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"Spotting" the Plants
By Michael Visalli Jr.
March 30, 2020
March 30, 2020
Now that the plants that we seeded a few weeks ago are starting to grow, it is time to transfer them into cell trays. Even with all the craziness going on, the plants are still growing and need attention. At Visalli Family Farms, we’ve been busy spending the past week filling up the greenhouses by transferring the plants into cell trays. This is a process called “spotting.”
We use trays with different numbers of cells depending on the type of plant and whether we plan to sell it or transplant it into our fields. For the market, the trays are perforated either singularly or in packs of four. We start by filling the trays with soil, and then we water them a few times before we can transfer the plants. The next step is to make holes in each cell. We then pull the plants out of the seed tray, being careful not to break the roots and we place one in each hole and pack it down with soil.
So far, we’ve spotted tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, lettuce, and marigolds. Now that the plants are beginning to grow, we don’t need to keep them quite as hot, so we put them in our greenhouses and keep them at about 70°F (21°C). We will continue to take care of the plants and, once they are big enough, some will be available at the market for your garden, and some will be transplanted into our fields.
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