When I was first learning to slip cast pottery (the molding technique we use to make Orta pots), I had no idea when to take the pots out of the mold. The very patient guy at the ceramics store who I peppered with questions said I should wait until the clay was "cheese hard."

Cheese? Really? Cheese hard?

Do you immediately wonder which kind of cheese? Because I sure did. There's a big difference in cheeses!

The guy was patient, but in the end not super helpful, alas.

I ended up figuring out myself through trial and error that the cheese hardness in question was, on a scale of queso to parmesan, about a Monterey Jack.

So many analog things in the world have these weird metrics, like "salt to taste" that make total sense once you have accumulated experience, but not so much as a beginner.

Which is why the advice to transplant seedlings "before growth slows" can be so frustrating. At least with directions that say "if you get to the gas station you went too far," you can turn around.

You can't ungrow your baby plants though! If growth slows with your seedlings, is it too late?

Thankfully they'll probably be fine, as long as you don't let it go on too long.

Here's another way to think about it: Seedling growth should accelerate from germination through to transplant and beyond. So if the growth rate seems constant, rather than accelerating, it's about to slow down, and you should transplant.

I just potted up some tomatoes after letting them go maybe 4 or 5 days past ideal, and wanted to show you what they looked like.

Here they are in their Sixie pot:

They're still pretty small, but you can see the leaves are turning yellow, and their growth had been slow and steady for a few days. It's possible they slowed down early because I forgot to fertilize this batch . . .

Above are two plants with their roots intertwined. They're far from root bound, but you can see that the roots are definitely starting to feel the edge of the pocket, which is what contributes to growth slowing, along with running out of goodness in the soil.

You can see that tiny plant has a long stem, and a pretty extensive root system already!

Because tomatoes can grow new roots out of their stems, I always bury the stem deeply at each transplanting, from tiny baby plants like this all the way until transplanting out to the garden.

Here it is in its new pocket:

And here is that very same plant just 2 days later:

In only 48 hours, the plant has adjusted to its new environment and started to grow faster already!

Here is what the 12-Pack looked like just after potting up:

And here is the whole batch two days later:

It's not a huge difference, but it's also only two days! I expect that when I get back to the studio on Monday these guys will be noticeably bigger, and in about 2 weeks will be ready to plant out to garden beds. Once they start to accelerate, they'll really go!

In other news, so many of you wrote to support my plastic-free work. Thank you! I'll definitely keep you updated as I go along, and as I publish resources to our blog.

The timing was pretty apt to be talking about plastic just as I was contemplating a poly tunnel, or something similar for early season tomatoes.

Today it's warm (in the high 70's) but we'll probably still get a bunch of cool-to-cold weather over the next month or so. And when I experimented with a poly tunnel last fall, using a big plastic sheet that had arrived as packaging for something else, the plants were definitely happier.

On the other hand, it was plastic, and like all plastic does eventually, it fell apart.

[Horticultural grade plastic sheet has UV blockers that make it last longer, but the same breakdown happens, just over 5-8 years instead of 1 or 2]

I didn't actually take any pictures of the mini-poly tunnel when it was working, just this one when an early season windy rain storm tore it apart and blew it down.

I thought I was being responsible, re-using something that would otherwise have been trash, but unfortunately it started to break down within a couple months, and I cleared it away before it turned into millions of tiny shards of micro plastic.

This week I was prepping the bed for summer planting, and found a piece of the sheeting that had stayed trapped under a brick over the winter.

Here's what it looks like today:

Crumbly, brittle, and barely holding together. It's the definition of microplastics.

Can I show you what else I found?

This is a chunk of the plastic gopher mesh that was in the garden when we moved here 10 years ago. One of the first garden jobs we did was to pull it out, but it's still here! In smaller and smaller bits each time!

At least with gopher mesh, there is an easy substitution: Metal gopher mesh. And of course it actually works because gophers can't chew through metal like they do with plastic.

[Seriously, what is the actual point of plastic gopher mesh? It's like trying to enclose a house cat with a 2 foot fence. It's not even an obstacle, let alone a barrier! But I digress.]

I want a poly tunnel for my tomatoes. Also. I definitely don't want micro plastics, which, if we're honest, is where pretty much all plastics are headed eventually.

If you have a good solution, I'd love to hear it! And if I figure out something that doesn't involve building an actual greenhouse with actual glass, I'll share it with you all.

How is your garden? It's May already!

Happy Seedurday,

Anne

​

​

​

When you’re ready, here are some more ways I can help you grow a thriving garden from seed:

1. Plan your seed-starting schedule with our ​free printable planner.​

2. Download the free ​Orta Seed Starting Handbook with all the basics you need to succeed with seeds.​

3. Take the guesswork out of watering with Orta Self-Watering Pots. (Find discounted factory seconds here!)

4. Join the Orta Seed Club to have 5 hand-picked, unusual & high-yielding varieties delivered to you every season.

Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up to get the best emails about gardening from seed!