moving them to new dirt in bigger pots is best.
The soil I used was the same stuff my cannabis seedlings were in, so I think part of why they look upset is due to the poor soil media. Just like my cannabis plants suffered seems my pine seedlings are as well in this dirt. Now my cannabis seedlings are in a mix of half of the old bad soil and half seed starting mix a lot like this stuff. So I hope they will grow and get bigger now I got some better soil to work with.
Though one Korean Pine seedling seems quite happy no matter what dirt its in.. lol Maybe it is not as picky as the Italian variety. Still amazing how this one came up before all the others for the Korean pine bag. I wonder how often that happens.
I get ready to transplant all the seedlings that are still alive. I lost 2-3 already so hoping that is all that is lost here.
Got myself some new dirt, I had good experience with this sungro black gold seedling mix. So I got myself a bunch of bags.
Topping off the pots with the seedling mix soon I will start moving over pine seedlings. I make a small opening in the center to place the seedling down into.
The best of the bunch of the Stone pines, lol.. if these do not take I may need to start over with new seeds.
The single Korean pine, the same one that germinated early during its warm stratification process.
We can see the difference in soil media, what is close to the seedling is the old stuff.. the new stuff is around the edge of the pot.
Got them all moved, using my trusty plastic fork they moved pretty easily.
Under the LED grow lights. All of them in their new pots, man they look really sad right now. But I do hope they will recover and start thriving in their new pots. If I start over with new seedlings I will probably just start them in these pots so no need to transplant for a few months.
Not every one made an easy transplant, but most did. As long as they have enough strength to grow and find the new soil I think they will do well. Otherwise its time to start any left over seedlings to fill in these pots.
Merry Christmas Y'all!
Previous posts on this project:
@solominer/planting-the-pine-seeds-in-starter-plugs
@solominer/planning-on-growing-nut-producing-pine-trees
@solominer/starting-the-germination-process-on-my-pine-seeds